Conrad Gessner, Historia animalium liber I (Zurich: Christoph Froschauer, 1551)

Y.1.3(1)

Traditional knowledge meets new observations in the first modern zoological work

Because the massive first book of the encyclopaedic Historia animalium by the Swiss physician and naturalist Conrad Gessner (1516-1565) would fill a display case on its own, it cannot be exhibited in the Library on this occasion. Yet, as the standard reference work on animals for around 200 years (Ogilvie, p. 44), it must be given its due place in this short overview of the history of zoology.

Gessner published four books of his comprehensive work between 1551 and 1558, covering mammals, reptiles and amphibia, birds, and fish and other marine animals. An unfinished book
about snakes and scorpions was published posthumously in 1587. The Latin volumes have extensive indexes listing each animal in a variety of languages, including non-European vernaculars. The individual entries consist of ‘a picture, a learned account of [the animal’s] name in several languages, a physical description, and account of its habits, the medical use of its parts, its use in food, and a large section [Gessner] called philology that summarized references to the animal in history, literature, and art’ (Ogilvie, p. 44). Gessner’s sources were his own observations and those made by his many correspondents as well as other books (Ogilvie, pp. 78, 82). The inclusion of fantastical animals may be surprising considering that Gessner’s Historia animalium is often called the first modern zoological work. Yet, for Gessner the existence of a ‘textual description’ of an animal outweighed the question whether said animal existed (Kusukawa, p. 306).

Oxford, St John’s College, Y.1.3(1). Top left: Camel (p. 163).

Oxford, St John’s College, Y.1.3(1). He-goat (p. 302).

The numerous woodcuts used in his work were either commissioned by Gessner from life (where possible), sent to him, or copied from earlier publications (Kusukawa, pp. 308, 311). This commonplace habit of plagiarism is the reason why the rhinoceros may look familiar to many: Gessner had the animal copied from a print of Albrecht Dürer’s famous 1515 woodcut (Kusukawa, p. 311).