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Geissner, Conrad (1516-1565)
Portrait of Conrad Geissner (1516-1565)
The
Swiss physician and naturalist Conrad Geissner (1516-1565) is best
known for his systematic and encyclopedic writings on animals and
plants. His four volume Historiae animalium (1551-1558) covered quadrupeds, birds, fish, and snakes, with a final volume On Fossil Objects (1565) describing fossils and minerals.
Comprising some 1297 pages and illustrated by over 900 woodcuts, Gessner's work represents an important step towards modern zoology, substantially aided by its level of scholarship. In Book 4, for example, devoted to fish and other aquatic vertebrates, Gessner incorporated the work of Belon, Rondalet, and all other known writers on aquatic fauna, and labelled each form with the name of its original describer.
Geissner
was also one of the first 16th century observers to realize that some
rock forms represented the petrified remains of once living organisms (i.e., fossils),
rather than being simply natural forms that resembled organisms.
References:
Geissner, Conrad 1551-1558 Historiae animalium
Geissner, Conrad 1565 On Fossil Objects
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