Historiae Animalium, Vol. 1, 16th Century
The first book of Historiae Animalium describes viviparous quadrupeds, or four-footed creatures who give birth to live young. Today, we generally categorize these animals as mammals. This old form of animal classification, by number of feet and method of birth, was borrowed from Aristotle, the Ancient Greek scientist and philosopher who was the first Western biologist. Gesner studied and taught Aristotle's works extensively and used many of his descriptions and investigative techniques in Historiae Animalium (Studies on Animals). These books are considered to be the first modern zoological work. This first attempt to describe many of the animals accurately is illustrated with hand-colored woodcuts drawn from personal observations by Gesner and his colleagues. Conrad Gesner (March 26, 1516 - December 13, 1565) was a Swiss naturalist and bibliographer. To his contemporaries he was best known as a botanist, but in 1551 he was the first to describe brown adipose tissue; and in 1565 the first to document the pencil. He died of the plague, at the age of 49, the year after his ennoblement.
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