Ostrich, Historiae Animalium, 16th Century
Gesner was somewhat insecure about his illustration of the ostrich, but like a modern scientist he admits his doubts, "Some say that the bill should be broader and that the feet should be cloven, as in calves. Let the eye-witness be the judge, for I have never seen this bird for myself." Historiae Animalium (Studies on Animals) is 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.
Size: 3000px × 4183px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -, 16th, animal, animalia, animalium, animals, art, artwork, aves, avialae, bird, book, camelus, century, classification, color, colored, colorized, common, conrad, conradus, drawing, enhanced, enhancement, famous, flightless, gesner, gesnerus, gessner, hand, hand-colored, historiae, historic, historical, history, illustration, important, konrad, notable, ostrich, ratite, renaissance, science, struthio, struthionidae, studies, von, woodblock, woodcut, zoological, zoology
