27 Facts About Conrad Gessner

Conrad Gessner was a Swiss physician, naturalist, bibliographer, and philologist.

Conrad Gessner became Zurich's city physician, but was able to spend much of his time on collecting, research and writing.

Conrad Gessner is regarded as the father of modern scientific bibliography, zoology and botany.

Conrad Gessner was frequently the first to describe species of plants or animals in Europe, such as the tulip in 1559.

Conrad Gessner first attended the Carolinum in Zurich, then later entered the Fraumunster seminary.

Conrad Gessner was a Renaissance polymath, a physician, philosopher, encyclopaedist, bibliographer, philologist, natural historian and illustrator.

Conrad Gessner then returned to Zurich to practice medicine, which he continued to do for the rest of his life.

Conrad Gessner is credited with a number of the first descriptions of species in Europe, both animals such as the brown rat, guinea pig and turkey, as well as plants such as the tulip.

Conrad Gessner is credited with being the first person to describe brown adipose tissue, in 1551, in 1565 the first to document the pencil, and in 1563 among the first Europeans to write about the effects of tobacco.

Conrad Gessner's first work was a Latin-Greek Dictionary, the Lexicon Graeco-Latinum, compiled during his studies in Basel.

Not content with scientific works, Conrad Gessner was active as a linguist and bibliographer, putting forth in 1555 his book entitled Mithridates.

Conrad Gessner produced edited works of a number of classical authors, including Claudius Aelianus and Marcus Aurelius.

In 1545, after four years of research, Conrad Gessner published his remarkable Bibliotheca universalis, an exhaustive catalogue of all known works in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, of all writers who had ever lived, with the titles of their works, and brief annotations.

In Conrad Gessner combines data from old sources, such as the Old Testament, Aristotle, Pliny, folklore, and medieval bestiaries, adding his own observations.

Conrad Gessner created a new, comprehensive description of the Animal Kingdom.

Besides any plant or animal's potential advantage to people, Conrad Gessner was interested in learning about them because of the moral lessons they could teach and the divine truths they might tell.

Conrad Gessner went into as much detail about some unreal animals as he did about real ones.

Conrad Gessner accomplished many of his works in a large part due to the web of acquaintances he established with leading naturalists throughout Europe, who included John Caius, English court physician to the Tudors and second founder of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

Over his lifetime, Conrad Gessner amassed a considerable collection of plants and seeds and made extensive notes and wood engravings.

The scale and scientific rigour of these were unusual for the time, and Conrad Gessner was a skilled artist, producing detailed drawings of specific plant parts that illustrated their characteristics, with extensive marginal notation discussing their growth form and habitation.

Since Conrad Gessner was a Protestant his works were included in this index of prohibited books.

Conrad Gessner has been described as the father of modern scientific botany and zoology, and the father of modern bibliography.

Conrad Gessner listed among his History of Animals sources more than 80 Greek authors and at least 175 Latin authors, as well as works by German, French, and Italian authors.

Conrad Gessner even attempted to establish a "universal library" of all books in existence.

The project might sound strange to the modern mind, but Conrad Gessner invested tremendous energy in the project.

Conrad Gessner sniffed through remote libraries along with the collections of the Vatican Library and catalogs of printers and booksellers.

Conrad Gessner cut relevant passages out of books, grouped the cuttings by general theme, subdivided the groups into more specific categories, and boxed them.