Natural History art of Europe

Pliny the Elder• Gaius Plinius Secondus • born in 23 CE in Como (Northern Italy)• Roman military in Germany • His last, largest and most well-known work, and the only one to

have survived, is called Natural History (Naturalis Historia). • Pliny was a compiler, a gatherer and recorder of information. • In 79 CE Pliny was killed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which

he had come to study.• Pliny's fantastic descriptions and anecdotes weren't accompanied

by pictures. He opposed the use of illustrations, thinking they would be degraded by repeated copying. He was probably right, though even degraded images might have been more reliable than some of his text.

• one modern science historian (Brian Cummings) has described Pliny as "endearingly batty."

• Robert Hooke (1635-1703), was curator of experiments of the Royal Society

• best known for his accomplishments in physics and mechanics

• Micrographia is important for its observations through a microscope

• developed "binomial nomenclature

• Carl von Linné. Museum Suae Regiae Majestatis Adolphi Friderici Regis Svecorum. Stockholm: Typographia Regia, 1754.

William Curtis. Flora Londiniensis: Containing a History of the Plants Indigenous to Great Britain ... London: Printed by R. and H. Taylor,

1817-1828. • William Curtis (1746-

1799) was from a Quaker family much interested in medicine.

• apprenticed to an apothecary who left him his business

• he sold it to concentrate on his real interest, the study of natural history

Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) • Cuvier saw organisms as

integrated wholes, in which each part's form and function were integrated into the entire body. No part could be modified without impairing this functional integration:

• . .. the component parts of each must be so arranged as to render possible the whole living being, not only with regard to itself, but to its surrounding relations, and the analysis of these conditions frequently leads to general laws, as demonstrable as those which are derived from calculation or experiment.

Cuvier

British Entomology by John Curtis (1791 - 1862)

British Entomology (1824-1839)

• His achievement was to accurately draw over 700 species of British insects

• apprenticed to a lawyer's office to start earning a living

• He collected insect specimens and soon started to illustrate them in his free time

• Curtis is often described as the first entomologist to earn his living as a scientist.

The Birds of Asia. London: Printed by Taylor and Francis;

Published by the Author. 1853-1883 • self-taught ornithologist

who began as a taxidermist for the Royal Zoological Society

• His first book, on Himalayan birds, was based on skins shipped to London

• later in his career he traveled to see birds in their natural habitats

Gould birds

British MammalsArchibald Thorburn (1860-1935)