Conrad Gessner (Konrad Gessner, Conrad von Gesner, Conradus Gesnerus) (26 March 1516-13 December 1565) was a Swiss naturalist. His three-volume Historia Animalium (1555-1558) is considered the beginning of modern zoology, and the plant family Gesneriaceae is named after him. March 26 is the 85th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (86th in leap years). ... Events March - With the death of Ferdinand II of Aragon, his grandson Charles of Ghent becomes King of Spain as Carlos I. July - Selim I of the Ottoman Empire declares war on the Mameluks and invades Syria. ... December 13 is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events March 1 - the city of Rio de Janeiro is founded April 27 - Cebu City is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines. ... Natural history is an umbrella term for what are now usually viewed as a number of distinct scientific disciplines. ... Zoology (Greek zoon = animal and logos = word) is the biological discipline which involves the study of animals. ... Gesneriaceae is a flowering plant family consisting of c. ...

Conrad Gessner

Born and educated in Zürich, he was the son of a furrier. After the death of his father at the Battle of Kappel (1531), he was very short of money. He had good friends, however, in his old master, Oswald Myconius, and subsequently in Heinrich Bullinger, and he was enabled to continue his studies at the universities of Strassburg and Bourges (1532-1533); in Paris, he found a generous patron in the person of Job Steiger of Berne. Image File history File links Conrad Gessner (1516-1565) From French language Wikipedia, uploaded by fr:Utilisateur:Valérie75, see fr:Image:Gessner. ... Image File history File links Conrad Gessner (1516-1565) From French language Wikipedia, uploaded by fr:Utilisateur:Valérie75, see fr:Image:Gessner. ... Zürich IPA (in English often Zurich, which is also the standard French form of the name) is the largest city in Switzerland (population: 364,558 in 2002; population of urban area: 1,091,732) and capital of the canton of Zürich. ... Events January 26 - Lisbon, Portugal is hit by an earthquake-- thousands die October 1 - Battle of Kappel - The forces of Zürich are defeated by the Catholic cantons. ... Heinrich Bullinger Heinrich Bullinger (July 18, 1504 - September 17, 1575) was a Swiss religious reformer. ... The University Palace in Strasbourg, and a monument to one of the universitys students, Johann Wolfgang Goethe The University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is divided into three separate institutions. ... The city of Bern, English traditionally Berne (Bernese German Bärn , German Bern , French Berne , Italian Berna , Romansh Berna ), is the Bundesstadt (capital) of Switzerland, and is the fourth most populous Swiss city (after Zürich, Geneva and Basel). ...

In 1535, religious unrest drove him back to Zürich, where he made an imprudent marriage. His friends again came to his aid, enabled him to study at Basel (1536), and in 1537 obtained for him the professorship of Greek at the newly founded academy of Lausanne (then belonging to Berne). Here he had leisure to devote himself to scientific studies, especially botany. In 1540-1541 he visited the famous medical university of Montpellier, took his degree of doctor of medicine (1541) at Basel, and then settled down to practise at Zürich, where he obtained the post of lecturer in physics at the Carolinum. There, apart from a few journeys to foreign countries, and annual summer botanical journeys in his native land, he passed the remainder of his life. He devoted himself to preparing works on many subjects of different sorts. He died of the plague, the year after his ennoblement. Events January 18 - Lima, Peru founded by Francisco Pizarro April - Jacques Cartier discovers the Iroquois city of Stadacona, Canada (now Quebec) and in May, the even greater Huron city of Hochelaga (now Montreal) June 24 - The Anabaptist state of Münster (see Münster Rebellion) is conquered and disbanded. ... Basel (English traditionally: Basle , German: Basel , French Bâle , Italian Basilea ) is Switzerlands third most populous city (188,000 inhabitants in the canton of Basel-City as of 2004; the 690,000 inhabitants in the conurbation stretching across the immediate cantonal and national boundaries made Basel Switzerlands second-largest... Lausanne (46° 31′ 10″ N 6° 37′ 56″ E) is a city in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, situated on the shores of Lake Geneva (French: Lac Léman), and facing Évian-les-Bains (France). ... Botany is the scientific study of plant life. ... Location within France Montpellier (Occitan Montpelhièr) is a city in the south of France. ... Plague redirects here. ...

To his contemporaries he was best known as a botanist, though his botanical manuscripts were not published till long after his death (at Nuremberg, 1751-1771, 2 vols. folio), he himself issuing only the Enchiridion historiae plantarum (iszli) and the Catalogus plantarum (1542) in four tongues. In 1545 he published his remarkable Bibliotheca universalis (ed. by J Simler, 1574), supposedly a catalogue (in Latin, Greek and Hebrew) of all writers who had ever lived, with the titles of their works, etc. A second part, Pandeclarium sive partitionum universalium Conradi Gesneri Ligurini libri xxi., appeared in 1548; only nineteen books being then concluded. The last, a theological encyclopaedia, was published in 1549, but the last but one, intended to include his medical work, was never finished. Nuremberg coat of arms Location of Nuremberg Nuremberg (German: Nürnberg) is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. ... Latin is the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...

His great zoological work, Historia animalium, appeared in 4 vols. (quadrupeds, birds, fishes) folio, 1551-1558, at Zürich, a fifth (snakes) being issued in 1587 (there is a German translation, entitled Thierbuch, of the first 4 vols., Zürich, 1563): this work is the starting-point of modern zoology. Not content with such vast works, Gessner put forth in 1555 his book entitled Mithridates de differentis linguis, an account of about 130 known languages, with the Lord's Prayer in 22 tongues, while in 1556 appeared his edition of the works of Aelian. The Lords Prayer (sometimes known by its first two Latin words as the Pater Noster, in Greek as the , or the English equivalent Our Father) is probably the best-known prayer in Christianity. ... The name Aelian may refer to one of two people: Aelianus Tacticus, a Greek military writer of the 2nd century, who lived in Rome Claudius Aelianus, a Roman teacher and historian of the 3rd century, who wrote in Greek This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other...

To non-scientific readers, Gessner is best known for his love of mountains (below the snow-line) and for his many excursions among them, undertaken partly as a botanist, but also for the sake of exercise and enjoyment of the beauties of nature. In 1541 he prefixed to his Libellus de lacte et operibus lactariis a letter addressed to his friend, J Vogel, of Glarus, as to the wonders to be found among the mountains, declaring his love for them, and his firm resolve to climb at least one mountain every year, not only to collect flowers, but in order to exercise his body. In 1555 Gessner issued his narrative (Descriptio Montis Fracti sive Montis Pilati) of his excursion to the Gnepfstein (1920 m), the lowest point in the Pilatus chain. Events The first official translation of the entire Bible in Swedish February 12 - Pedro de Valdivia founds Santiago de Chile. ... Events Russia breaks 60 year old truce with Sweden by attacking Finland May 23 - Paul IV becomes Pope. ... Mount Pilatus is a mountain near Lucerne, Switzerland. ...

Gessner was featured on the 50 Swiss francs banknotes issued 1978-1994. The Swiss franc (ISO 4217: CHF or 756) is the currency of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. ... 1978 was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ...

Notes

• The standard botanical author abbreviation Gesner is applied to plants described by this botanist, who should also appear on this list.

In biology, binomial nomenclature is a standard convention used for naming species. ... Divisions Green algae land plants (embryophytes) non-vascular embryophytes Hepatophyta - liverworts Anthocerophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses vascular plants (tracheophytes) seedless vascular plants Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongue ferns seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering... Botany is the scientific study of plant life. ... This is a list of botanists by their author abbreviation. ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.
  • Biographies were written by J Hanhari (Winterthur, 1824) and J Simler (Zürich, 1566).

The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ...

External links

• Conrad Gesner's Thierbuch, Vogelbuch, Fischbuch, Schlangenbuch, De Scorpione - Reproductions of books.
• Urs B. Leu: Konrad Gessner in Historical Dictionary of Switzerland
• Page through a virtual copy of Gessner's Historiae Animalium