Conrad Gessner - Vogelbuch - Browsing Facsimile Editions

The Vogelbuch ( i.e. 'Bird Book') is the third volume of the influential opus magnum of the physician, naturalist and philologist Conrad #Gessner (1516–1565): the Historia animalium. In this four-volume Latin compendium, published between 1551 and 1558, the humanist scholar brought together the entire zoological knowledge of his time, aided by his extensive contacts with many other European scholars. For both the text and the remarkable #illustrations, he drew on existing works, which is why quite a few mythical creatures appear in the encyclopedia. At the same time, however, it also contains scientific observations and impressively realistic woodcuts, with which Gessner laid a foundation for modern zoology. The first German edition of the Vogelbuch was translated by Rudolf Hüsli (d. 1600) and published by Christoph Froschauer in Zurich in 1557. In this book all birds known at that time, but also other flying animals such as the bat, are comprehensively described in alphabetical order and illustrated by over 200 elaborate and in some cases full-page #woodcuts.