Image Gallery: Icones Animalium, 1560

Conrad Gesner (1516-1565) was a Swiss natural historian whose sixteenth century encyclopaedic work Historia Animalium attempted to record the zoological world comprehensively. This was the first undertaking of its kind. Zoology as a discipline emerged in the Renaissance. Icones Animalium is an abbreviated version of this work and was published in 1560. The woodcuts are crude but typical of the time. The book contains a mixture of both real and mythological creatures. Frequently illustrations were drawn from verbal descriptions as specimens did not always survive the long sea journeys from far off lands. It was an age of discovery where fact and fiction mingled. This second edition of Icones Animalium has illustrations of a unicorn, a person with bird’s feet and fantastic sea monsters alongside recognisable animals.

Icones Animalium is still consulted today as it can tell us where animals now endangered or extinct were once found. 

Conrad Gesner's name is spelt in many different ways which makes it hard for researchers to locate his work. these are variations of his name: Konrad Gessner, Conrad Gessner, Conrad Geßner, Conrad von Gesner, Conradus Gesnerus, Conrad Gesner.

The full title of this work is Icones animalium quadrupedum viviparorum et oviparorum,quae in historiae animalium Conradi Gesneri libro I et II. Describuntur, cum nomenclaturis singulorum latinis, graecis, italicis,gallicis, et germanicus plerunque, et aliarum quoque linguarum, certis ordinibus digestae. Editio secunda, Tiguri : Excudebat C. Froschoverus. 1560.