Italy: 'Draco Aethiopicus Mas' (Ethiopian male dragon) as pictured by the Italian natural historian Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605)

Ulisse Aldrovandi (11 September 1522 – 4 May 1605) was an Italian naturalist, the moving force behind Bologna's botanical garden, one of the first in Europe. Carolus Linnaeus and the comte de Buffon reckoned him the father of natural history studies. He is usually referred to, especially in older literature, as Aldrovandus; his name in Italian is equally given as Aldroandi.

In the course of his life he would assemble one of the most spectacular cabinets of curiosities, his 'theatre' illuminating natural history comprising some 7000 specimens of the diversità di cose naturali, of which he wrote a description in 1595. Between 1551 and 1554 he organised several expeditions to collect plants for a herbarium, among the first botanical expeditions.

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Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Credit:

Pictures From History

Theme:

DRAGONS