Conrad Gessner

Conrad Gessner was a <a href="/facts/Old_Swiss_Confederacy/0j0hp0V1">Swiss</a> physician, <a href="/facts/Natural_history/pSlAvbTX">naturalist</a>, <a href="/facts/Bibliographer/xul38mej">bibliographer</a>, and <a href="/facts/Philologist/5u0xzd5g">philologist</a>. Born into a poor family in Zürich, Switzerland, his father and teachers quickly realised his talents and supported him through university, where he studied classical languages, theology and medicine. He became Zürich's <a href="/facts/City_physician/m21206pP">city physician</a>, but was able to spend much of his time on collecting, research and writing. Gessner compiled monumental works on bibliography (<a href="/facts/Bibliotheca_universalis/BVjjn2lC">Bibliotheca universalis</a> 1545–1549) and zoology (<a href="/facts/Historia_animalium_(Gessner_book)/PssE4g86">Historia animalium</a> 1551–1558) and was working on a major botanical text at the time of his death from <a href="/facts/Plague_(disease)/4r7oe5lC">plague</a> at the age of 49. He is regarded as the father of modern scientific bibliography, zoology and botany. He was frequently the first to describe species of plants or animals in Europe, such as the tulip in 1559. A number of plants and animals have been named after him.

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Conrad Gessner