Salviani was born in 1514, at Citta di Castello in Umbria. His family was noble. After finishing his studies, he settled at Rome, where he practised medicine, and delivered public lectures. The friendship of Cardinal Cervini obtained for him the appointment of physician to the pope, Julius III. The death of this personage, and that of Cervini, who had been elevated to the apostolic chair, which, however, he occupied only three weeks, were not productive of any serious disadvantage to him, for he was continued in his offices by Paul IV., to whom he dedicated his work. He died at Rome, in 1572, at the age of fifty-eight.
GUILLAUME RONDELET.
Rondelet greatly surpassed Gesner, Belon, and Salviani, in the extent of his knowledge as an ichthyologist; and although his figures, being only wood-cuts, are inferior in beauty to the copperplate-engravings of the last of these authors, they are yet more correct in the characteristic details. His work is entitled De Piscibus Marinis Libri XVIII., in quibus vivæ piscium imagines expositæ sunt, and was published at Lyons in 1554. A second part appeared in 1555, under the name of Universæ Aquatilium Historiæ Pars Altera, cum veris ipsorum Imaginibus. The first part treats of marine animals, including the cetacea, turtles and seals, the mollusca, and the crustacea. In the second part, shells, insects, zoophytes, and fresh-water fishes, are described. These objects, although not methodically arranged, are often placed in such a manner as to indicate that the author had some idea of generic affinity. The anatomical details which he presents are pronounced by Cuvier to be frequently correct; but his descriptions, it must be granted, are inferior to the figures, which are truly surprising for the period at which he lived. In reference to the fishes of the Mediterranean this work is indispensable, and, indeed, to the ichthyologist generally it is one of the most important that exists. The descriptions and figures have been copied by Gesner, in his work De Aquatilibus; while Ray, Artedi, and Linnæus, have obviously profited by them.
Rondelet, the son of an apothecary, was born at Montpellier on the 27th September 1507. Being originally of a very infirm constitution, he was judged incapable of performing a part in active life, and, accordingly, when his father's fortune was distributed, he received a sum merely sufficient to procure his admittance into a convent. As he grew up, however, he improved in strength, and having no affection for a monastic life, he commenced his studies at the age of eighteen, and finished his general education at Paris, where he was supported by his elder brother. Having resolved to embrace the medical profession, he returned in 1529 to his native city, and afterwards settling at Pertuis, a small village in Provence, he began to practise; but not meeting with success in the healing art, he endeavoured to procure subsistence by setting up a grammar-school. This expedient also failing, he went again to Paris in order to improve his knowledge of the Greek language, and, being unwilling to burden his brother any longer, became tutor to a young nobleman. Some time after, he removed to Maringues, in Auvergne, where he again entered upon practice, and in 1537 received a medical degree at Montpellier. The following year he married a young lady endowed with many estimable qualities, but destitute of fortune; and, as his brother was dead, this alliance increased his difficulties. However, he settled finally at the place of his birth; and, being assisted by his wife's sister, began to extend his acquaintance, and succeeded so well in his profession, that, in 1545, he was appointed professor of medicine in the university.
He also obtained the office of physician to the Cardinal of Tournon, whom he accompanied on his missions in France, Italy, and the Low Countries, of which occasions he eagerly availed himself to increase his knowledge of natural history. Returning once more to his usual place of residence he established an anatomical theatre, at which he lectured several hours daily to a numerous audience. His passion for dissection was so strong, that he opened one of his own children after death, and this circumstance has naturally enough given rise to the opinion, that he must have been a man destitute of sensibility; which, however, does not appear to have been the case. His wife having died in 1560, he soon procured another, poor and handsome like the first. While on a journey to Toulouse he was attacked by dysentery, occasioned by eating too many figs, and he died at Realmont, whither he had gone to visit a patient. His death happened on the 30th July 1566, in the fifty-ninth year of his age.
He was a man of very small stature, but robust and active. At the age of twenty-five he gave up the use of wine and spirits, from an apprehension of gout; but he compensated for his abstemiousness in these articles by indulging his appetite for fruit and pastry. Although he had acquired considerable sums of money in the practice of his profession, he expended them in the gratification of his taste for building, and in various acts of generosity; so that he left very little behind him.
ULYSSES ALDROVANDI.
One of the most celebrated naturalists of the sixteenth century was Ulysses Aldrovandi, professor at Bologna, who was born in that city in 1527, and died on the 4th of May 1605. He was of a noble family, and his fortune enabled him to travel extensively, to collect materials for his books, and to employ artists in painting and engraving suitable illustrations. He carried, indeed, his liberality in this respect so far, that, having expended his whole fortune in his enthusiastic pursuit of natural history, he left nothing for the support of his old age, and is commonly believed to have died in the hospital of his native city. Cuvier, in a notice of his life in the Biographie Universelle, regards this circumstance as doubtful; imagining it improbable that the senate of Bologna, to whom he bequeathed his museum and manuscripts, and who laid out large sums after his death in completing the publication of his works, would have left him destitute during his life. This, however, is mere conjecture; and there is too much reason to fear that, like many other eminent persons, he was abandoned to struggle with misfortune, and not advanced to honour and estimation until after his career was finished, when they could be of no use to him.
The works of Aldrovandi form thirteen folio volumes. Of these, four only were published by himself; namely, three on birds and one on insects. Immediately after his death, in 1606, his widow put forth a volume on the other white-blooded animals, including testacea and crabs. Cornelius Uterverius, a native of Delft, and his successor in the institute of Bologna, revised the work on fishes and whales, which appeared in 1613, as well as that on the quadrupeds with solid hoofs, published in 1616. In 1621, the History of the Quadrupeds with split Hoofs was edited by Thomas Dempster, a Scottish gentleman, who was also a professor at Bologna. The other treatises, on the viviparous and oviparous digitate quadrupeds, on serpents, monsters, and minerals, were prepared for the press by Bartholomew Ambrosinus, another of his successors, and that on trees by Ovid Montalbanus. These works underwent a second impression at Bologna, and some of them were subsequently printed at Frankfort. It is difficult to procure a uniform edition, and some of the tracts are much rarer than others.
Aldrovandi was certainly one of the most zealous naturalists of his time; but, although he added considerably to the stock of information, he can only be considered as a laborious collector of materials. Cuvier pronounces his works "an enormous compilation without taste or genius," and agrees with Buffon in thinking, that were the useless parts removed, they would be reduced to a tenth of their bulk. Moreover, the plan and matter are to a great extent borrowed from Gesner; but in all ages writers on natural history have been so much addicted to the practice of borrowing, that Aldrovandi is hardly to be censured on this account.