#GesnerDay!
Happy Birthday, Conrad Gesner! Today is #GesnerDay, which marks the 501st anniversary of Conrad Gesner's birth. Considered the founder of modern zoology, Gesner completed his five-volume work, Historia Animalium, cataloging the natural history of animals known during the Renaissance. Carol Linnaeus's groundbreaking work in taxonomy would not come until 200 years later, which makes Gesner's work incredibly important in the study of biodiversity and the history of zoology.
On our Instagram, we'll be sharing illustrations from Gesner's Icones Animalium Quadrupedum Viviparorum et Oviparorum (1560), which is a condensed version of the Historia Animalium. From the common land snails to the fish of the deep sea, and even the fantastical, such as dragons, Gesner included them all. Icones Animalium was contributed for digitization by @smithsonianlibraries.