Biology

Featured exhibit items for biology.

Exhibit Items

	On Bees Stelluti, Francesco (1625) In this poster-sized work, the first publication of observations made with a microscope, Cesi and Stelluti studied the anatomy of the bee. The text includes classical references to bees as well as new knowledge, integrated in a tabular outline.
	On Microscopy Hooke, Robert (1665) Hooke’s Micrographia is the most remarkable visual treatise of 17th century microscopy. In describing the appearance of cork, Hooke coined the term “cell.” Hooke’s large fold-out plate of the flea is unforgettable.
1	Works of Hippocrates Hippocrates, (1588) Greek edition of Hippocrates by a friend of Galileo: Mercuriale collected the various Greek texts of the Hippocratic corpus and published them here in Greek with parallel Latin translations.
1	A New Natural History of the Plants, Animals and Minerals of Mexico Hernandez, Francisco (1651) Publication of this work was widely anticipated as a guide to the “fountain of youth.” Hernandez enjoyed the reputation of being the “Pliny of the New World.” The result transformed Old World natural history.
2	The Advantages of Country Living de’ Crescenzi, Pietro (1471) This is the earliest published work on agriculture, a manual for managing a feudal estate. It is an ancestor to the early printed herbals, and explains what plants one must cultivate to be able to make the common remedies.
2	On Animals Aristotle, (1476) This is the first publication of Aristotle’s biological works. While Plato emphasized astronomy as the ennobling science, Aristotle insisted that biology, including the study of even the lowliest organisms, is beautiful to one who understands natural causes.
4	Garden of Health , (1491) Medieval remedies and natural knowledge: An explosion of 16th-century herbals dramatically extended the “materia medica” tradition deriving from ancient writers, assimilating a vast increase in the number of known plants.
5	The Natural History of Plants, 1542 Fuchs, Leonhart (1542) Fuchs extracted the best knowledge available from Galen, Dioscorides and Pliny. Fuchs gave each plant a German name as well as the traditional Latin. He described nearly 100 northern European plants unknown to previous physicians.
6	Natural History of Serpents and Dragons Aldrovandi, Ulysses (1640) Aldrovandi’s study of serpents describes those from northern Italy with great accuracy. Yet other serpents were reported in literature and by recent travelers.
7	The Herball, 1597 Gerard, John (1597) Gerard, an estate manager for Queen Elizabeth’s chief executive, was in contact with naturalists around the world who sent him both plants and soil to grow them in. The first illustration of the “Virginia potato” appears in this volume.