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 Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...

and the

comte de Buffon Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopédiste. His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including two prominent F ...

reckoned him the father of natural history studies. He is usually referred to, especially in older scientific literature in Latin, as Aldrovandus; his name in Italian is equally given as Aldroandi.

Life

Aldrovandi was born in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...

to Teseo Aldrovandi and his wife, a noble but poor family. His father was a lawyer, and Secretary to the Senate of Bologna, but died when Ulisse was seven years old. His widowed mother wanted him to become a

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the U ...

. Initially he was sent to apprentice with merchants as a scribe for a short time when he was 14 years old, but after studying

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

, and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

, initially at the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in contin ...

, and then at the

University of Padua The University of Padua ( it, Università degli Studi di Padova, UNIPD) is an Italian university located in the city of Padua, region of Veneto, northern Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from ...

in 1545, he became a notary. His interests successively extended to

and

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from prem ...

, which he combined with the study of medicine. In June 1549, Aldrovandi was accused and arrested for heresy on account of his espousing of the anti-trinitarian beliefs of the

Anabaptist Anabaptism (from Neo-Latin , from the Greek : 're-' and 'baptism', german: Täufer, earlier also )Since the middle of the 20th century, the German-speaking world no longer uses the term (translation: "Re-baptizers"), considering it biased. ...

Camillo Renato. By September, he publicly abjured, but was nevertheless transferred to Rome, and remained in custody or house arrest until absolved in April, 1550. During this time, he befriended many local scholars. While in light captivity there, he became more and more interested in

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, an ...

, and

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other Astronomical object, astronomical objects, the features or rock (geology), rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology ...

(he is credited for the invention/first written record of this word). From 1551 onward, he organized a variety of expeditions to the Italian mountains, countryside, islands, and coasts to collect and catalogue plants. He obtained a degree in medicine and

in 1553 and started teaching

and philosophy in 1554 at the University of Bologna. In 1559, he became professor of philosophy and in 1561 he became the first professor of

natural sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeat ...

at Bologna (). Aldrovandi was a friend of Francesco de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1574 – 1587), visiting his garden at

Pratolino The Villa di Pratolino was a Renaissance patrician villa in Vaglia, Tuscany, Italy. It was mostly demolished in 1822. Its remains are now part of the Villa Demidoff, 12 km north of Florence, reached from the main road to Bologna. History Th ...

and travelling with him, compiling a list of the most valuable plants at Pratolino. He also formed fruitful associations with botanical artists such as Jacopo Ligozzi, to further develop illustrated texts. He died in Bologna on 4 May 1605, at the age of 82. Aldrovandi's wife Francesca Fontana was invaluable to his research. He utilized her dowry to build their massive country estate that ultimately included his natural history collection. She was a research partner who located texts for him to cite and use in his books, edited his books, and wrote sections of them as well. She wrote the preface for his posthumous book ''On the Remains of Bloodless Animals'', which Suzanne Le-May Sheffield described as "their shared work."

Work

Over 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'' , of which he wrote a description in 1595. Between 1551 and 1554, he organized several expeditions to collect plants for a

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (calle ...

, among the first botanizing expeditions. Eventually, his herbarium contained about 4760 dried specimens on 4117 sheets in sixteen volumes, preserved at the University of Bologna. He also had various artists including Jacopo Ligozzi, Giovanni Neri, and Cornelio Schwindt, compose illustrations of specimens.

Botanic garden

At his demand and under his direction, a public

botanic garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

was created in Bologna in 1568, now the

Orto Botanico dell'Università di Bologna The Orto Botanico dell'Università di Bologna, also known as the Orto Botanico di Bologna, is a botanical garden operated by the University of Bologna. It is located at Via Irnerio, 42, 40126 Bologna, Italy, and open daily except Mondays. Establ ...

. Due to a dispute on the composition of a popular medicine with the pharmacists and doctors of Bologna in 1575, he was suspended from all public positions for five years. In 1577, he sought the aid of

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

Gregory XIII Pope Gregory XIII ( la, Gregorius XIII; it, Gregorio XIII; 7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585), born Ugo Boncompagni, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585. He is best known for ...

(a cousin of his mother), who wrote to the authorities of Bologna to reinstate Aldrovandi in his public offices and request financial aid to help him publish his books.

Collections

His vast collections in botany and zoology he willed to the Senate of Bologna; until 1742 the collections were conserved in the Palazzo Pubblico, then in the

Palazzo Poggi The Palazzo Poggi is a ''palazzo'' in Via Zamboni 33, Bologna, Italy. It is the headquarters of the University of Bologna and of the rector of the university. History The Palazzo Poggi was built as the home of Alessandro Poggi and his brother th ...

, but were distributed among various libraries and institutions in the course of the nineteenth century. In 1907 a representative part were reunited at Palazzo Poggi, Bologna, where the 400th anniversary of his death was memorialized in a celebrative exhibition in 2005.

Neurofibromatosis

He was the first to have extensively documented the disease

neurofibromatosis Neurofibromatosis (NF) is a group of three conditions in which tumors grow in the nervous system. The three types are neurofibromatosis type I (NF1), neurofibromatosis type II (NF2), and schwannomatosis. In NF1 symptoms include light brown ...

, a type of skin tumour. Recently, however, it has been observed that in a work by

Andrea Mantegna Andrea Mantegna (, , ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g. by lowering the horizon in orde ...

, this type of disease had been pictured 80 years earlier than in Androvandi's work.

List of selected publications

Of the several hundred books and essays he wrote, only a handful were published during his lifetime: *
Antidotarii Bononiensis, siue de vsitata ratione componendorum, miscendorumque medicamentorum, epitome
' (1574) *
Ornithologiae hoc est de avibus historiae libri XII
' (Bologna, 1599)
another copy
*
Ornithologiae tomus alter cum indice copiosissimo
' (Bologna, 1600) *
De animalibus insectis libri septem, cum singulorum iconibus ad vivum expressis
' (Bologna, 1602
1618 edition
*
Ornithologiae tomus tertius, ac postremus
' (Bologna, 1603
1637 edition
*
De reliquis animalibus exanguibus libri quatuor
' (Bologna, 1606) *
De piscibus libri V, et De cetis lib. vnus
' (Bologna, 1613) *
Quadrupedum omnium bisulcorum historia
' (Bologna, 1621) *
Serpentum, et draconum
' (Bologna, 1640) (Natural History of Snakes and Dragons) *
Monstrorum historia cum Paralipomenis historiae omnium animalium
' (Bologna, 1642
1658 edition
from the

University and State Library Düsseldorf The University and State Library Düsseldorf (german: Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf, abbreviated ULB Düsseldorf) is a central service institution of Heinrich Heine University. Along with Bonn and Münster, it is also one of t ...

*
Musaeum metallicum in libros IV distributum Bartholomaeus Ambrosinus
' (Bologna, 1648) *
Dendrologiae naturalis scilicet arborum historiae libri duo sylua glandaria, acinosumq
' (Bologna, 1667) * Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria, Ms. 136, XI folio 73

Honors

* The

wrinkle ridge A wrinkle ridge is a type of feature commonly found on lunar maria, or basalt plains. These features are low, sinuous ridges formed on the mare surface that can extend for up to several hundred kilometers. Wrinkle ridges are tectonic features c ...

'' Dorsa Aldrovandi'' on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

is named after him. * The Civico Orto Botanico "Ulisse Aldrovandi" in

San Giovanni in Persiceto San Giovanni in Persiceto (from 1912 to 1927: ''Persiceto''; Western Bolognese: ) is a town and '' comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Bologna, northern Italy. Located in the northern part of the Metropolitan City, bordering with the provin ...

is named in his honor. * The plant genus ''

Aldrovanda ''Aldrovanda'' is a genus of carnivorous plants encompassing one extant species (''Aldrovanda vesiculosa'', the waterwheel plant) and numerous extinct taxa. The genus is named in honor of the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi, the founder of ...

'' is named after him.

Gallery

Ulisse Aldrovandi00.jpg, ''

Cucurbita maxima ''Cucurbita maxima'', one of at least five species of cultivated squash, is one of the most diverse domesticated species. This species originated in South America from the wild subspecies ''Cucurbita maxima subsp. andreana'' over 4,000 years ago. ...

'' Duchesne (c1660) Basilisk aldrovandi.jpg,

Basilisk In European bestiaries and legends, a basilisk ( or ) is a legendary reptile reputed to be a serpent king, who causes death to those who look into its eyes. According to the '' Naturalis Historia'' of Pliny the Elder, the basilisk of Cyre ...

from ''Serpentum, et draconum historiae libri duo'' (1640) Aldrovandi-0337.jpg,

Harpy In Greek mythology and Roman mythology, a harpy (plural harpies, , ; lat, harpȳia) is a half-human and half-bird personification of storm winds. They feature in Homeric poems. Descriptions They were generally depicted as birds with the he ...

from ''Monstrorum Historia'' (1642) Aldrov tatzelwurm.jpg, Two headed lizard from ''Historia serpentum et draconum'' (1640) Ulisse Aldrovandi - Specimens of Nature - WGA00143.jpg, Specimens of Nature Aldrovandi Owl.png, Owl Ulisse Aldrovandi - Blue-Headed Quail-Dove - WGA00142.jpg, Blue-Headed Quail-Dove Gallina patavina.jpg, Paduan Hen Gallus patavinus.jpg, Paduan Rooster Gallus turcicus.jpg, Turcicus Rooster Ulisse Aldrovandi - Blackbuck - WGA00139.jpg, Blackbuck Ulisse Aldrovandi - Red Hartebeest and Blackbuck - WGA00136.jpg, Red Hartebeest and Blackbuck Ulisse Aldrovandi - Red Hartebeest and Mountain Coati - WGA00140.jpg, Red Hartebeest and Mountain Coati

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * *

External links

Aldrovandi's CatsDe Avibus Historiae (1666)AMS Historica – Ulisse Aldrovandi – University of Bologna
(in Italian)
Ulisse Aldrovandi at arthistoricum.netOnline Galleries, History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries
High resolution images of works by and/or portraits of Ulisse Aldrovandi in .jpg and .tiff format.
"Ornithologiae ... libri XII" at the GDZ
(Latin)
''Serpentum, et draconum historiae libri duo''
(1640) - digital facsimile from

Linda Hall Library The Linda Hall Library is a privately endowed American library of science, engineering and technology located in Kansas City, Missouri, sitting "majestically on a urban arboretum." It is the "largest independently funded public library of scien ...

''Musaeum Metallicum''
(1648) - digital facsimile from

''Ornithologiae''
(3 vols., 1599) - digital facsimiles from

''De quadrupedib.' digitatis viviparis libri tres...''
(1663) - digital facsimile from

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aldrovandi, Ulisse 1522 births 1605 deaths 16th-century Italian physicians 16th-century Italian botanists Botanical illustrators Italian entomologists Italian naturalists Italian ornithologists Italian painters of animals Scientists from Bologna Pre-Linnaean botanists Victims of the Inquisition University of Bologna faculty