Gesner, Konrad von (1516–1565)

Swiss naturalist. He produced an encyclopedia of the animal world, the five-volume Historia animalium (1551–58). He began a similar project on plants that was incomplete at the time of his death. He is considered the founder of zoology.

Gesner was born in Zürich, Switzerland, and was the godson of the Protestant reformer Ulrich Zwingli. He studied theology at Carolinum in Zürich and then at the Fraumünster seminary. He went to Strasbourg Academy in 1532 to study Hebrew and then studied medicine in Bourges, Paris, and Basel. He was the professor of Greek at Lausanne Academy 1537–40 and obtained his doctorate in 1541. After a spell in Montpellier studying botany, he returned to Zürich to become a physician. He travelled widely in Europe and worked on Opera botanica, which was completed and published after his death by C Schmiedel. He died in Zürich on 13 March.