Gesner's Historiae animalium (1551-87)
Conrad Gesner. Historiae animalium. Zurich: Apvd Christ. Froschovervm, 1551-87.
page 410, "De Elephanto"
Conrad Gesner, a physician and professor of philosophy at the University of Zurich, is known as the "Father of Zoology." His history was by far the most extensive work on animals up its publication and was based on Hebrew, Greek, and Latin sources. It included not only accounts of animals brought back from the New World by the early explorers, but legendary ones given authenticity by centuries of naturalists from Aristotle and Pliny to Gesner's own day. The work comprehended mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles, and the text gave their uses in medicine, nutrition, and transportation, as well as their places in history and literature.
The woodcuts are a fetching feature of the work. Gesner's woodcut of the elephant, although its trunk resembles a vacuum cleaner's attachment, was the first real attempt to represent the animal from nature. It was reprinted in many works over the next hundred years, including Edward Topsell's The historie of foure-footed beastes (1607) and Ulisse Aldrovandi's De quadrupedibus solidipedibus (1639), both also found in the Ewell Sale Stewart Library.