Science Literacy Week September 21 - 27, 2020

It was the most extant ancient western encyclopaedia containing all that was known at his time of geography, mineralogy, anthropology, botany, zoology and meterology. It was one of the first scientific texts to be printed in 1469. UBC’s copy probably contains corrections made in 1492.

This book is considered one of the starting points of zoology, it includes the names and information of all the known animals and contains 4,500 pages and over 1,000 woodcuts in 5 volumes. Some woodcuts are by Albrecht Dürer.

Aristotle's De Animalibus was an important source of zoological knowledge for the ancient Greeks and for medieval Arabs and Europeans. In the thirteenth century, the work was twice translated into Latin. One translation was produced directly from the Greek by William of Moerbeke. An earlier translation, made available as a critical edition in the present volume for the first time, was produced through an intermediary Arabic translation (Kitāb al-Ḥayawān) by Michael Scot (1175 - c. 1232). Scot's translation was one of the main sources of knowledge on animals in Europe and widely used until well into the fifteenth century. As a faithful translation of a translation produced by a Syriac-speaking Christian, the text contributes to our knowledge of Middle Arabic. The De Animalibus is composed of three sections: History of Animals (ten books), Parts of Animals (four books) and Generation of Animals (five books). Parts of Animals and Generation of Animals were published by BRILL as Volumes 5.2 and 5.3 of the book series ASL in 1998 (ASL 5.2) and 1992 (ASL 5.3). The present Volume 5.1.a contains the first section of Scot's translation of History of Animals: the general introduction and books 1-3, with Notes. Editions of the two concluding parts of History of Animals, ASL 5.1.b, books 4-6 and ASL 5.1.c, books 7-10, are in preparation. Complete Latin-Arabic and Arabic-Latin indices of History of Animals will be published in due course.

This is the English translation of Swammerdam’s papers on insects that was published as Bybel der Natuur sive Historia Insectorum and published posthumously by Herman Boerhaave (1737). Swammerdam, an early microscopist, described metamorphosis and mapped out a natural classification for insects.

One of a series of books conceived by Ray and Willughby which included birds, fish and invertebrates. This volume was intended to describe all the then-known birds worldwide and included a classification system based on anatomical features such as beak, claws etc

For each plant there is a woodcut illustration with a detailed description of the plant’s appearance, habitat, alternative name, and a list of virtues and medicinal properties. The 2nd edition published in 1633 corrected many of the errors in this edition.

Parkinson was apothecary to James I and his description of plants nearly doubles that of Gerard’s first edition and contains many original entries.

Note: Access is from Haithi Trust. Login as University of British Columbia

This longest running botanical journal, begun in 1787, contains botanically precise plant portraits. The detailed texts combine horticultural and botanical information with information of the history, conservation and economic uses of a world-wide range of plants. The illustrations in the first 30 volumes were hand coloured copper plate engravings. Many plants were publicised for the first time in this journal.

This five volume work was written by various authors, and edited and superintended by Charles Darwin, who published expert descriptions of the collections he had made during the Beagle voyage.

This is Ray's account of his travels across Europe between 1663 and 1666 with his companions Francis Willughby, Philip Skippon and Nathaniel Bacon for the purpose of observing and studying the natural history of continental Europe, collecting specimens along the way. 

Source: https://www.bowwindows.com/pages/books/28544/john-ray/observations-topographical-moral-physiological-made-in-a-journey-through-part-of-the-low.

Supplement to Flora of southern British Columbia (J.K. Henry): comprising descriptions of additional species and varieties, significant extensions of range and corrections / by J.W. Eastham.

The copy in the Gibson Collection in Rare Books and Special Collection was formerly owned by Timothy Brayshaw and is heavily annotated with his own field observations.