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Summary
In the middle of the 16th century, the founding fathers of modern ichthyology (the two Frenchmen Pierre Belon, Guillaume Rondelet and the Italian Hippolito Salviani) struggled to adequately illustrate their fish descriptions. Their efforts were not only uncoordinated, but also rooted in the conscious rejection of each other’s position, culminating in a fierce, publicly held controversy between Rondelet and Salviani. A reverberation of this controversy can still be found in the 19th century in the writings of the great zoologist Georges Cuvier. Despite the squabbling, Belon and Rondelet, as well as Salviani, did independently reach similar conclusions about the style of their illustrations, moving away from the allegorical or symbolic iconography that prevailed until the 15th century towards an almost photo-realistic manner that is still considered exemplary today.
After completion of his History of animals, Gessner began an equally ambitious History of plants, which, however, he could not complete due to his premature death in consequence of a fatal epidemic. Immediately after Gessner’s death, Caspar Wolf (c. 1532–1601), Gessner’s former pupil, publicly announced his intention to edit the botanical legacy of his mentor. Wolf’s announcement, entitled “Promise” (Pollicitatio), is of prime importance concerning the unfinished plant history and has influenced many researchers’ views. However, it has often been forgotten that Wolf had written the announcement also for his own domestic purposes and that caution is therefore required. The present study, complemented by the first full translation of Wolf’s text, is intended to reinforce the need for such caution. It is suggested that it was not only Wolf’s failings that led to the final failure of the project, but also that Gessner himself may have failed to establish a body of text substantial enough to satisfy his own aspirations.