Ulisse Aldrovandi, Ornithologiae, hoc est de avibus historiae, libri XII, Bologna: F. de Franciscis Senensis, 1599, vol. 1, author portrait, engraving, plate size 31.2 x 21 cm, N*.2.17(B).

This is an engraved portrait of the Bolognese physician, naturalist and collector, Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605) at the age of 74, accompanied by birds, butterflies and quadrupeds representing the natural world that he studied. The lettering below the portrait, ‘this image is not yours, Aristotle, but Ulisse’s; a difference face, but equal talent (ingenium)’, suggests that Aldrovandi had talent on a par with a major ancient authority who had also studied animals. ‘Io. Corn. Wtervver M.D. faciebat’ below indicates that this image was made by Johann Cornelius Uterverius (Wterwer, d. 1619), originally from Delft, who had studied in Bologna where he obtained his doctorate in medicine. After Aldrovandi’s death, Uterverius was appointed the custodian of Aldrovandi’s museum. A further quotation is added at the bottom, from Virgil; ‘give this your best attention, it is no trifling matter’ (Eclogues, book 3, line 54, trans. H. Rushton Fairclough).

This copy was once owned by Henry Lucas (bap. 1587-1663), the founder of the Lucasian chair of mathematics at Cambridge, who also donated over one thousand books to the University Library.