German physician, zoologist, and naturalist

Konrad von Gesner, a dedicated physician by many accounts, somehow managed to produce approximately 90 manuscripts during his short life span. The topics of his publications were encyclopedic in scope and ranged from zoology to theology, mountains to medicines, and to many other subjects that struck his fancy. Of all his works, the one of most interest to geologists is Fossils, Gems, and Stones (the full Latin title of this work is De Rerum Fossilium, Lapid um et Gemmarum maxime, figuris et similitudinibus Liber: non solum Medicis, sed omnibus rerum Naturae ac Philogiae studiosis, utilis et juncundus futurus). It was published in the year of his death (1565).

Gesner's Fossils, Stones, and Gems is significant primarily for two contributions to the study of fossils, minerals, rocks, and gems. First, although he did not recognize fossils as the remains of...