Konrad von Gesner was a Swiss scholar, noted as a physician, biologist, philologist, and bibliographer. He practiced medicine in several European cities and spent his last years at Zurich as a physician and teacher. His works include Historia plantarum written in 1541; Bibliotheca universalis (4 vols., 1545-55), an index to Greek, Latin, and Hebrew writers; and Historia animalium (5 vols., 1551-87), which assembled from many sources the known material on animals. Most of his botanical writings were first published in Opera botanica (2 vols., 1751-71). Bibliography The Columbia Encyclopedia, 2nd edition, c. 1950.