On 2/20/04 3:33 PM, in article ,
"Wolfgang" wrote:


"William Claspy" wrote in message
...
On 2/20/04 2:49 PM, in article
,
"snakefiddler" wrote:

In what language was it first published?

Dutch, 1675.

We've got an 18th century German version of the Biblia Naturae
(Bibel der
Natur), Wolfgang, but I can't send it to you. :-)

Well, I bet you could if you really wanted to.

Yes, but I like my job and would like to keep it. :-) And there are other
things in that room that I'd probably take first....


You're welcome to stop on
your way to Penns and have a look though.

I may just do that. It's possible that I'll be arriving via Asadi's
land yacht. If it turns out that way the logistics might work out.

Just let me know! A stop on either (or both) ends would be fine. I'll
probably do a half-Penns again this year.

That collection (http://www.cwru.edu/artsci/dittrick/rare.htm, it's across
the street- I can see the building from my window) has a large Darwiniana
collection as well, and I'm going to try to have a display up in our library
of a large number of early 20th century fishing books.


Here's a neat quote from the Dictionary of Scientific Biography
(article
author Mary P. Winsor): "Some biographers describe Swammerdam as a
mystic,
for he was a follower of a woman who purportedly had spoken with
God, and he
saw in the short flight of the mayfly an image of man's own brief
existence."

Interesting. I ran across a reference to "A Figure of Man's Miserable
Life" in Martin Kemp's "Visualizations: The Nature Book of Art and
Science" (that's "Nature", as in the British scientific journal) a few
months ago. At the time I didn't recall that I'd ever heard of
Swammerdam before. Suddenly, upon reading your excerpt above, I
realize that I had!

I enjoy Kemp's columns.

According to the DSB author, the English translation of Ephemeri vita
published in London in 1691 leaves out the "hymns to the Creator" :-)
There's a copy of that over in Madison if you ever get over there.

I have access to the English version (1758) of the Book of Nature- his
drawings of nymphs are *very* cool.

Time to do a bit of research.

Research 'R' Us.

Bill