Ulisse Aldrovandi

Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522 to 1605) was an Italian naturalist, physician and polymath from Bologna, the moving force behind the botanical garden of Bologna, one of the first in Europe. He assembled one of the largest natural science collections of his time, which became the first public science museum after his death. Although he never practised as a physician, he studied plants from around the world for their medical uses and used a large network of contacts to obtain unusual plants and animals to study and categorise. His interest turned to botany, zoology and geology while he was held in Rome on a charge of heresy in 1549 and 1550, and he began teaching logic and philosophy at the University of Bologna in 1554. He wrote thirteen volumes of notes and observations, of which only four were published in his lifetime, and Linnaeus and Buffon reckoned him the father of natural history.