Published works
Title page from Historia Naturalis (Natural History) by Pliny the Elder. First edition, published in Venice in 1469. Illuminated with watercolour and gold paint.
Library materials include pre-scientific works of Ulisse Aldrovandi from the late 16th century.
Our collections cover the empiricism (or scientific method) established by Francis Bacon in the 17th century, and the encyclopaedic approach of Georges Buffon in the mid-18th century.
The oldest of our published works is a Venetian edition of Pliny’s Historia naturalis from 1469.