Dear Ruud Vlek
If my notes are correct, according to P. Delauney, Belon visited London and Oxford in 1550, and on that trip he met the English naturalist Edward Wotton (their classifications of birds are actually remarkably similar).
See P. Delauney, 'Les voyages en Angleterre du medecin naturaliste Pierre Belon', Proceedings of the Third Congress of the History of Medicine (Antwerp, 1923), pp. 306-308.
Philippe Glardon's edition of Belon's L'Histoire de la Nature des Oyseaux (Geneve, 1997) is also rich in biographical details concerning Belon.
I hope this helps!
All the best
Isabelle
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Dr Isabelle Charmantier
Information Scientist
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From: History of Natural History [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ruud Vlek [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 26 January 2016 10:18
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [HIST-NAT-HIST] dating and reconstructing a journey to England by Pierre Belon (c. 1540?)
Dear Natural History list-members,
Maybe somebody among you can help me with this question.
The French 'voyageur-naturaliste' Pierre Belon (1517-1564), who travelled widely in Europe in the mid-16 century and reported about his travels in several books, is said to have visited England, once or twice (?). The exact year of this journey(s) is not clear to me, because all sources don't mention an exact year.
On his first trip to England Pierre Belon saw for the very first time in natural history a Stone-Curlew Burhinus oedicnemus. In his Systema naturae of 1758 (p. 151) Linnaeus commemorates this fact by mentioning as the type-location of this bird species: 'Habitat in Anglia'. Only later Belon found out, that his 'Oedicneme' was a regular breeding bird in 'nos contrees' in France as well.
I like to date and locate this very first observation of the species by Pierre Belon in England. Can anyone refer me to literature about Belon's visit(s) to England ?
Ruud Vlek
Amsterdam
The Freshwater Biological Association - www.fba.org.uk
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