Edward Wotton (zoologist)

Edward Wotton (* 1492 in Oxford ; † October 5, 1555 ) was a British doctor and zoologist .

Life

Wotton father Richard was caretaker of the University of Oxford . Edward Wotton studied at Magdalen College, Oxford with a bachelor's degree in 1513/14 and became a fellow of the college in 1516. In 1520, he was accused of colluding with other fellows in order for certain students to receive scholarships. Soon after, he was the first Greek reader at Corpus Christi College, newly established by Bishop Richard Foxe . Foxe could not make Wotton a fellow of the new college, since he was a fellow of the Magdalen College, but made him the Socius compar des Corpus Christi College and granted him a stay in Italy of several years, mainly to improve his Greek. In Italy, Wotton was mostly in Padua, where he received his doctorate in medicine. Because of this, he was awarded an MD degree in Oxford in 1526. In 1528 he became a Fellow of the College of Physicians, whose Consiliarius, Censo and President (1541 to 1543) he was. His patients included nobles such as Thomas Howard , Duke of Norfolk, and Margaret Pole , Countess of Salisbury, but was not, as was occasionally claimed earlier, personal physician to Henry VIII. Margaret Pole received an annual pension and corresponded with her son, the later Cardinal Reginald Pole.

He is best known for his work on zoology, which was based on Aristotle , but in which he also separated a lot of inventions from the description of the animal world and that of Conrad Gessner (who began publishing his Historia Animalium in 1551, the fourth in 1558 Volume was completed), Albrecht von Haller and Michael Neander (in his Orbis terrae) praised. The work was very well printed and equipped. In it he introduced the zoophytes , a name that is no longer in use today for plant-like animals, including corals and sponges, for example.

His son Henry was also a doctor and reader of Greek at Corpus Christi College.

Fonts

De differentiis animalium libri decem , Paris 1552 (the book was dedicated to Edward VI)

He was also co-author of Thomas Muffets (editor) Insectorum, sive, Minimorum animalium theatrum , which appeared long after his death in 1634. Muffet also mentions Thomas Penny and Conrad Gessner as sources.

literature

AF Pollard (and Patrick Wallis for the 2004 edition): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ,

Web links

Wikisource: Edward Wotton - Sources and full texts (English)

References and comments

↑ R. Leuckart: Die Zoophyten, a contribution to the history of zoology. Archive for Natural History, Berlin 1875, p. 85, Archives . According to Leuckart, however, he almost literally adopted a description that had already been created by Aristotle and the context also makes it clear that others had previously used the term.

personal data
SURNAME	Wotton, Edward
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British doctor and zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH	1492
PLACE OF BIRTH	Oxford
DATE OF DEATH	October 5, 1555

[1] R. Leuckart: Die Zoophyten, a contribution to the history of zoology. Archive for Natural History, Berlin 1875, p. 85, Archives . According to Leuckart, however, he almost literally adopted a description that had already been created by Aristotle and the context also makes it clear that others had previously used the term.