Observationes circa viventia, quae in rebus non viventibus reperiuntur cum micrographia curiosa

THE PRINTER

TO THE READER.

A decorative drop cap letter E featuring floral and foliate motifs.THE recreation of the mind and eye in the observation of testaceous animals referring to shelled mollusks had already been proposed in Rome to curious inspectors of nature, first in the Italian language in the year 1681, and then offered in Latin by the same author in the year 1684, with one hundred images of shells added, about which various problems were proposed. Now, finally, the same work has been translated into the French language by Mr. François Defeine and is being printed this current year by Parisian presses.

However, since in this book the author held to the opinions of the ancients, especially Aristotle, regarding the generation of shells, by affirming that they are born spontaneously in mud or in a sandy place, someone or other took the opportunity to address him in a letter printed in Bologna, in which he claims that he is a liar along with Aristotle, and furthermore that such an opinion is reckless and condemned by the experience of falsity.

The author, who is the subject of this discussion, thought it his part to refute the slanders of the anonymous letter; for this reason, he published a letter in Rome under the name of Godefridus Fulbertus, by which he strives to show that Aristotle and his followers were criticized undeservedly, since his opinion has always been at least equally probable, nor has the contrary opinion of the moderns yet been proven evidently by anyone.

This little work, having been received very humanely in the Academies and approved—