ALDROVAN'TII, ULYSSES, one of the most distinguished naturalists of the 16th c., was born at Bologna, probably about the year 1522. He was descended from a noble family, and received an excellent education, partly in his native city and partly in Padua. Some of his religious opinions having been called in question, he traveled to Rome in 1550, to vindicate himself; and whilst there, studied Roman antiquities, and wrote a treatise on ancient statuary. At Rome, he formed the acquaintance of Rondelet.,On his return home, he devoted himself to the study of botany, and having taken his degree in medicine at the university of Bologna in 1553, he was in the following year appointed to the chairs of philosophy and logic,'and also to the lectureship on botany. lie prac ticed medicine for some time in Bologna, and appears after a short time to have ex changed some of the chairs which he held in the university for that of natural history, to the study of which science he applied himself with great devotedness. He established the botanical garden at Bologna in 1567. He was much employed, during many years. in forming a museum of natural history, collecting specimens with great assiduity, and employing draughtsmen to make figures of them for the great work on natural history which he contemplated. In the pursuit of his favorite science, he traveled into different countries, but no particular record of his travels remains. Inspiring others with a zeal similar to his own, he had the pleasure of seeing his museum rapidly increase. He finally bequeathed it to the senate of Bologna, and it became the foundation of the splendid public museum of that city, where many of A.'s specimens remain to this day.
He left behind him also at his death a prodigious mass of valuable manuscripts, which still remain in the public library of Bologna, a store of which proper use has never yet been made, and in which there is probably much correspondence of eminent men, interesting as showing the first steps of progress of the science of natural history, after the long dor mancy of the middle ages. All his studies and collections were made subservient to his work on natural history; the first volume of which—on birds—appeared in 1599. Six volumes appeared during A.'s life ; other seven were published under the direction of his colleagues and pupils after his death, which took place in 1605. It has been stated in many notices of his life, and was long commonly believed, that, by his scientific pur suits, A. reduced himself to circumstances of great poverty, and that he died in a public hospital at Bologna; but the story, although Bay le has adopted it in his dictionary, rests on no sufficient evidence, and there is reason to think that it is not true. It is difficult to pro cure a complete edition of the works of A., and the volume on minerals is especially rare. A. has been censured for excessive copiousness in things of little importance, and at best merely serving to illustrate his subject and render it interesting. He shows, however, great anxiety to set forth all that is known on every subject of which he treats ; lie writes of natural history in a way which shows that he greatly loves the science, and at the same time with a devout and reverent spirit, always beholding in the works of crea tion the traces of the Creator's hand.