1668 Original antique print POLLINO DEL CIGNO Insect Beetle (IR3)

REDI, Francesco

About this Item

1668 POLLINO DEL CIGNO. A fine and rare early antique engraving by Francesco Redi published for the 1st edition of ESPERIENZE INTORNO ALLA GENERAZIONE DEGLINSETTI.Size approx 15.5 x 21.5cm.Redis most influential book, which by remarkably simple experiments disproved the belief, dating back to Aristotle, that insects -- especially carrion-eating flys -- are spontaneously generated in dead creatures. Using four flasks, he filled two each with pieces of meat, corked two and left two open. Flies gathered within the second [pair] and the contents became wormy, the first putrid, but not wormy. He stated, thus the flesh of dead animals cannot engender worms unless the eggs of the living be deposited within (Dibner). Redi observed the egg-producing apparatus in insects and he also used the microscope to good advantage in observing the morphological elements characteristic of the eggs of each species (DSB).

Seller Inventory # IR3-5189753

Bibliographic Details

• Title: 1668 Original antique print POLLINO DEL CIGNO Insect Beetle (IR3)