The Great Naturalists

Daring explorers, gifted artists, brilliant observers ...our understanding of the natural world rests on the work of the great naturalists who flourished from the ancient world up to the age of Darwin. Often amateur, occasionally self-taught, they made discoveries that were frequently as unexpected as they were brilliant. Their pioneering lives are celebrated in this beautiful and fascinating book.

As well as giants such as Aristotle, Linnaeus and Joseph Banks, we find the Reverend William Butler, the first person to identify a dinosaur, who sought to reconcile his findings with the bible, and James Hutton, who startled his contemporaries with his discovery of the true geological age of the earth. Intrepid naturalists such as Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin braved tempests, pirates and disease to change the course of science with their ground-breaking theories. Many of these naturalists were also great artists, and the text is illustrated with breathtaking paintings and drawings of birds, animals, fossils, fish, shells and geology, the majority from the unparalleled archives of the Natural History Museum, London.