The Wonderful Mr Willughby
The First True Ornithologist
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- £8.49
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- £8.49
Publisher Description
'Birkhead has combined ingenuity and perseverance to produce an evocative portrait of a great pioneer in the scientific study of birds' Literary Review
Francis Willughby lived and thrived in the midst of the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. Along with his Cambridge tutor John Ray, Willughby was determined to overhaul the whole of natural history and impose order on its complexity. It was exhilarating, exacting and exhausting work. Yet before Willughby and Ray could complete their monumental encyclopaedia of birds, Ornithology, Willughby died. In the centuries since, Ray's reputation has grown, obscuring that of his collaborator. Now, for the first time, Willughby's own story and genius are given the attention they deserve.
Tim Birkhead celebrates how Willughby's endeavours set a standard for the way birds and natural history should be studied. Rich with glorious detail, The Wonderful Mr Willughby is a fascinating insight into a thrilling period of scientific history and a lively biography of a man who lived at its heart.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Although surprisingly little documentation exists about Francis Willughby (1635 1672), Birkhead (The Most Perfect Sense), a science professor at the University of Sheffield, has managed to piece together a compulsively readable portrait of the driven, influential British naturalist. Willughby died young, yet, together with the better known John Ray, who began as his tutor at Cambridge, he shaped the way natural history is viewed to this day. As Birkhead explains it, Willughby was present at "the inception of modern science," and he and Ray "transformed the study of zoology in general, and birds in particular," setting new standards for the observation, description, and classification of animals. Using the diaries of Ray and other traveling companions, Birkhead chronicles Willughby's two-year sojourn across Europe in the 1660s, when he studied as much wildlife as he could, and also experienced a significant amount of continental culture at a time of intellectual and scientific ferment. The author shares many of the ornithological questions Willughby pondered, such as the nature of territoriality, migration, and annual molting, alongside modern science's answers, thus demonstrating in many cases Willughby's prescience. Though at times the details become a bit dense, Birkhead has produced an enjoyable and informative piece of scholarship, with ample appeal for bird-watching or nature-enthusiast layreaders as well.
