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LOVELL, Robert.

(1630? – 1690)

(Born: Lapworth, Warwickshire, England, c1630; Died: Coventry, England, November 1690) English naturalist.

Lovell was born the younger son of the Rector of Lapworth. He became a student of Christ Church, Oxford in 1648 graduating B.A. in 1659 and M.A. in 1653. He studied botany, zoology and mineralogy, and his works on these subjects were published between 1659 and 1661, apparently while he still was resident at Oxford. Later, he relocated to Coventry, where he lived the remainder of his life.

Biographical references: BBA: I 702, 115-119. DNB: 12, 174-5.. Lambrecht & Quenstedt, Catalogus, 1938: 269. Poggendorff: 1, col. 1503. Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica, 1824. WBI.

Sive Pammineralogicon, 1661

1. English, 1661.
[Contained within an ornate box:] ΠΑΝΖΩΟΡΥΚΤΟΛΟΓΙΑ. | Sive | Panzoologicomineralogia. | Or a Compleat | History | Of Animals and Minerals, | Containing the Summe of all Authors, both Ancient | and Modern, Galenicall and Chymicall, touching Animals, Viz. Beasts, Birds, Fishes, Serpents, Insects, | and Man, as to their Place, Meat, Name, Temperature, Vertues, | Used in Meat and Medicine, Description, Kinds, Generation, | Sympathie, Antipathie, Dieseases, Cures, Hurts, and Remedies &c. | With the Anatomy of Man, the Diseases, with their Definitions, | Causes, Signes, Cures, Remedies: and use of the London Dispen- | satory, with the Doses and Formes of all kinds of Remedies: | also a History of Minerals, viz. Earths, Mettals, Semi- | mettals, their Naturall and Artificiall excrements, Salts, Sulphurs, | and Stones, with their Place, Matter, Names, Kinds, Temperature, | Vertues, Use, Choice, Dose, Danger and Antidotes. | [The next 3 lines braced on the left-hand side by, "Also an {"] Introduction to Zoography and Mineralogy. | Index of Latine Names, with their English Names. | Universall Index of the Use and Vertues. | [rule] | By Robert Lovell. St.C.C. Oxon. | [...one line in Greek...] | [rule] | Oxford, | Printed by Aen: Hall, for Jos:Goodwan. 1661.

[Title page of volume two:]

[Within an ornate box:] ΠΑΝΟΡΥΚΤΟΛΙΑ. | Sive | Pammineralogicon. | Or | An Universal History | Of | Mineralls | Containing the summe of all Authors, both An- | cient and Moderne, Galenical and Chymical, | touching Earths, Mettals, Semimettals, with their na- | tural and artificial excrements, Salts, Sulphurs, | and Stones, more pretious and lesse pretious &c. | Shewing their Place, Matter, Names, Kinds, | Temperature, Vertues, Choice, Use, | Dose, Danger, and Antidotes. | [rule] | Robert Lovell. St. C.C. Ox. | [...one line in Greek...] | [rule] | Oxford, | Printed by W. Hall, for Joseph Godwin, | Anno Dom. cI[Backwards C] Io[Backwards C] Lxi.

[Vol 1] 8°: [a]8 b-f8 A-2I8 2K4; 308l.; [96], 519 p., ornamental initals and headpieces. [Vol 2] 8°: π4 a-f8 g4 3A-3C8; 80l.; [8], 152 p., ornamental intials and headpieces. Page size: 165 x 100 mm.

Contents: [Vol 1] [2 pgs], Title page, verso blank.; [2 pgs], Dedication to King Charles.; [82 pgs], "Isagoge | Zoologicomineralogica. | Or | An Introduction to the History of Animals and | Minerals, or Panzoographie, and Pammi- | neralogie."; [8 pgs], "Catalogue | Of Authors, as they are cited in the Panzoologie, | with the explication thereof."; 1-519, Text.; [1 pg], Blank.

[Vol 2] [2 pgs], Title page, verso blank.; 1-103, Text.; [104], Blank.; 105-152, "An | Index | Containing the Latin Names of such Li- | ving Creatures, and Mineralls, as are | mentioned in this Book, in Alphabetical order, together with their English Names."

Very scarce. These two volumes that are usually bound in one, form a quaint natural history encyclopedia typical of the 17th century. Contained within the first volume are an introduction to the history of animals and minerals and extensive accounts of all things related to animals, which deals in turn with beasts, birds, fishes, serpents, and insects. The second volume with a separate title page concerns minerals. This is the earliest work on minerals by an English author, and it is perhaps only predated in the English language in its subject by the translation and subsequent editions of Albertus Magnus' Liber Aggregations (Boke of Secrets, 1st ed., London, c1550). The mineralogical descriptions are compiled from about 250 authors and deal chiefly with minerals from the standpoint of their medicinal uses. Only the sketchiest indications of localities are included, but the sections on precious and semiprecious stones are quite extensive.

Lovell was a prolific reader, with an extensive knowledge of books and a wonderful industry in the collection of his materials, as well as a good judge in the arrangement of text. He utilized his talents to write an earlier work on botany (Sive Enchiridion Botanicum, Oxford, 1659) and the present 2 volumes complete his study of the natural kingdom with animals and minerals. Here, Lovell systematically recorded without judgment all that he found in the course of reading the old naturalists. He repeats all the legends and tales of the past without questioning their credibility. For example, he states quite seriously, that caterpillars are formed from dew congealed on cabbage leaves by the sun, and that fleas are generated from the action of sweat upon dust trapped in dogs hair. Yet, in Lovell's time, Robert Boyle was living and experimenting at Oxford and the Royal Society was collecting Maydew-perhaps to congeal some caterpillars-and chemistry, physics, and astronomy were all advancing.

The text of the mineralogical volume is divided into 4 sections, with subdivisions occurring in each. Arrangement of the individual species within subdivisions is always alphabetical. The sections are (1) Geologia, which describes the Earths, including chaulk, clay and Fuller's earth, the Mettals, including copper, gold, iron, lead, silver and tin, the Semi-Mettalls, including antimony, cinnabar and mercury, Mettals Naturall Excrements, including chalcocite and marcasite, Mettals Artificial Excrements, including Cadmia and Plumbago, (2) Halologia, which describes Salts, including alum, amoniack, common salt, nitre and vitrol, (3) Theiologia, which describes Sulphurs, including amber, arsenic, asphalt and brimstone, and (4) Lithologia, which describes Stones, including precious (=agates, amethyst, beryl, bezoar stone, ruby, sapphire, topaz, etc.) and stones less than precious (=alabaster, lapis lazuli, bloodstone, borax, crystal, limestone, lodestone, etc.).

Bibliographical references: BL. Ferguson, Histories of Inventions, 1981: IV, 21-2. Hoover Collection: no. 546. Madan, Oxford Books, 1895-1931: no. 2561. NUC. Osler, Bibliotheca Osleriana, 1969: no. 3271. Smith, Early Mineralogy in Great Britain, 1978. Wing: L 3245. Wood, Literature of Vertebrate Zoology, 1931: 442.

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