Ionstoni Thaumatographia naturalis, in classes decem divisa, in quibis admiranda, coeli, elementorum, meteororum, fossilium, plantarum, avium, quadrupedum, exanguium, piscium, hominis. 12mo: [12], 501 pp. The interior is clean and well printed. Garrison and Morton describe this as "A compilation of all the contemporary zoological knowledge.» But as its title indicate this is a vast and ambitious attempt to synthesise knowledge of man, the earth and the cosmos very shortly before Newton's publications. This is the very first publication by Jan Jonston (1603-1675), a scientist born in Poland who migrated to Scotland in 1622. He is known for his various works on Natural History. Besides the scientific aspect we find in this work on animals, plants, meteors, fossils, birds, etc., number of curious and strange anecdotes. Johnston talks about sleepwalking. He thus reports that a young man got out of his bed every night, wearing only his shirt; then climbing out of his bedroom window, he would jump on horseback against the wall and heel behind him to speed up the race he thought he was doing. Another went down into a well and awoke as soon as his foot touched the water, which was very cold. Another climbed a tower, removed a nest of birds and slipped to the ground by a rope, without waking up. A Parisian, likewise asleep, got up, took his sword, swam across the Seine, killed a man whom he had proposed to assassinate the day before; and, after he had completed his crime, he crossed the river again, returned to his house, and went to bed without awakening. This book is an excellent compendium of knowledge in the field for the time. It has been reprinted numerous times. This edition of Leiden is a very nice small print edition, very well printed. References: "A treatise on natural wonders, divided into ten categories: the new stars, the elements, meteors, minerals, plants, birds, quadrupeds, insects and other bloodless animals, fish, and men." (Norman 1177); Garrison Morton, 287