Dear List,
A PS, concerning the mention
of John Ray in relation to Ergotism: I finally concluded that this
field-naturalist's name would not have been unknown to Nabokov because many of
their interests and views overlapped in relation to "species" and the
classification of plants, insects...
Like Nabokov, John Ray is related to Cambridge, he was
a minor fellow of Trinity.
Below are some excerpts from Wiki, the most important
items are underlined.
..............................................................................
Here is what I got from Wiki: John Ray (November 29, 1627 – January 17, 1705) was an English
naturalist, sometimes referred to as the father of English natural history.
Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray although no one knows why.He
published important works on plants, animals, and natural theology. His
classification of plants in his Historia Plantarum, was an important step
towards modern taxonomy. Ray rejected the system of dichotomous division by
which species were classified according to a pre-conceived, either/or type
system, and instead classified plants according to similarities and differences
that emerged from observation. Thus he advanced scientific empiricism
against the deductive rationalism of the scholastics. He is also known for
having coined the term "species."
Ray was chosen minor fellow of Trinity in
1649, and in due course became a major fellow on proceeding to the master's
degree...he was accustomed to preach in his college chapel and also at Great St
Mary's before the university, long before he took holy orders. Among his sermons
preached before his ordination, which was not till the 23 December 1660, were
the famous discourses on The Wisdom of God in the Creation, and on Deluge and
Dissolution of the World. Ray's reputation was high also as a tutor; and he
communicated his own passion for natural history to several pupils, of whom
Francis Willughby is by far the most famous.John Ray (November 29, 1627 –
January 17, 1705) was an English naturalist, sometimes referred to as the father
of English natural history. Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray although
no one knows why.[citation needed][1]
He published important works on plants,
animals, and natural theology. His classification of plants in his Historia
Plantarum, was an important step towards modern taxonomy. Ray rejected the
system of dichotomous division by which species were classified according to a
pre-conceived, either/or type system, and instead classified plants according to
similarities and differences that emerged from observation. Thus he advanced
scientific empiricism against the deductive rationalism of the scholastics. He
is also known for having coined the term "species."
Besides editing his friend Francis Willughby's books, Ray wrote several
zoological works of his own, including Synopsis methodica Animalium Quadrupedum
et Serpentini Generis (1693), that is to say, both mammals and reptiles, and
Synopsis methodica Avium et Piscium (1713); the latter was published
posthumously, as was also the more important Historia Insectorum, which embodied
a great mass of Willughbys notes.
Most of Ray's minor works were the outcome
of his faculty for carefully amassing facts; for instance, his Collection of
English Proverbs (1670), his Collection of Out-of-the-way English Words (1674),
his Collection of Curious Travels and Voyages (1693), and his Dictionariolum
trilingue (1675, 5th edition as Nomenclator classicus, 1706). The last was
written for the use of Willughby's sons, his pupils; it passed through many
editions, and is still useful for its careful identifications of plants and
animals mentioned by Greek and Latin writers. But Ray's influence and reputation
have depended largely upon his two books entitled The Wisdom of God manifested
in the Works of the Creation (1691), and Miscellaneous Discourses concerning the
Dissolution and Changes of the World (1692). The latter includes three essays on
The Primitive Chaos and Creation of the World, The General Deluge, its Causes
and Effects, and The Dissolution of the World and Future Conflagrations. The
germ of these works was contained in sermons preached long before in Cambridge.
Both books obtained immediate popularity, and the former, at least, was
translated into several languages. In The Wisdom of God Ray recites innumerable
examples of the perfection of organic mechanism, the multitude and variety of
living creatures, the minuteness and usefulness of their parts, and many, if not
most, of the familiar examples of purposive adaptation and design in nature were
suggested by him, such as the structure of the eye, the hollowness of the bones,
the camel's stomach and the hedgehog's armour