The principal author who appeared between the epoch which witnessed the destruction of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the century just specified, was Albertus Magnus; so called, according to some, not because he was great as a man of science, but because his family-name was Groot, which in Dutch signifies "great," and being Latinized, as was then the fashion, became "magnus." However, he was not a small personage in his day; for it is told of him that he constructed a brazen head which had the faculty of answering questions, and wrote so many works that, when collected for a general edition at Lyons in 1651, they filled twenty-one thick folios. His character was highly respectable, and his History of Animals is certainly a remarkable production for the age in which he lived. Born at Lavingen in Suabia in 1205, he received his education at Pavia, where he entered the order of Dominicans. Some time having elapsed, he went to Paris and delivered public lectures with applause. In 1248, he was invited to Rome by Pope Alexander III., who appointed him to the office of Master of the Holy Palace, and bestowed on him the bishopric of Ratisbon, which he soon after resigned. Returning to Cologne, he resumed his lectures, which were much frequented. Pope Gregory X. called him to assist at the general council, held at Lyons in 1274, where the conclave of cardinals for the election of the successor of St Peter was first instituted. He died at Cologne at the age of 77. The celebrated Thomas Aquinas, who was his pupil, is reported to have broken, in a fit of terror, his famous brazen oracle; and the progress of science has shown as little respect to his other works, consisting chiefly of a commentary on Aristotle, with certain additions from the Arabian writers. Sir Thomas Browne, in his famous Enquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors, thus characterizes our author:--"Albertus, bishop of Ratisbone, for his great learning and latitude of knowledge sirnamed Magnus, besides divinitie, hath written many Tracts in Philosophie; what we are chiefly to receive with caution, are his naturall Tractates, more especially those of Mineralls, Vegetables, and Animals, which are indeed chiefly Collections out of Aristotle, AElian, and Plinie, and respectively containe many of our popular errors. He was a man who much advanced these opinions by the authoritie of his name, and delivered most conceits, with strickt enquirie into few." It is scarcely necessary to mention here a work on the fishes of Rome, De Romanis Piscibus, by the celebrated Paolo Giovio, an Italian writer of this age, who was born at Como in the year 1483. It was dedicated to the Cardinal of Bourbon, and appeared in 1524, but is of little or no value, being the production of a person who, although eminent in general literature, had no claims to the character of a naturalist.