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Historical Bibliography Updated: June 16, 2026

Historia animalium angliae tres tractatus. Unus de araneis. Alter de cochleis tum terrestribus tum fluviatilibus. Tertius de cochleis marinis. Quibus adjectus est quartus de lapidibus eiusem insulae ad cochlearum quandam imaginem figuratis. Memoriae & rationi.

Publication Details

London: Joh. Martyn Regiae Societatis Typographum, 1678 CE.

Lister was the first arachnologist and conchologist. This work was the first organized, systematic publication on shells. In spite of the wording of the title, the work contains four sections on spiders, land snails, freshwater and saltwater molluscs, and fossil shells.  In the first section Lister wrote of the many mistakes of previous authors writing on Arachnidae, to their venom and their use (!) in therapy. He provided a classification of British spiders preceding the second chapter of the first part, describing the different species of spiders according to their aspect and their alimentary habits. An appendix to this work was published in 1681.
Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Catalog MetadataReference Information
Entry Number#12766
Permanent Linkhttps://staging.historyofmedicine.com/entry/15012
Author Bio LinkWikipedia ↗
External URLhistoria-animalium-angliae-tres-tractatus-unus-de-araneis-alter-de-cochleis-tum-terrestribus-tum-fluviatilibus-tertius-de-cochleis-marins-quibus-adjectus-est-quartus-de-lapidibus-eiusem-insulae-ad-cohlearum-quandam-imaginem-figuratae-memoriae-rationi

Geographic Context

Publication place: London