Thomas Pennant

Thomas Pennant (June 14th 1726, Whitford in the Flintshire - December 16th 1798, Downing) is an amateur of Antiquité S and British Naturaliste .

Of a noble Welsh family, Pennant makes its studies with Oxford in Queen' S College then in Oriel College. Like many other students of high extraction, it leaves Oxford without the least diploma but will receive, well later, with title honoric, in 1771 a diploma of honor in recognition of its zoological work .

At the 12 years age, Pennant is discovered a passion for the Natural history thanks to the Ornithology of Francis Willughby. At the time of a voyage in Cornouailles in 1746-1747, it meets the antique dealer and naturalist William Borlase, who initiates it being studied of the mineral and the Fossile S, which will become the main subject of Pennant during the years 1750.

In 1750, it publishes a report of the Earthquake of Downing in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. It makes appear in 1756, an article on the bodies coralliaire collected with Coalbrookdale in the Shropshire. Pragmatic, Pennant uses its geological knowledge to open a mine of Plomb.

In 1757, thanks to the assistance of Carl von Linné, he becomes member of the royal Académie of sciences of Sweden. In 1761, it publishes the first part of its British Zoology , a compilation of knowledge of its time. The three other parts will appear between 1761 and 1766. The iconography is splendid. The part devoted to the Oiseau X includes/understands 107 boards engraved on coppers by Mazell and colored with the hand by Paillon. The work knows a translation in Latin in 1771 under the title of Zoologia Britannica tabuli aeneis 132 it .

It is at that time that it starts to travel to Europe and meets many scientists and intellectuals like Buffon, Voltaire, Albrecht von Haller or Peter Simon Pallas. All its life, it will maintain an important correspondence, in particular with Carl von Linné, Morten Thrane Brunnich, Johan Christian Fabricius and Otto Friedrich Muller.

In 1767, he becomes member of the Royal Society. In 1769, it makes appear a Indian Zoology and, in 1771, its Synopsis off Quadrupeds appears, which will be increased later under the title of History off Quadrupeds . At the end of the same year, it publishes, has Turn in Scotland in 1769 . The great success which this book meets, encourages Pennant to make a continuation of it, in two volumes, also an account of a voyage in Scotland. These works are very important because they evoke historical vestiges now disappeared. In 1778, it publishes a similar account on a voyage to Wales under the title of Tour in Wales , followed Journey to Snowdon .

In 1782, it publishes an account of a voyage of Chester to London, Journey from Chester to London . It makes appear in 1785-1787, Arctic Zoology . In 1790, Account London appears off, which knows a great number of republication. Three years later, Pennant makes appear its autobiography, Literary Life off the late T. Pennant . End 1793, it begins Outlines off the Globe , whose two volumes appear in 1798 and the two last in 1800, published posthumously by his/her son David Pennant.

It also published many other minor, unquestionable work posthumous.

Its correspondence with Gilbert White is at the origin of the book of White, heading The Natural History and Antiquities off Selborne .

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