The Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner published 'De rerum fossilium' (On Fossil Objects), a foundational text in the history of paleontology. Gesner provided detailed descriptions and woodcut illustrations of various fossils, systematically categorizing them as stones, minerals, or the remains of living things. His work helped to establish the study of fossils as a serious scientific discipline.

Gesner's encyclopedic approach to natural history was part of a broader Renaissance effort to catalogue God's creation, which resonated with the era's literary tendency to compile and praise nature's wonders. His detailed illustrations and descriptions provided a visual and textual vocabulary that later naturalist poets, like Erasmus Darwin, would draw upon to describe the prehistoric world.