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Edward Lhuyd
Edward Lhuyd FRS (/lɔɪd/ LOYD; Welsh: [ˈɬʊid]; 1660 – 30 June 1709), also known as Edward Lhwyd and by other spellings, was a British scientist, geographer, historian and antiquary. He was the second Keeper of the University of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, and published the first catalogue of fossils, the Lithophylacii Britannici Ichnographia.
Lhuyd is an archaic spelling of the same Welsh surname now usually rendered as Lloyd or Llwyd, from llwyd ('grey'). It also appears frequently as Lhwyd; less often as Lhwydd, Llhwyd, Llwid and Floyd; and latinized as (Eduardus or Edvardus) Luidius, frequently abbreviated Luid., and as Lhuydus and Lloydia in some scientific names. The English and Latin forms are also sometimes combined as Edward Luidius.
Lhuyd was born in 1660, in Loppington, Shropshire, England, the illegitimate son of Edward Llwyd or Lloyd of Llanforda, Oswestry, and Bridget Pryse of Llansantffraid, near Talybont, Cardiganshire, in 1660. His family belonged to the gentry of southwest Wales. Though well established, the family was not wealthy. His father experimented with agriculture and industry in a manner that impinged[citation needed] on the new science of the day. The son attended and later taught at Oswestry Grammar School, and in 1682 went up to Jesus College, Oxford, but dropped out before graduation. In 1684, he was appointed to assist Robert Plot, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum (which at that time was in Broad Street), and became the second Keeper himself in 1690, holding the post until his death in 1709.
While working at the Ashmolean Museum, Lhuyd travelled extensively. A visit to Snowdonia in 1688 allowed him to compile for John Ray's Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum a list of flora local to that region. After 1697, Lhuyd visited every county in Wales, then travelled to Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall, Brittany and the Isle of Man. In 1699, it became possible through funding from his friend Isaac Newton for him to publish the first catalogue ever of fossils, his Lithophylacii Britannici Ichnographia. These had been collected in England, mostly in Oxford, and are now held in the Ashmolean.
Lhuyd received a MA honoris causa from the University of Oxford in 1701 and a fellowship of the Royal Society in 1708.
In 1696, Lluyd transcribed much of the Latin inscription on the 9th-century Pillar of Eliseg near Valle Crucis Abbey, Denbighshire. The inscription subsequently became almost illegible due to weathering, but Lhuyd's transcript seems to have been remarkably accurate.
Lhuyd was also responsible for the first scientific description and naming of what we would now recognize as a dinosaur: the sauropod tooth Rutellum impicatum.
The first written record of a trilobite was by Lhuyd in a letter to Martin Lister in 1688 and published (1689) in his Lithophylacii Britannici Ichnographia. It is a fleeting mention and he simply identifies his find as a "skeleton of some flat fish". The trilobite is nowadays identified as Ogygiocarella debuchii Brongniart, 1822.
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Edward Lhuyd
Edward Lhuyd FRS (/lɔɪd/ LOYD; Welsh: [ˈɬʊid]; 1660 – 30 June 1709), also known as Edward Lhwyd and by other spellings, was a British scientist, geographer, historian and antiquary. He was the second Keeper of the University of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, and published the first catalogue of fossils, the Lithophylacii Britannici Ichnographia.
Lhuyd is an archaic spelling of the same Welsh surname now usually rendered as Lloyd or Llwyd, from llwyd ('grey'). It also appears frequently as Lhwyd; less often as Lhwydd, Llhwyd, Llwid and Floyd; and latinized as (Eduardus or Edvardus) Luidius, frequently abbreviated Luid., and as Lhuydus and Lloydia in some scientific names. The English and Latin forms are also sometimes combined as Edward Luidius.
Lhuyd was born in 1660, in Loppington, Shropshire, England, the illegitimate son of Edward Llwyd or Lloyd of Llanforda, Oswestry, and Bridget Pryse of Llansantffraid, near Talybont, Cardiganshire, in 1660. His family belonged to the gentry of southwest Wales. Though well established, the family was not wealthy. His father experimented with agriculture and industry in a manner that impinged[citation needed] on the new science of the day. The son attended and later taught at Oswestry Grammar School, and in 1682 went up to Jesus College, Oxford, but dropped out before graduation. In 1684, he was appointed to assist Robert Plot, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum (which at that time was in Broad Street), and became the second Keeper himself in 1690, holding the post until his death in 1709.
While working at the Ashmolean Museum, Lhuyd travelled extensively. A visit to Snowdonia in 1688 allowed him to compile for John Ray's Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum a list of flora local to that region. After 1697, Lhuyd visited every county in Wales, then travelled to Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall, Brittany and the Isle of Man. In 1699, it became possible through funding from his friend Isaac Newton for him to publish the first catalogue ever of fossils, his Lithophylacii Britannici Ichnographia. These had been collected in England, mostly in Oxford, and are now held in the Ashmolean.
Lhuyd received a MA honoris causa from the University of Oxford in 1701 and a fellowship of the Royal Society in 1708.
In 1696, Lluyd transcribed much of the Latin inscription on the 9th-century Pillar of Eliseg near Valle Crucis Abbey, Denbighshire. The inscription subsequently became almost illegible due to weathering, but Lhuyd's transcript seems to have been remarkably accurate.
Lhuyd was also responsible for the first scientific description and naming of what we would now recognize as a dinosaur: the sauropod tooth Rutellum impicatum.
The first written record of a trilobite was by Lhuyd in a letter to Martin Lister in 1688 and published (1689) in his Lithophylacii Britannici Ichnographia. It is a fleeting mention and he simply identifies his find as a "skeleton of some flat fish". The trilobite is nowadays identified as Ogygiocarella debuchii Brongniart, 1822.