ABSTRACT
A French naturalist who traveled widely and published his observations in several books devoted to the natural history of birds and marine animals, as well as his impressions of the Levant. Trained as an apothecary, Belon broadened his knowledge under the auspices of powerful patrons who sent him to Wittenberg to study with the botanist Valerius Cordus (1515-1544) and to the Levant as official botanist of a royal embassy to the Ottoman Empire. His research into Levantine flora and fauna focused on the sources of valuable drugs, and after returning to France he unsuccessfully solicited royal financing for a botanical garden in which to cultivate exotic plants with pharmaceutical and other useful properties.
