Dormice were already known in several early cultures. For example, most
species of dormice are edible and were a delicassy in ancient Rome. The
Romans called these animals "glis" (note, however, that this name was
not only applied to the Edible Dormouse, but also to other dormouse
species, like the Hazel Dormouse). The Edible Dormouse was already well
known in Europe during Medieval times, but escaped the attention of
Linnaeus (1758). However, he used the name "Glires" for all rodents (and
for the Rhinoceros, which he also classified as a "Glires"). The first
author who described the Edible dormouse after 1758 was Brisson (1762)
and he used the Latin vernacular name "glis" for it. He also established
the "genus gliris" (genitive of "glis", i.e. "genus gliris" = "genus of
the dormouse"). Unfortunately, Brisson did not use binominal names for
all the species and therefore his work has been controversial ever
since (see full discussion in Opinion (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 1998)). Linnaeus himself included the Edible Dormouse only in his 1766
book (Linnaeus, 1766), but still in the genus "Mus". This is considered as the original
description of the species, because it is the first occurrence of this
species in a truly binominal work.
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