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Giovanni Antonio Scopoli

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Giovanni Antonio Scopoli

Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (sometimes Latinized as Johannes Antonius Scopoli) (June 3, 1723 – May 8, 1788) was a Tyrolean physician and naturalist.

Biography

Scopoli was born at Cavalese in the Val di Fiemme of Tyrol, the son of a lawyer of Italian descent. He obtained a degree in medicine at University of Innsbruck, and practiced as a doctor in Cavalese and Venice.[1] Much of his time was spent in the Alps, collecting plants and insects of which he made outstanding collections. He spent two years as private secretary to the Count of Seckan, and then was appointed as physician of the mercury mines in Idrija, a small Slovenian town in the Habsburg realm, remaining there for sixteen years. In 1761 he published De Hydroargyro Idriensi Tentamina on the symptoms of mercury poisoning among mercury miners.

Copper engraving from the Deliciæ Floræ et Faunæ Insubricæ (1786).

Scopoli spent time studying the local natural history, publishing Flora Carniolica (1760) as well as a major work on the insects of Carniola as well, Entomologia Carniolica (1763). He also published a series of Anni Historico-Naturales (1769-72), which included first descriptions of birds from various collections.

In 1769 Scopoli was appointed a professor of chemistry and metallurgy at Mining Academy at Schemnitz (now Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia), and in 1777 transferred to the University of Pavia.[1] He became a bitter rival of Lazzaro Spallanzani who was accused of stealing specimens from the Pavia museum. Spallanzani was tried and the prolonged trial resulted in acquittal. Scopoli died of a stroke shortly after the acquittal of Spallanzani.[2] His last work was Deliciae Flora et Fauna Insubricae (1786-88), which included scientific names for birds and mammals described by Pierre Sonnerat in the accounts of his voyages.

The plant alkaloid and drug Scopolamine was first found in the genus Scopolia which is named after him. The standard botanical author abbreviation Scop. is applied to species he described.

Works

  • Flora Carniolica (1760) – a flora of Carniola, Austria (present Slovenia).
  • De Hydroargyro Idriensi Tentamina (1761) -a medical work on the symptoms of mercury poisoning among miners.
  • Entomologia Carniolica Vindobonae,Trattner. (1763)- a major work on entomology containing many descriptions of new species.
  • Joh. Ant. Scopoli der Arzneywissenschaft Doktors, Ihro ... Majest. Cameralphysici in der Bergstadt Idria ... Einleitung zur Kenntniß und Gebrauch der Foßilien, Hartknoch4031 Göttingen : Niedersächsische Staats- und UniversitätsbibliothekRiga (1769). In German. Doctoral Thesis.
  • Anni Historico-Naturales (1769-72) This work included descriptions of new birds.
  • Flora Carniolica exhibens plantas Carnioliae indigenas et distributas in classes, genera, species, varietates, ordine Linnaeano (1772). – A revised second edition of the first elaborate description of the flora of Krain, Austria, undertaken when Scopoli lived in Idrija. It has 66 engraved plates by J.F. Rein after original drawings by the Scopoli. Whereas the first edition of 1760 (with c. 600 pages only and not illustrated) had no binary names for the plant species, this edition has binary names and is written in the Linnaean tradition in all other respects as well.
  • Introductio ad historiam naturalem, sistens genera lapidum, plantarum et animalium hactenus detecta, caracteribus essentialibus donata, in tribus divisa, subinde ad leges naturae. Prague. (1777) – masterwork of natural history describing world genera and species.
  • Fundamenta Botanica Praelectionibus publicis accomodata. Papiae, S. Salvatoris (1783)- A botanical classic with ten engraved plates each depicting ten to sixteen exact drawings.
  • With Pierre Joseph Macquer, - Dizionario di chimica del Sig. Pietro Giuseppe Macquer…Tradotto dal francese e corredato di note e di nuovi articoli... Pavia: printed at the Monastery of San Salvatore for G. Bianchi (1783-84) -The chemist Joseph Macquer's Dictionnaire de chymie, the first dictionary of theoretical and general chemistry was written it in haste and concerned about his reputation, Macquer published it anonymously in 1766. Its huge success prompted the preparation of a revised second edition (1778). Then Scopoli translated and extensively augmented it. A second edition of the translated work, without fuurther additions was published in Venice in 1784-85.
  • Deliciae Flora et Fauna Insubricae Ticini (1786-88) – an account including new descriptions of the birds and mammals collected by Pierre Sonnerat on his voyages.
The standard author abbreviation Scop. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[3]

Some taxa named by Scopoli

Notes

  1. ^ a b Newton, Alfred 1881. Scopoli's ornithological papers. The Willoughby Society. Scanned version
  2. ^ Mazzarello, Paolo 2004. Costantinopoli 1786: la congiura e la beffa. L'intrigo Spallanzani. Bollati Boringhieri
  3. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Scop.

References

  • Full list of biographies given by Gaedike, R. & Groll, E.K. eds. 2001 Entomologen der Welt (Biographien, Sammlungsverbleib). Datenbank, DEI Eberswalde im ZALF e.V
  • Baker, D.B. 1999. The localities of Scopoli's Entomologia Carniolica (1763) Entomologist's Gazette, 50: 188-198.
  • A Concise History of Ornithology, Michael Walters ISBN 1-873403-97-6
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