Early Italian Botanists in Fate of Classical Collections
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Early Italian Botanists in the Tropics and the Fate of Classical Collections Riccardo Maria Baldini and Lia Pignotti Abstract THE SCI.DAN.B. Classical botanical collections, made before 1940, have been at the basis of the origin ROYAL and development of plant taxonomy, and still represent essential reference material DANISH 6 for future progress in botany. Large parts of these collections are still poorly known • TROPICAL and studied. The importance of historical collections for progress in taxonomy and ACADEMY for a comparison between past and present biodiversity is here highlighted, including their potentialities at a global scale (e.g. the study of degradation and loss of habitats, PLANT OF SCIENCES and indirectly, the climate change in the Anthropocene era) as well as the opportu COLLECTIONS nity to promote and facilitate their study by means of online networks of herbaria. AND Giuseppe Raddi (1770-1829), Antonio Bertoloni (1775-1869), Carlo Giuseppe Bertero LETTERS (1789-1831), Luigi Sodiro (1836-1909) and Odoardo Beccari (1843-1920) are examples of eminent early Italian contributors to the historical botanical exploration of the • Palaeo- and Neotropics. 2 0 1 ? Key Words: historical collections, Italian collectors, Neotropics, online specimens, Palaeotropics. Riccardo Maria Baldini, Centro Studi Erbario Tropicale (CSET) c/o Dipartimento di Biologia, Uni- versitå degli studi di Firenze, Via G. La Pira, 4, I-goisi Firenze, Italy. E-mail: riccardomaria.baldi- [email protected] Lia Pignotti, Centro Studi Erbario Tropicale (CSET) c/o Dipartimento di Biologia, Universita degli studi di Firenze, Via G. La Pira, 4,1-yoi 21 Firenze, Italy. E-mail: [email protected] Traditionally a classical plant collection is one that Many times, during teaching in Mesoamerica, we has been assembled and studied by botanists in the have noticed a lack of knowledge of historical botani 17th, 18th or early 19th centuries. Classical collections of cal collections and a limited awareness of their impor ten represent early records of plants from remote plac tance for understanding plant species in the tropics. es, most notably from the tropics. Nowadays — in the But verification of names used in biodiversity assess early 21st century and taking into account both the ment of a tropical region is not definitive without ac dramatic historical events that characterized the 20th cess to classical collections, in our opinion. On the Century and the subsequent unprecedented speed of other hand, when we have had the opportunity to social/environmental transformation at a global level give lectures on subjects such as historical botany and — even collections made as late as the onset of the Sec botanical nomenclature in tropical regions, the re ond World War, might in our opinion legitimately be sponse of young students has always been enthusias considered ‘classical collections’. tic. This means that historical information in botany 41 RICCARDO MARIA BALDINI AND LIA PIGNOTTI SCI. DAN. B. 6 Fig. i. Centres where pre-Lin- naean books on botany were published (Stearn 1958). The most important early botani cal centres are indicated by name. Other important places in the early history of botany are referred to by numbers: I, Leiden; 2, Middelburg; 3, Arnhem; 4, Louvain; 5, Berlin; 6, Leipzig; 7, Bau tzen; 8, Gorlitz; g, Prague; 10, ii, Nürnberg, and nearby Altdorf; 12, Augsburg; 13, Ber gamo; 14, Mantua; 15, Padua; 16, Ferrara; 17, Bologna; 18, Florence; 19, Naples; 20, Salamanca. may still hold cultural and pragmatic interest and is place in the pre-Linnaean Era as evidenced, for in attractive for young generations as well, as long as stance, by the early contributors to the knowledge of they are confronted with its great potential. tropical botany (Stearn 1958; Howard 1975; Baas Botanical research in tropical regions began a pe 2017). Examples of both palaeo- and neotropical riod of important progress since the 16th century and pre-Linnaean research activities are mapped in Fig. 2. particularly since the 18th century (the century of Car Among many contributors, those particularly olus Linnaeus), when interest in overseas scientific worth mentioning are, Hans Sloane, one of the most exploration, although still significantly triggered by important British botanists and collectors in the political and economic reasons, grew up to an unprec pre-Linnaean era, Charles Plumier, a pre-Linnaean edented measure. We can definitely say that botanical French Botanist and illustrator, who gives us one of exploration then became the core of botanical re the first examples of descriptions supported by de search. As stated by Stearn (1958) the birth of modern tailed watercolour plates, still important in the typifi- botany took place where botanical collections from cation of many species described later according to these early scientific expeditions had first been built the binomial system (see Baldini 2010), and other pio up and made available for study, i.e. within a relative neers of tropical botany, such as Paul Hermann (Cey ly small area in central and southern Europe (Fig. 1). lon), Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot Drakenstein Quite significant botanical exploration of ex- (India), Georg Everhard Rumphius (Indonesia), see tra-European overseas regions would already take Baas (2017). 42 SCI.DAN.B. 6 EARLY ITALIAN BOTANISTS IN THE TROPICS AND THE FATE OF CLASSICAL COLLECTIONS S-Tourrieforb; JTßanister “rTC-:! »' VAtrsby llpirio,'. ■s^flumier loanc ^^KMcrian BOTANICAL EXPLORATION Dutch BEFORE 1732 PT »eripit Fig. 2. Overseas botanical exploration before 1732 according to Stearn (1958). Improvement of knowledge in tropical botany was Classical Collections and Studies of promoted by Linnaeus and his ‘apostles’, with the im Tropical Botany: Some contributions by portant contribution of early world circumnaviga Italy tions and the subsequent early expeditions into the interior of tropical countries (Friis et al. 2013). One Several Italian herbaria — like the herbarium of the instance of a less known circumnavigation of botani Istituto ed Orto Botanico in Bologna (BOLO), the cal interest is the Malaspina Expedition (1789-1794), herbaria of the Museo di Storia Naturale in Florence financed by King Charles III of Spain (Foggini 2010). (FI), the Erbario Horti Pisani at the University of Pisa The expedition was botanically supervised by Louis (PI), the botanical garden and the herbarium of the Née, a French-Spanish botanist who described, with University of Turin (TO) and the herbarium of the Antonio José Cavanilles and others, many species Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale of the University supported by very good illustrations (Garmendia of Rome (RO) — have a significant role in the study of 1996). Née’s herbarium — housed in Madrid (MA) — palaeo- and neo-tropical areas. Some examples of is quite important for the study of tropical botany, al tropical botanical collections and botanists from Ital though it has some mistakes due to mixed up labels. ian herbaria in the Nineteenth Century, often forgot Most historical botanical collections from the ten or at least not enough taken into consideration tropics are nowadays housed in large European (B, are: BM, BR, C, FI, K, L, LE, P, S, W) and North Ameri can (A, GH, MO, NY, US) herbaria (abbreviations Giuseppe Raddi (1770-1829) here and in the following according to Thiers (contin uously updated), although several less known Euro Raddi (Fig. 3) was a talented Florentine botanist. He pean herbaria also house important historical collec was appointed by the Grand Duke Ferdinand III of tions. Tuscany to take part in the Austrian expedition to 43 RICCARDO MARIA BALDINI AND LIA PIGNOTTI SCI. DAN. B. 6 versity in Florence (FI, FI-Webb) and in the herbari um of the Istituto ed Orto Botanico (BOLO) of the University of Bologna, but Raddi’s duplicates were also sent to herbaria in London (BM, K) and Paris (P) and later by E Pariatore to Brussels (BR), Geneva (G), Paris (P) and the Natural History Museum in Vi enna (W) (Amadei etal. 2005; Baldini & Guglielmone 2012). Among his important works we find the Agrostogra- fia Brasiliensis (Raddi 1823), which was the first Mono graph on the Brazilian Flora, and Plantarum Brasiliensi- um Nova Genera (Raddi 1825), based on Raddi’s fern collection (housed in PI), which was thoroughly studied by the pteridologist Rodolfo Pichi Sermolli (1912-2005). The result of this study was Pichi Ser- molli’s last work, finished just few weeks before he passed away, and published shortly after his death (Pichi Sermolli & Bizzarri 2005). Other reviews de voted to Raddi’s tropical collections are the studies of Begoniaceae (Irmscher 1957), Fabaceae: Swartzia sp. pl. (Mansano de Freitas & Rabelo Lima 2007), Schnella Raddi (Trethowan etal. 2015); Melastomata- Fig. 3. Giuseppe Raddi (1770-1829). Lithograph by G. ceae (Goldenberg & Baldini 2002), Poaceae (Baldini Galli, reproduced from Savi (1830). & Longhi-Wagner 2006; Longhi-Wagner & Baldini 2007), Cyperaceae (Longhi-Wagner etal. 2010) and Orchidaceae (Romero-Gonzalez 1999; Romero-Gon Brazil 1817-1818, promoted by K.W.L. von Metternich zalez etal. 2008). Raddi’s collections of Piperaceae on occasion of the marriage of the Austrian emperor’s and Zingiberaceae are currently under study, but daughter Maria Leopoldina with the Portuguese heir most of his other phanerogams and his cryptogams to the throne Dom Pedro de Braganca. Raddi was the still lay untouched. only Italian scientist of an eminent team of European naturalists including the Austrian zoologist J. Nat- Carlo Giuseppe Bertero (1789-1831) terer, the Austrian botanists H.W. Schott, J.B.E. Pohl, J.C. Mikan, and the Bavarian botanist C.F.P. von Bertero (Fig. 4) was a Piedmontese physician. In 1816, Martius (Isenburg 1989; Riedel-Dorn 2000; Schultz after he had studied Antilles Flora on herbarium speci 2015). Besides Brazil, Raddi collected in Madeira — mens in Paris, he left as a ship physician to the West on the way to Brazil — and later (1828-1829) in Egypt, Indies and Colombia.