James Petiver

James Petiver (* 1663 in Hillmorton , at Rugby ; † April 20, 1718 in London ) was an English botanist and entomologist . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Petiver ".

Live and act

City map of London 1673 (Richard Blome).

James Petiver is the son of his father of the same name, James Petiver, and his wife Mary Elborowe, daughter of Richard Elborowe.

He completed his apprenticeship as a pharmacist with Mr. Feltham, the pharmacist of St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, and established himself as a pharmacist in 1692 on Aldersgate Street near St Bartholomew's Hospital. His business flourished and he soon became the pharmacist of the London charter house .

On November 27, 1695, Petiver was elected a member of the Royal Society . On March 4, 1699 he became a corresponding member of the Académie royale des sciences in Paris.

Over the years, James Petiver built up an extensive natural history collection. He commissioned captains and ship's doctors to bring him plant and animal species and gave them detailed written instructions. He received a particularly large amount of material from the British colonies in North America . In 1697 his collection comprised 6,000 pieces. It was one of the most visited collections in London and was described in detail by him in Musei Petiverani .

James Petiver had extensive correspondence. Early on he made contact with John Ray whom he also supported in compiling the second volume of his Historia generalis plantarum (1688). Some other correspondents were Johann Philipp Breyne , William Byrd (1674-1744), Georg Joseph Kamel , Antoni van Leeuwenhoek , Cotton Mather , Joan Salvador i Riera (1683-1725), Richard Richardson (1663-1741), Johann Jacob Scheuchzer and Charles Atkins (possibly the model for Jonathan Swift's character Lemuel Gulliver ).

In 1709 the Society of Apothecaries appointed him a plant demonstrator . In 1711 he traveled to Leiden to purchase Paul Hermann's collection for Hans Sloane .

Petiver remained unmarried and died in his home on Aldersgate Street in 1718.

After his death, Hans Sloane acquired his extensive collection. Today it is part of the Sloane Herbarium at the Natural History Museum in London .

Honor taxon

Charles Plumier named the genus Petiveria of the pokeweed family (Phytolaccaceae) in his honor . Carl von Linné later took over this name.

Fonts (selection)

From 1697 to 1714/16 Petiver published numerous articles in the Philosophical Transactions (Volumes 19 to 29).

• Musei Petiverani Centuria . London 1692-1703.
• Pterigraphia americana . London 1712 ( GDZ Göttingen ).
• Aquatilium Animalium Amboinae, & c. Icones & nouns . London 1713 ( GDZ Göttingen ).
• Gazophylacium naturae et artis . London 1702–1709 ( GDZ Göttingen ).
• A Catalog of Mr Ray's English herbal illustrated… . 1713-1715.

proof

literature

• PE Dove (Ed.): The Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography: a Series of Original Memoirs of Distinguished Men, of all Ages and all Nations . 16 volumes, London 1857–1863.
• Alexander Chalmers: The General Biographical Dictionary: Containing an Historical and Critical Account of the Lives and Writings of the most Eminent Persons in Every Nation; Particularly the British and Irish; from the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time . 32 volumes, London 1812-1817.

Individual evidence

1. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter P. Académie des sciences, accessed on February 2, 2020 (French). 
2. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated December 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Graham Harris: In Search Of Gulliver (PDF; 1.1 MB)
4. ^ Charles Plumier: Nova Plantarum Americanarum Genera . Leiden 1703, p. 50
5. ^ Carl von Linné: Critica Botanica . Leiden 1737, p. 94.
6. ↑ Carl von Linné: Genera Plantarum . Leiden 1742, p. 155.

further reading

• DE Allen: Petiver, James (c.1665-1718). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of October 2009 (not viewed).
• George Simonds Boulger :  Petiver, James . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 45:  Pereira - Pockrich. , MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1896, pp. 85 - 86 (English).

Web links

• Author entry and list of described plant names for James Petiver at the IPNI
• Entry to Petiver; James (1663-1718) in the Archives of the Royal Society , London