Étienne Pierre Ventenat

Étienne Pierre Ventenat (born March 1, 1757 in Limoges , † August 13, 1808 in Paris ) was a French botanist . Its author's abbreviation is " Vent. "

biography

He first became a priest and then director of the Sainte-Geneviève library . During a trip to Great Britain he discovers the English gardens and decides to devote himself to science. With the French Revolution he resigned from the priesthood and began to work with Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle (1746–1800). In 1792 he published the works Dissertation sur les parties des Mousses qui étaient regardées comme fleurs mâles et comme fleurs femelles and Mémoire sur les meilleurs moyens de distinguer le calice de la corolle .

In 1794 he published his Principes de botanique, expliqués au Lycée républicain par Ventenat (Sallior, Paris, year III ), the plants were drawn and engraved by Sophie Dupuis . But Ventenat finds the book very mediocre and tries to buy back all of the copies to destroy them. On the 22nd Frimaire IV (December 13th 1795) he was elected a member of the French National Institute of Sciences and Arts (today Académie des Sciences ) in the Department of Botany and Physics of Plants.

His Tableau du règne végétal selon la méthode de Jussieu (printed by J. Drisonnier, Paris, four volumes, year VII), which appears in 1798, is in fact nothing more than a translation of the work Genera plantarum by Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu (1748– 1836), to which he added notes on the use and history of plants.

Its reputation is based on two magnificently illustrated works, the Description des plantes nouvelles et peu connues, cultivées dans le jardin de J.-M. Cels (printed by Crapelet, Paris, year VIII - 1799) and the Jardin de La Malmaison (printed by Crapelet, Paris, year XI - 1803). The illustrations were created by Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840) and engraved in copper by François Noël Sellier (1737-?), The latter being supported by other engravers in the second work. The Jardin de La Malmaison fulfills the wish of Joséphine de Beauharnais (1763–1814) who immortalize the rare plants, some of which are also unknown to botanists, which came from all over the world and were planted by her in the gardens and greenhouses of Malmaison Castle wanted to. She hired the best illustrator of the time, Redouté, and entrusted Ventenat with the botanical part. She receives the work in five deliveries.

He finishes the Histoire des champignons de la France, ou Traité élémentaire, renfermant dans un ordre méthodique les descriptions et les figures des champignons qui croissent naturellement, en France (Leblanc, Paris, three volumes 1812), which by Pierre Bulliard (1742–1793 ) has started. He leaves the Flore de la région parisienne unfinished.

His brother, Louis Ventenat (1765–1794), took part in the expedition of Antoine Bruny d'Entrecasteaux (1737–1793) at the request of Jean-François de La Pérouse (1741–1788) as a chaplain and naturalist , which also included the Botanist Jacques Julien Houton de Labillardière and copper engraver Guillaume Nicolas Delahaye ride along. Louis Ventenat dies on the way back.

Honors

Georg Ludwig Koeler dedicated the Gramineous genus Ventenata to him .

Works

• 1792: Dissertation on the parties des Mousses qui étaient regardées comme fleurs mâles et comme fleurs femelles (essay on the constituents of mosses that are considered male and female flowers)
• 1792: Mémoire sur les meilleurs moyens de distinguer le calice de la corolle (Treatise on the best means of distinguishing the calyx from the corolla)
• 1794: Principes de botanique, expliqués au Lycée républicain par Ventenat (principles of botany, explained at the Lycée républicain of Ventenat)
• 1798: Tableau du règne végétal selon la méthode de Jussieu (Table of the Plant Kingdom according to the Jussieu method)
• 1799: Description of the plantes nouvelles et peu connues, cultivées dans le jardin de J.-M. Cels (description of new and little-known plants grown in Cels' garden)
• 1803: Jardin de La Malmaison ( La Malmaison Garden)
• 1812: Histoire des champignons de la France, ou Traité élémentaire, renfermant dans un ordre méthodique les descriptions et les figures des champignons qui croissent naturellement, en France. ( History of the Mushrooms of France or Basic Treatise including descriptions and methodical illustrations of the mushrooms that naturally grow in France. The work was begun by Pierre Bulliard , who died in 1793.)
• unfinished: Flore de la région parisienne (Flora of the Paris region.)

Footnotes

1. ↑ Jacques Philippe Martin Cels (1740–1806) was an amateur botanist who brought together an extensive collection of rare plants in his garden. He confided her description to Ventenat.
2. ↑ Napoleon, the Emperess and the Artist ( Memento of 13 July 2011 at the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .

literature

• Adrien Davy de Virville (Ed.): Histoire de la botanique en France . SEDES, Paris, 1955.
• Hans Walter Lack: A Garden of Eden - Masterpieces of Botanical Illustration . Taschen Verlag, Cologne 2001, ISBN 978-3822857274 .
• William Wheeler: L'Illustration botanique . Les Éditions du Carrousel, Paris, 1999.

Web links

Commons : Étienne-Pierre_Ventenat  - album with pictures, videos and audio files