Adam Maurizio

Adam Maurizio (born September 26, 1862 in Krakow , † March 4, 1941 in Liebefeld ) was a Swiss botanist , food researcher and cultural historian . With fundamental studies of the history of plant nutrition , he gained international renown.

Life

Adam Maurizio came from a respected family in the canton of Graubünden . Like many Swiss people in the 19th century, his father emigrated to Poland around 1850 . As a confectioner, he owned a pastry shop in Krakow. Maurizio was born there in 1862 as a Swiss citizen. He attended elementary school in Cracow, but was expelled, while still a minor, for alleged political activities. From 1883 he stayed in Switzerland, attended secondary schools in Chur and Winterthur and from 1888 studied natural sciences with a focus on botany at the universities of Zurich , Geneva and Bern . In 1894 he received his doctorate from the University of Bern with a dissertation on Saprolegnieen . At the same time he acquired the secondary teacher license.

After completing his doctorate, Maurizio taught at various schools as a specialist teacher for natural sciences and from 1896 as an assistant for plant physiology and pathology at the research institute in Wädenswil . Here he devoted himself particularly to the investigation of vegetable raw materials, ground products and animal feed. For this research he received lasting suggestions from the Berlin botanist Ludwig Wittmack , with whom he worked temporarily as an assistant.

In 1900 Maurizio joined the Agricultural Chemical Research Institute in Zurich as an assistant for botanical investigations . With his previously published scientific work , he completed his habilitation in 1903 at the University of Zurich and received the Venia legendi for technical botany. As a private lecturer , he gave lectures and gained a high reputation in Swiss agriculture through numerous practical lectures.

In the autumn of 1907 Maurizio accepted a call as professor of botany and merchandise at the Lemberg University of Technology . He stayed there until his retirement in 1923. He spent the first years of his retirement in Bromberg . In 1927 he was appointed honorary professor at the Pharmaceutical Faculty of the University of Warsaw . Due to an eye problem, however, he was only able to exercise his teaching activities to a limited extent. In 1935 he returned to Switzerland. There he lived in Liebefeld near Bern until his death.

Research services

Just a few years after completing his doctorate, Maurizio found his way from scientific botany to applied botany. After 1900, technical and physiological studies of grain and its processed products became the focus of his research. The results of its experiments to quantify the predominantly empirical assessments of the baking ability of wheat flours were helpful for the bakery industry . The first summarizing result of all these studies was his book " Getreide, Mehl und Brot " , published in 1903 by Paul Parey Verlag in Berlin . In 1909 the publication " Die Müllerei und Bäckerei " followed and in 1917/199 the two-volume work " Die Nahrungsmittel aus Getreide " (2nd edition 1924/1926).

His intensive preoccupation with the technological side of grain processing drew Maurizio's attention increasingly to the historical development of food. In his 1916 book " The Grain-Food in the Changing Times " he describes his previous subject from the perspective of cultural history and ethnography . After further literary studies and insights from study trips, his main work, the book " The history of our plant food from primeval times to the present, " appeared in Berlin's Paul Parey Verlag in 1927 . This first scientifically founded overall presentation of the world history of plant nutrition established Maurizio's international reputation as a cultural historian. With his core thesis that every stage of agriculture develops a specific form of food and through his interdisciplinary approach, he opened up new research approaches for ethnography, agricultural history and agricultural geography . One of the best reviews of this work and its importance for agricultural geography was published in 1929 by the agricultural historian Richard Krzymowski in the "Landwirtschaftliche Jahrbücher".

Maurizio devoted the last fifteen years of his life entirely to the cultural history of human nutrition. Of the publications from this creative period, the book " History of Fermented Drinks " , published in 1933, should be emphasized . Maurizio's list of publications comprises a total of over 120 publications, including several in Polish. His last publication from 1939 " The plant-based diet in times of hunger, based on my own experiences in Eastern Europe " is one of the highly informative and fascinatingly written treatises .

Maurizio's daughter, Anna Maurizio (1900–1993), was an internationally known bee researcher.

Fonts

• On the development history and systematics of the Saprolegnieen . Diss. Phil. Univ. Bern 1894.
• The baking ability of wheat and its purpose . In: Landwirtschaftliche Jahrbücher Vol. 31, 1902, pp. 179-234 with 3 panels. Special edition as private print.
• Cereals, flour and bread. Their botanical, chemical and physical properties, hygienic behavior, as well as their assessment and testing. Manual for use in laboratories and for self-teaching for chemists, millers, bakers, botanists and farmers . Paul Parey Berlin 1903.
• Concentrate feed . Verlag Jänecke Hannover 1908 = Library of the whole of agriculture Vol. 51. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
• The milling and bakery . Verlag Jänecke Hannover 1909 = Library of the whole of agriculture, Vol. 41.
• The grain diet through the ages . Orell Füssli Publishing House Zurich 1916.
• The food made from grain . Verlag Paul Parey Berlin, Vol. 1, 1917; Vol. 2 1919; 2nd edition ibid. Vol. 1, 1924, Vol. 2 1926.
• The history of our plant food from prehistoric times to the present . Publisher Paul Parey Berlin 1927. French translation: Histoire de l'alimentation végétale depuis la préhistoire jusqu'à nos jours . Trad. by F. Gidon. Paris, Payot. 1932, 664 p. On line version in Pl @ ntUse .

• Histoire de l'alimentation végétale chez l'Homme. Revue de botanique appliquée et d'agriculture coloniale , 11 (115): 159-168. doi: 10.3406 / jatba.1931.4968
• History of Fermented Drinks . Verlag Paul Parey 1933. - Reprint editions at Verlag Sehend Wiesbaden / Vaduz: 1970, 1982 a. 1993.
• The plant-based diet in times of hunger, based on my own experience in Eastern Europe . In: Communications from the Bern Natural Research Society for 1939, pp. 50–68.
• Histoire de l'alimentation végétale depuis la préhistoire jusqu'à nos jours . Trad. by F. Gidon. Préface de Claude Aubert. Introduction et compléments de Michel Chauvet. Reprint of the 1932 edition. Paris, Ulmer (Collection: Vieilles Racines et Jeunes Pousses ), 2019. 688 p. ISBN 978-2-84138-914-8

literature

• Adolf Collenberg: Maurizio, Adam. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland ., 2009
• R. Krzymowski: The work of A. Maurizio "The history of our plant food from primeval times to the present" (1927) . In: Landwirtschaftliche Jahrbücher Vol. 68, 1929, pp. 525-536 (with short biography).
• R. Krzymowski: Adam Maurizio †, its importance for the agricultural geography, especially for the history of the use of grain . In: Zeitschrift für Erdkunde Vol. 9, 1941, pp. 688–690.
• R. Krzymowski: Adam Maurizio † . In: Yearbook of the Society for the History and Literature of Agriculture, Vol. 41, 1942, pp. 1–2.
• A. Volkart: † Professor Dr. Adam Maurizio . In: Swiss Agricultural Monthly Issues Vol. 19, 1941, pp. 155–156 (with picture in front of p. 155).
• A. Volkart: Adam Maurizio (1862-1941) . In: Negotiations of the Swiss Natural Research Society Vol. 121, 1941, pp. 389–394 (with picture before p. 389 and list of publications).

Web links

• Literature by and about Adam Maurizio in the catalog of the German National Library