Constantine S. Rafinesque-Schmaltz

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Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz , also Rafinesque , (born October 22, 1783 in Galata , † September 18, 1840 in Philadelphia ) was an American polyhistor . Its official botanical author abbreviation is “ Raf. "

CS Rafinesque

Life

Rafinesque-Schmaltz was born to a German mother and a French father, who died in 1793, and cultivated a reputation as an eccentric genius. He grew up in Marseille and was predominantly self-taught, who taught himself Latin and Greek and was already involved in collecting plants as a teenager . From 1802 to 1805 he traveled to the USA, where he trained as a businessman in Philadelphia and maintained contacts with naturalists. He then settled in Palermo , where he was so successful as a merchant that he was able to retire in 1809 and devote himself entirely to nature research. In Sicily he changed his name to Rafinesque-Schmaltz by adding his mother's maiden name. He wanted to avoid being considered French during the Napoleonic Wars because he had good contacts with the English. At times he was secretary to the American consul in Sicily. In 1815, after the death of his son, he returned to the USA, but lost a large part of his extensive library and malacological collection on the way there due to a shipwreck . He settled in New York and rebuilt his natural history collection . His reputation as a botanist suffered from severe criticism of his Florula Ludoviciana , published in 1817 . In 1819 he became professor of botany at Transylvania University in Lexington (Kentucky) , but left the university in 1826 in a dispute with the rector. He moved to Philadelphia and tried unsuccessfully in founding scientific journals, published numerous books and essays, traded in collected natural produce and gave public lectures.

In 1808 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , in 1820 a member of the Leopoldina .

Rafinesque-Schmaltz also tried his hand as an anthropologist. He discovered in the 1830s that the number system of the Maya was based on a dot-dash style, and suspected that the Maya writing represents a language that is still spoken by the Maya, and was therefore to decipher. He also found that the writing in the Codices and the inscriptions is the same. In 1836 he published alleged tribal myths of the Delaware Lenape Indians ( Walam Olum ), which he allegedly had from pictograms on wooden boards that he had deciphered. This portrayal was later doubted, and it was even believed that it was a hoax that was either his own or that he fell for.

As a botanist and zoologist, especially as an ichthyologist , he was the first to describe many plant and animal species, including the stingray ( Dasyatis ) and the mule deer . He named 6700 taxa of plants alone, but most of them did not exist. According to Rafinesque-Schmaltz, the plant genus is Rafinesquia Raf. from the legume family (Fabaceae) and the Rafinesque long-eared . In 1815 he renamed Triturus . The plant genus Schmalzia Desv. ex DC. was named in his honor.

Fonts

  • Specchio delle scienze , Palermo 1814 Volume 1 online at archive.org
  • Analysis de la nature , Palermo 1815 (outlining a new system of classification)
  • Ichthyologia Ohiensis , 1820 (Description of the Fish of the Ohio River)
  • Florula ludoviciana , 1817 online at gallica.fr
  • Neogenyton , 1825
  • Medical Flora, a manual of the Medical Botany of the United States of North America (1828-1830)
  • Atlantic Journal and Friend of Knowledge (eight parts) (1832-1833)
  • A Life of Travels and Researches in North America and the South of Europe, From 1802 till 1835 , Philadelphia, 1836.
  • New flora and botany of North America , (four parts) (1836–1838)
  • Alsographia americana , 1838 online at archive.org
  • Sylva tellurana , 1838 online at archive.org

literature

  • Charles Boewe (Editor): Fitzpatrick's Rafinesque: A Sketch of His Life with Bibliography, revised by Charles Boewe. Weston, MA: M&S Press 1982 ISBN 978-0-87730-011-3 .
  • Charles Boewe (Editor): Mantissa: A Supplement to Fitzpatrick's Rafinesque. Providence, RI: M&S Press. ISBN 978-0-87730-016-8 .
  • Charles Boewe (Editor): Profiles of Rafinesque. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press 2003, ISBN 978-1-57233-225-6 .
  • Charles Boewe: CS Rafinesque and Ohio Valley Archeology, Ancient America. Monograph Series, Barnardsville, NC: Center for Ancient American Studies 6, 2004
  • Charles Boewe: The Life of CS Rafinesque, A Man of Uncommon Zeal. Philadelphia, PA: American Philosophical Society 2011. ISBN 978-1-60618-922-1 .
  • Richard Ellsworth Call: The Life and Writings of Rafinesque: Prepared for the Filson Club and read at its Meeting, Monday, April 2, 1894, Filson Club Publications, no.10. Louisville, KY: John P. Morton. 1895
  • TJ Fitzpatrick: Rafinesque, a sketch of his life, 1911, Internet Archive
  • Elmer D. Merrill: Index Rafinesquianus. Jamaica Plain, MA: Arnold Arboretum 1949 (Plant Name Indexes from Rafinesque)
  • De Villo Sloan: The Crimsoned Hills of Onondaga: Romantic Antiquarians and the Euro-American Invention of Native American Prehistory. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press 2008, ISBN 978-1-60497-503-1
  • KB Sterling (Editor): Rafinesque. Autobiography and Lives. New York, NY: Arno Press 1978 (autobiography by Rafinesque and books by Fitzgerald and Call)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David Oestreicher: The Tale of a Hoax: Translating the Walam Olum, in: Brian Swann, Algonquian Spirit: Contemporary Translations of the Algonquian Literatures of North America, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995, pp. 3-41
  2. ↑ 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 .
personal data
SURNAME Rafinesque-Schmaltz, Constantine S.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rafinesque-Schmaltz, Constantine Samuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American polyhistor
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1783
PLACE OF BIRTH Galata
DATE OF DEATH September 18, 1840
Place of death Philadelphia