François Levaillant
François Levaillant or Le Vaillant (born August 6, 1753 in Paramaribo , † November 22, 1824 in La Noue) was a French author, explorer, natural scientist and ornithologist.
Life
François Levaillant was born the son of a wealthy Metz merchant and French consul in Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname . Here in the adjacent tropical jungle, his interest in nature and in observing and collecting flora and fauna was aroused at a young age.
When his father returned to Europe in 1763, he began studying natural sciences in Metz. By Jacob Temminck , the treasurer of the Dutch East India Company , he was included in the 1781 Cape Colony sent to there to collect species of birds. Until 1784 he made three trips, one around Cape Town and to Saldanha Bay , one east of the Cape of Good Hope and the third north of the Orange River and into Namaqualand .
After his return he published his travel experiences under the titles Voyage dans l'intérieur de l'Afrique (1790, 2 volumes) and Second voyage dans l'intérieur de l'Afrique (1796, 3 volumes), both of which were translated into several languages . He also published reports on African birds ( Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d'Afrique , 1796–1808, 6 volumes) with drawings by Jacques Barraband , Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de paradis (1801–1806), Histoire naturelle des cotingas et des todiers ( 1804) and Histoire naturelle des calaos (1804). Levaillant's drawings often influenced the scientific names given by others, such as B. Louis Pierre Vieillot .
He sent over 2000 bird hides to Jacob Temminck, who had financed his expedition; they were examined by his son Coenraad Jacob Temminck and included in the collections of the Museum of Leiden . Other specimens ended up in the cabinet of Joan Raye junior. (1737-1823), son of the former governor general of Suriname, Joan Raye . This collection was purchased by the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in the late 1820s, which is now the Naturalis Museum of Natural History in Leiden.
In 1809 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg .
Levaillant died in the French town of La Noue, near Sézanne ( Marne ).
Bird names
Levaillant rejected the biological nomenclature that had been introduced by Carl von Linné and gave the newly discovered species only French names. Some of them are still in use, such as the juggler (French Bateleur ; Terathopius ecaudatus ). It was left to other scientists to assign binomial names to his new discoveries. Some of them honored Levaillant by their names:
- Crested bearded bird (Trachyphonus vaillantii)
- Levaillants cuckoo
- Picus vaillantii (Atlas Green Woodpecker)
Fonts
- François Le Vaillant: Voyage de M. Le Vaillant dans l'Intérieur de l'Afrique par Le Cap de Bonne Espérance, dans Les années 1783, 84 & 85. Paris Leroy, 1790, 2 volumes.
- François Levaillant: Second voyage dans l'intérieur de l'Afrique, par le Cap de Bonne-Espérance, dans les annees 1783, 84 et 85. Paris HJ Jansen et Comp., An III (1795), 3 volumes. 1st volume , 2nd volume , 3rd volume
- Histoire naturelle d'une partie d'oiseaux nouveaux et rares de l'Amérique et des Indes: ouvrage destiné par l'auteur à faire partie de son ornithologie d'Afrique. Paris 1801. 1st volume
- Histoire naturelle des perroquets , Paris Levrault, Schoell & Cie, An IX-XII (1801–1805), 2 volumes. 1st volume , 2nd volume .
- Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de paradis et des rolliers, suivie de celles des toucans et des barbus , Paris, Denné le jeune & Perlet, (1801–1806), 2 volumes.
- Histoire naturelle des promérops et des guêpiers (et des couroucous et touracos, faisant suite à celle des oiseaux de paradis) , Paris Levrault, (1806) 1807, (1816 or 1818) 3 volumes.
- Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux d'Afrique. Paris, Delachaussee, XIII-1805-1808. 6 volumes. Volume 1 , Volume 2 , Volume 4 , Volume 5 , 6 band .
- Partie Méridionale de l'Afrique depuis le Tropique du Capricorne jusqu'au Cap de Bonne Espérance contenant les Pays des Hottentots, des Cafres et de quelques autres Nations / dressée pour le Roi sur les observations de M. Le Vaillant par M. de Laborde, ancien premier valet de chambre du Roi, governor du Louvre, l'un des Fermiers généraux de Sa Majesté [1]
In German translation:
- Francois Levaillant: Journeys in the Interior of Africa, during the years 1780 to 1785. Translated from the French. Annotated by Johann Reinhold Forster.
- Francois Levaillant: Vaillant's second journey into the interior of Africa . Freely translated and abbreviated from the French again. (In the series: continuation of the Campi travel description for young people as part 5 and 6)
Web links
- Information on François Levaillant in the database of the Bibliothèque nationale de France .
Individual evidence
- ^ The Zoological Exploration of Southern Africa 1650-1790 . LC Rookmaaker, 1989, ISBN 90-6191-867-7 , p. 177 ff.
- ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. François Levaillant. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed September 29, 2015 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Levaillant, François |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Le Vaillant, Francois |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French ornithologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 6, 1753 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paramaribo |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 22, 1824 |
| Place of death | La Noue |