Johann Paul Carl von Moll
Johann Paul Carl von Moll , also Carl or Karl von Moll, (born October 30, 1735 in Oettingen in Bavaria , † February 20, 1812 in Vienna ) was a German-Austrian paleontologist and zoologist. Together with Leopold von Fichtel, he was the founder of micropalaeontology in Austria and beyond and a pioneer in the study of bryozoa .
Life
His father Georg Christian Moll was employed in the accounting department (auditor) of the Count of Öttingen. His uncle and godfather Bernard Paul von Moll, Legation Councilor of the Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Wolffenbüttel in Vienna and in the imperial aristocracy since 1738, was interested in natural history and had taken over the natural history collection of the Swiss Karl Nicolaus Lange . Bernhard Paul's brother was Holstein-Gottorpscher Legation Councilor in Vienna and also known for his collection of natural objects (including petrified wood and cataloged conchylia) in Vienna. Johann Paul Carl von Moll was probably adopted by his uncle and godfather Bernhard Paul von Moll, because he later also had a title of nobility. After moving to Vienna, Johann Paul Carl von Moll also dealt with natural history, stimulated by his uncles. He later had an extensive Conchylia collection himself and also donated for the collection of the Freemason Lodge at the true Eintracht in Vienna, to which Mozart, Emperor Leopold II and Ignaz von Born also belonged. From 1778 to 1780 Moll supported Ignaz von Born in the reconstruction of the imperial natural history cabinet, which later became the Natural History Museum Vienna. In 1806, according to one source, he applied in vain for the post of director of the Court Natural History Cabinet as the successor to Andreas Xaverius Stütz (1747–1806), but according to another source, he is not on the list of applicants. Leopold von Fichtel and others had also applied in vain; the position went to Karl Franz Anton von Schreibers . Moll died impoverished in Vienna in 1812 in a supply house (in place of today's Chemical Institute of the University) of a stroke.
In micropalaeontology he worked with the collector and explorer Leopold von Fichtel, with whom he published the foraminifera standard work Testacea microscopica at the time, which was very well illustrated and thus well underpinned the authors' initial descriptions. The French Denys de Montfort (Conchyologie systematique, 1808 to 1810) drew further taxa from the work of Fichtel and Moll. Their type specimens are also accessible in the Natural History Museum Vienna, so that a revision of their found material was possible in the 1980s. After both, the development of micropalaeontology in Austria was only resumed in the 1840s by August Emanuel von Reuss . In 1803 his book on bryozoa appeared in Vienna in German and Latin editions.
He is not to be confused with the Austrian naturalist Karl von Moll (but is often confused with him).
literature
- Fred Rögl, Hans Jørgen Hansen: Foraminifera described by Fichtel & Moll in 1798: a revision of Testacea microscopica Appendix Testacea microscopica alique minuta ex Generibus Argonauta et Nautilus. Vienna, New Memoranda of the Natural History Museum Vienna, Volume 3, No. 328, 1984
- F. Rögl: L. von Fichtel and JPC von Moll and their scientific significance. In: Annalen NHM Vienna. Volume 84A, 1982, pp. 63-77, PDF on ZOBODAT main source for his biography.
- Miklos Kazmer, Norbert Vavra: Micropalaeontology in Vienna at the turn of the 19th century: foraminiferan and bryozoan studies of Leopold von Fichtel and Johann Paul Carl von Moll. In: PN Wyse Jackson, M. Spencer (Eds.): Annals of Bryozoology: aspects of the history of research on bryozoans. International Bryozoology Association & The Society for the History of Natural History. Dublin, Ireland, 2002, pp. 117-132
Fonts
- with Leopold von Fichtel: Testacea microscopia aliaque minuta ex generibus argonauta et nautilus ad naturam picta et descripta. Vienna: Anton Pichler 1798, 2nd edition 1803 (another volume Microscopische Conchylien is available as a manuscript, but was no longer published), PDF on ZOBODAT
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Eschara, ex zoophytorum seu phytozoorum ordine pulcherrimum ac notatu dignissimum genus novis speciebus auctum, methodice descriptum, et iconibus ad naturam delineatis illustratum. Vienna 1803 (Latin edition).
German edition: The sea bark from the order of the plant animals the most beautiful and strangest sex. Vienna 1803.
Web links
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Moll, Johann Paul Carl von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Moll, Carl von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German-Austrian paleontologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 30, 1735 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oettingen in Bavaria |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 20, 1812 |
| Place of death | Vienna |