Johann Ritter von Baillou

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Johann Ritter von Baillou

Johann Ritter von Baillou (* 1684 in France, Flanders or Lorraine (a birth certificate has not yet been found); † November 23, 1758 in Vienna ; French spellings including: Jean Chevallier de Baillou , Jean Baillieul ; Italian spellings including cavaliere Giovanni De Baillou , Giovanni Baillieul ) was an important natural history collector of the late Baroque . His private collection formed the basis for the newly founded Hof-Naturalien-Cabinet, today's Natural History Museum in Vienna, of which he became the first director.

Life

He studied mathematics and natural sciences and probably went to Italy in 1718 to the court of Francesco Farnese in Parma . There the scholar soon became court architect and a leading co-designer of the Colorno palace gardens, then commissioner general and, in 1725, lieutenant colonel of the artillery in the duke's army. In 1731 he moved from Parma to Florence in the Duchy of Tuscany to the court of Gian Gastone de 'Medici , where he became director of the Uffizi in 1735 and general director of all fortresses, buildings, gardens and mines in Tuscany in 1736. However, his passion was the natural sciences and collecting minerals, fossilized living things and botanical objects. Over the years he has collected over 30,000 fossils, shells, precious corals and snails, as well as rare plants, which, in keeping with the early days of the Enlightenment , which was characterized by baroque ideas, represented a collection of the " strangeness of nature ". He also gave lectures on Isaac Newton and performed magnetic experiments in front of an audience. In 1715 he became a corresponding member of the Académie royale des sciences in Paris.

In 1737 the last Medici Duke of Tuscany died and Franz Stephan von Lothringen , husband of Maria Theresa of Austria , was his successor. He was also very interested in scientific matters and so he quickly became aware of the Baillous collection, which was one of the greatest in Europe at the time. Probably in autumn 1749 the now Emperor Franz Stephan bought the collection for 40,000 Scudi and had it brought to Vienna on mules in the summer and then by ship on the Inn and Danube to Vienna. However, Johann Ritter von Baillou found it difficult to part with his beloved objects, so he left Tuscany and traveled to Vienna himself, where Franz Stephan appointed him administrator of the now imperial private collection. This was initially housed in the Leopoldine wing of the Vienna Hofburg and was then moved to a room in the Augustinian wing of the court library (today the Austrian National Library ). Franz Stephan's private collection was then converted into the Hof-Naturalien-Cabinet and Baillou became its first director. He obtained a contractual guarantee that this position would always be available to the eldest son of his family. In addition, he became a member of the learned society Societas incognitorum founded in Olomouc in 1746 .

In 1751 Baillou undertook a curious experiment together with the Jesuit astronomer Joseph Franz (1704–1776). Using a magnifying mirror, they tried to fuse several smaller diamonds into one large one. In doing so, they discovered for the first time (?) The trace-free burning of diamond. The charred remains of this costly experiment can still be seen in the Natural History Museum today.

Johann Ritter von Baillou died in 1758 at Habsburgergasse 7 in Vienna and his son Ludwig Balthasar Baillou, who was born in Florence in 1731, was actually appointed as his successor. However, this later renounced the office. After the death of Franz Stephans, Maria Theresa decided in 1766 to turn the imperial collection into a publicly accessible museum in the spirit of the Enlightenment, which resulted in today's Natural History Museum.

Today in the staircase of the museum there is a painting showing Emperor Franz Stephan with his court scholars, including Johann Ritter von Baillou, depicted in an artillery uniform. Descendants of the Baillou family still live in the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, Sweden and the United States of America.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wienerisches Diarium , November 29, 1758
  2. ^ Directory of members since 1666: Letter B. Académie des sciences, accessed on February 7, 2020 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Baillou, Johann Ritter von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Baillou, Jean Chevallier de (French); Baillieul, Jean (French); De Baillou, Giovanni (Italian); Baillieul, Giovanni (Italian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Franco-Austrian natural material collector
DATE OF BIRTH 1684
PLACE OF BIRTH France
DATE OF DEATH November 23, 1758
Place of death Vienna