Johann Thal

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Johann Thal , Latinized Johannes Thalius , (* 1542 in Erfurt ; † July 18, 1583 in Peseckendorf ) was a German doctor and botanist . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Thal ".

Life

Thal was the son of the Protestant pastor Johann Thal , one of the very first Protestant pastors, and his third wife Margaretha, née Butzbach, a daughter of the Erfurt councilor Elias Butzbach.

Thal first went to school in Erfurt. From 1558 to 1561 he attended the Ilfeld Abbey School , a famous school at the time under the direction of Michael Neander . Since his birth father had died early, Thal adored Neander like his second father. In Ilfeld, the various charms of the nature of the Harz left a great impression on Thal. He was particularly fond of botany. Within two months he identified 72 types of grass in Ilfeld and the surrounding area and set up his own herbarium .

From 1561 Thal studied medicine in Jena , a. a. with Lorenz Hiel . He left the university and in the following years referred to himself as a Magister, although he probably had no academic degree.

Shortly after the end of his studies, Thal found a job as a doctor in Stendal . At the beginning of 1572 he stayed for some time with Wilhelm Reiffenstein in Wernigerode , where the Counts of Stolberg became aware of him and appointed him personal physician with his actual official residence in the town of Stolberg (Harz) . At the same time he provided the position of a city ​​physician there . He was in lively and sometimes confidential correspondence with the Counts of Stolberg, especially Albrecht Georg and Wolf Ernst.

In May 1581, Thal became the city physician in Nordhausen . On the way to the patient Nikolaus von Bortfeld in Eggenstedt , he had an accident at Schermcke's in the early summer of 1583 because the horses in the cart had run through. He tried to save himself by jumping out of the carriage and suffered an open lower leg fracture; both tubes protruded from the boot. Three weeks later, at the age of 41, he died of serious injuries in Peseckendorf Castle near Johann Ernst von der Asseburg .

Thals younger brother Wendelin followed him as Nordhäuser Stadtphysicus, while his brother Daniel became professor of Hebrew language at the Altdorf Academy . Daniel also died in 1583.

Works

In 1577 Thal wrote the " Sylva Hercynia: sive catalogus plantarum sponte nascentium in montibus & locis plerisque Hercyniae Sylvae quae respicit Saxoniam ", a list of the plants of the Harz Mountains and some of the surrounding areas. This flora differed from all herbal books written up to that point because, for the first time, an author did not limit himself to the medicinally active plants, but tried to record and describe all the plants occurring. In just five years, Thal managed to create an extremely comprehensive picture of the Harz vegetation, despite a lack of systematics, identification books and poor infrastructure. Many species were first described by him as the later named after him today as a model organism in developmental biology known Arabidopsis thaliana ( thale cress ) or Brillenschötchen , Carex humilis , Cicerbita Alpina , Brocken anemone and many more. For other species he documented an occurrence in Germany for the first time. For many descriptions he also provided exact location information.

Because of these achievements, Thal is now known as the "father of floristry ". His Sylva Hercynia was published posthumously in 1588 by Joachim Camerarius the Younger .

All other handwritten elaborations of Thal got lost in the course of time.

Trivia

The Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk named the fictional hospital in its television series In allerfreund - The young doctors as the Johannes Thal Clinic .

Honors

Carl von Linné named the genus Thalia of the family of arrowroots (Marantaceae) in Thal's honor .

Six species are recognized today, two of which are used as ornamental plants:

  • Thalia dealbata Fraser - Great Marante, water canna
  • Thalia geniculata L.

Also the genus Thalianthus Klotzsch ex grain . from the arrowroot family , Thal has been named in honor.


For Heritage Day on 10 September 2017 Peseckendorf a plaque was unveiled.

publication

literature

  • Thilo Irmisch : About some botanists of the 16th century who did a great job researching the flora of Thuringia, the Harz Mountains and the neighboring areas . In: Annual journal of the high school in Sondershausen . Eupel, Sondershausen 1862, p. 44–58 , urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 2-13307 .
  • Thilo Irmisch: Some news about Johann Thal, the author of Sylva Hercynia. In the journal of the Harz Association for History and Antiquity. 8th vol., 1875. pp. 149-161 .
  • Eduard Jacobs :  Thal, Johann . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, p. 642 f.
  • Stephan Rauschert (ed.): Sylva Hercynia / Johannes Thal. New ed. in Dt. transl., interpreted u. explained . Central antiquariat of the German Democratic Republic, Leipzig 1977 (Latin: Sylva Hercynia sive catalogus plantarum sponte nascentium in montibus et locis vicinis Hercyniae, quae respicit Saxoniam . Translated by Stephan Rauschert, photomechanical reprint of the original edition, Frankfurt am Main 1588. Unique, numbered special edition of 300 copies).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Eduard Jacobs:  Thal, Johann . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, p. 642 f.
  2. ^ Carl von Linné: Critica Botanica . Leiden 1737, p. 94
  3. ↑ Carl von Linné: Genera Plantarum . Leiden 1742, p. 522
  4. ↑ Rafaël Govaerts (ed.): Thalia. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved July 23, 2019.
  5. ↑ 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 .
  6. ↑ Memorial plaque for doctor and botanist. In: volksstimme.de. September 13, 2017. Retrieved September 13, 2017 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Thal, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thalius, Johannes; Thal, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor and botanist
DATE OF BIRTH 1542
PLACE OF BIRTH Erfurt
DATE OF DEATH July 18, 1583
Place of death Peseckendorf near Oschersleben (Bode)