Luca Ghini

Luca Ghini

Luca Ghini - latinized Lucas Ghinus - (* 1490 in Croara near Casalfiumanese in the diocese of Imola ; † May 4, 1556 in Bologna ) was a doctor and botanist. Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Ghini ".

Live and act

Ghini was born in Croara Castle , studied medicine at the University of Bologna , where he obtained his first medical doctorate in 1527. In February of the same year he received a teaching post, which he renounced in 1533 because of disputes with the university's senate. In 1534, as a professor of medicine, he received a cattedra in medicine for the teaching of medicinal plants, which, as usual, was subordinate to the general medical chair. It was not until 1539 that he received a five-year contract for lectures de simplicibus medicinalibus with an increased salary. In the summer of 1543 he accepted the call of the Duke of Florence, Cosimo I , to the University of Pisa , who turned to Ghini, as Leonhart Fuchs had refused an offer. One of the tasks in Pisa was the establishment of a botanical garden, for which, however, there is no official founding act, payments to Ghini were made as early as 1543. After the contract with Bologna expired - Ghini declined improved offers from the Senate for an extension - he left 1544 to Pisa, where he then laid out the botanical garden. Excursions for the procurement of plants took Ghini and his students to Elba and in 1554 to Monte Baldo on Lake Garda , in which Ulisse Aldrovandi , Andrea Alpago (Andreas Alpagus Bellunensis) and Francesco Calzolari took part. Calzolari, a pharmacist from Verona, published a detailed report about it in Venice in 1556: Il viaggio di Monte Baldo . Ghini also worked as a consultant for the Botanical Gardens of Florence and Padua , whose first prefect was his student Luigi Squalermo , known as L'Anguillara . Squalermo had already supported Ghini in setting up the garden in Pisa.

In 1554 Ghini returned to Bologna at Aldrovandi's instigation. 1555/1556 he held the evening lectures ("lectura practicae medicinae ordinaria vesperatina") in medicine. He died shortly afterwards in poverty and was buried in the Servite Church.

Ghini had not published anything during his lifetime, his papers were scattered. Therefore, only a few of his writings are known, published by other scholars, including Pietro Andrea Mattioli . Around 1555, Ghini's students included the Marburg and Heidelberg doctor and university professor Georg Marius .

Honors

The genus Ghinia Schreb is named after Ghini . from the verbena family (Verbenaceae).

literature

• Franco Aurelio Meschini:  Ghini, Luca. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 53:  Gelati – Ghisalberti. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1999.
• Siegmund Seybold: Luca Ghini, Leonhard Rauwolff and Leonhart Fuchs. About the origin of the watercolors in the Viennese herbal book manuscript by Fuchs , in: Annual Issues of the Society for Natural History in Württemberg 145; Stuttgart, 1990, pp. 239-264
• Luca Ghini: cinquecento anni di scienze botaniche (1490-1990), convegno nazionale, Imola, 27-28 ottobre 1990 , Verona: ANMS, 1991 (impr. 1992), pp 185-338, series: Museologia scientifica; anno 8, núm. 3/4
• G. Del Guerra e Pier Luigi Mondani: I primi documenti quattrocenteschi sulla sifilide e lezioni pisane di Luca Ghini (secolo XVI) , Pisa: Giardini, 1970, series: Scientia veterum; 163, anno 20, 1970
• Giuseppe Mazzini: Il medico e naturalista imolese Luca Ghini 1490-1556 , Estr. da: Progressi di terapia, 1949, N. 12.
• Rolf Heyers: Dr. Georg Marius, called Mayer von Würzburg (1533-1606). (Dental) medical dissertation Würzburg 1957, pp. 11-13 and 70 f.

Web links

Commons : Luca Ghini  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Author entry and list of the plant names described for Luca Ghini at the IPNI
• Short biography u. Portrait (Engl.)
• Brief portrait of the Botanical Garden Pisa

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Treccani
2. ^ Evidence in the Opac of the Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale. A facsimile edition around 1982
3. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]