Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli

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Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli

Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli , occasionally Marsili or Marsilius , (born July 10, 1658 in Bologna , † November 1, 1730 ibid) was an Italian soldier and scholar. Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " L.Marsili ". He is considered a pioneer in oceanography .

Life

Marsigli studied mathematics and natural sciences in Padua and Bologna until 1674. He then traveled through Italy (climbing Vesuvius) and to Constantinople (1679).

Count Marsigli served from 1681 as an officer on the Austrian side in the Turkish wars and came in 1683 with Raab in Turkish captivity, but was replaced the following year, then promoted to colonel and repeatedly used for diplomatic missions.

During the War of the Spanish Succession Marsigli was sub-commander (deputy commander) of the Altbreisach fortress . When he almost without a fight in 1703, the fortress of Louis of France, Duke of Burgundy handed in order to spare the lives of his soldiers, he was an imperial court martial of treason accused demoted in 1704 and dishonorably discharged from the army.

After that he devoted himself exclusively to science, especially geology , astronomy and oceanography . He traveled to Switzerland (1705 with his secretary Johann Scheuchzer ), England and southern France to conduct scientific research , and subsequently stayed mostly in Bologna . From the scientific circle that had formed around Marsigli, the Academia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna emerged in 1714 , in whose founding he was involved.

Count Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli died on November 1, 1730 at the age of 72 in Bologna. In his will he bequeathed his library and a rich collection of instruments, minerals and ancient works of art to the city of Bologna, which later made them available to scholars in the Palazzo Poggi .

research

In Constantinople in 1679 he showed by measurements that low-salt water on the surface flows from the Black Sea through the Bosphorus into the Mediterranean and saltier water flows in the other direction below. He published these results in Rome in 1681. In 1726 he published a six-volume monograph on the Danube region, its history and geography, illustrated with 288 copperplate engravings in Amsterdam and The Hague. From 1706 to 1708 he was in the coastal region of southern France and undertook marine studies from a ship. He discovered coastal structures (shelf) under water and marine canyons. In 1725 his book on oceanography was published. In the same year he examined Lake Garda, but this was not published until 1930.

He made an essential contribution to the prehistory of the geological map. As a military engineer, he was an experienced cartographer. In 1726 he published a map of the mining areas in Hungary and in 1717 a map of the gypsum deposits in the vicinity of Bologna, drawing conclusions from the visible outcrops about the presumed underground course of the formations.

Marsigli sparked controversial discussions through his experiments with alcoholic fermentation , as he tried to prove the impossibility of spontaneous generation with them . Together with Giovanni Maria Lancisi he published the Dissertatio de Generatione Fungorum in 1714 ... in which both decidedly contradict the view , which has been widespread since antiquity , that fungi arise from putrefaction, with the mycelium being an intermediate stage between rotting plants and fungi.

In the field of astronomy Marsigli made a special contribution to the Specola observatory in Bologna, which he equipped with excellent equipment and made available to interested young researchers.

Honors

Works (selection)

  • Bevanda asiatica. Trattello sul caffè . Edizione Salerno, Rome 1998, ISBN 88-8402-236-3 .
  • Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus. Observationibus geographicis, astronomicis, hydrographicis, historicis, physicis perlustratus . Vízügyi Múzeum, Budapest 2004, ISBN 963-217-033-4 (repr. Of the Hague 1726 edition)
  • Histoire physique de la mer . Linosprint, Bologna 1999 (repr. Of the edition Amsterdam 1725)
  • Lettere . Liguori, Bologna 1978, ISBN 88-207-0731-4 (edited by Ornella Moroni)
  • Ragguaglio della schiavitú . Salerno Edizione, Rome 1996, ISBN 88-8402-186-3 .
  • Stato militare dell'Imperio Ottomanno . ADEVA, Graz 1972, ISBN 3-201-00769-2 (repr. Of the edition Den Haag 1732)

literature

Web links

Commons : Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Entry on Marsigli, Luigi Ferdinand (1658–1730) in the archive of the Royal Society , London
  2. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter M. Académie des sciences, accessed on January 19, 2020 (French).
  3. ^ Carl von Linné: Critica Botanica . Leiden 1737, p. 93.
  4. ↑ Carl von Linné: Genera Plantarum . Leiden 1742, p. 508.
personal data
SURNAME Marsigli, Luigi Ferdinando
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marsigli, Luigi Ferdinando de (full name); Marsili, Luigi Ferdinando; Marsilius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian soldier, scientist, politician, explorer
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1658
PLACE OF BIRTH Bologna
DATE OF DEATH November 1, 1730
Place of death Bologna