Konstantin Tyzenhaus

Konstantin Tyzenhaus

Count Konstantin Tyzenhaus (or Konstanty Tyzenhauz , Kanstancin (Kanstantyn) Tyzienhaŭz , Constantin Tyzenhauz ) (* 23 May ^July / 3 June  1786 ^greg. In Schaludok , Poland-Lithuania ; 16 March ^jul. / 28 March  1853 ^greg. in Pastawy ) was a Polish-Lithuanian naturalist and painter . He was particularly passionate about ornithologists and oology .

Live and act

He was the son of Count Ignacy Tyzenhaus (1760-1822), leader of the Lithuanian infantry and Marianna born. Przeździecka (approx. 1760–1843), who was a daughter of the Vice Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Antoni Przeździecki (1718–1772).

In 1812 he left his parents' house in Vilnius to take part in the memorable Russian campaign like many compatriots . The Lithuanian infantry had organized itself and he led the 19th regiment as an officer on October 16, 1812 . The restructuring of the Grande Armée finally led him to Sedan as leader of the 3rd Detachment of the Polish Legion of Honor and later to Leipzig , where he fought valiantly as part of the 1st Detachment of Józef Antoni Poniatowski's Guard . He was then appointed colonel in the army of the Duchy of Warsaw .

On August 10, 1813, he was named Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur by Hugues-Bernard Maret , Duke of Bassano . In January 1814, after completing important tasks for General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski in Charleville , he retired from the army and moved to Clémont . After the general amnesty of Poland by Alexander I , he finally returned to his country residence in Lithuania. There he devoted himself to his real passions of books, writing and his cello.

Konstantin Tyzenhaus was married to Waleria Wańkowicz (c 1800–1840) with at least four children.

Science and art

Statue with Konstantin Tyzenhaus in Belarus

After returning to his homeland, he mainly devoted himself to natural history and made a name for himself as an expert in this field. He made a second career here in the field of arts and sciences in Lithuania after his military service. He followed the tradition of his great-uncle Antoni Tyzenhaus (1733–1785), who was the treasurer of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Stanislaus II August Poniatowski and ruler of Hrodna . At his invitation, the French botanist Jean-Emmanuel Gilibert came to Hrodna to create the Gilibert Park. He founded the former medical academy there in 1775 . Besides Konstantin , other nephews of Antoni Tyzenhaus also competed for scientific fame.

Konstantin Tyzenhaus was first trained in Warsaw before giving occasional courses in natural sciences to the Imperial University of Vilnius . During this time his endeavors to study the natural sciences as a free, unbound mind solidified. He acquired an important collection of Polish animal preparations in his castle in Pastawy and specialized in particular in avifauna.

As a skilled draftsman and art collector, he mastered the craft of painting and drawing. He decorated his salons with more than three hundred paintings by well-known artists, pictures that he had acquired on his travels abroad. To this end, he set up a magnificent and large library that contained many masterpieces of ancient and modern literature. The family archive from 1260 consisted of an admirable collection of prints and engravings. These included valuable bird tables by Conrad Gessner , Ulisse Aldrovandi , John Ray and Peter Simon Pallas through to Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon , Marc Athanase Parfait Œillet Des Murs and John James Audubon . He studied all of them intensively and provided them with his comments. He was fascinated by all branches of natural history, especially by ornithology. He had a talent for drawing since childhood and was a student of Jan Piotr Norblin and Aleksander Orłowski in Warsaw and Jan Rustem in Vilnius . There are hundreds of drawings about the birds of Lithuania in his published books. In his gallery, which was systematically arranged according to the specifications of Coenraad Jacob Temminck , there were three thousand bird preparations from all over the world. He also had a collection of all the bird eggs from Lithuania and New Russia . Since his interest in ornithology continued during his military service, he learned how to stuff birds in Paris. To this end, he communicated with Ludwig Heinrich von Bojanus , who reorganized the Zoological Museum of the University of Vilnius between 1822 and 1824.

As an attentive researcher, he didn't just limit himself to collecting. With an amazing memory and keen mind, he was able to place the scientific merit of his observations. He quickly gained a good reputation among European scholars.

When he discovered the great gray owl ( Strix nebulosa lapponica ) in his forests , he named this subspecies Strix microphthalmos and sent a manuscript with a drawing and description to the Société royale des amis des sciences et des lettres de Varsovie, for which he became a member of the society in 1830. In an article from 1851 in Revue et magasin de zoologie , he finally worked out the differences between the nominate form and the subspecies and regards both as separate species. His first book Zasady ornitologii and his knowledge in comparative medicine brought him membership in the Académie et la Société de médecine impériale de Vilna in 1839 and 1848 . In 1843, Tyzenhaus was introduced by Anton Waga (1799–1890) as member number 275 of the Société cuviérienne . Two years later he was appointed a member of the Société des naturalistes de Riga for a report on a rain of insects , and in 1847 of the Société d'agriculture de Lemberg for a report on a caterpillar harmful to wheat. He was also a member of the Société scientifique de l'Université des Jagellons in Krakow and the Society of Friends of Natural Sciences in Berlin .

Tyzenhaus corresponded with the Natural History Museum in London , the Natural History Museum Vienna , but also with researchers such as Adolphe Delattre , Édouard Verreaux , Martin Hinrich Lichtenstein , Ludwig Reichenbach , Adolf Eduard Grube , Karl Eduard Eichwald , Johann Jakob Heckel and many more. He benefited from the fact that, in addition to his native Polish, he was also able to communicate in French, German, Italian and Latin. This helped him with his numerous trips and a. 1829 to Vienna, 1840 to Warsaw, 1842 to Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin and 1844 to Vienna, Milan and Venice to expand his science and art collection.

His last scientific trip in 1851 took him to Odessa. Later, his age and health did not allow him to travel any further. Instead, he sent his museum curator Michał Skinder on an expedition to Bessarabia and the Crimea in 1852 . As a result of the trip, he brought him back five hundred bird hides and three hundred eggs.

Tyzenhaus was a progressive spirit who also read critical ornithological treatises by Gustav Hartlaub or Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte with devotion.

In addition to science, he played several instruments and was considered a real virtuoso on the cello . He also loved painting watercolors. While on the way to Saint Petersburg , he visited the Narva bastions , which he also sketched. Since it was a military strategic building, he had to face an interrogation for a few hours. Many new drawings were also made on his hunts.

Between 1850 and 1853 he published 73 plates with bird eggs from Lithuania, which appeared in 8 deliveries and arose out of admiration for Temminck. It was not until posthumously in 1862 that a further 170 panels with Polish bird eggs appeared, for which Władysław Taczanowski provided the text. His Catalogus Avium et Mammalium, quae habitant in regionibus Europae was revised and republished in 1931.

His collection of around 3000 mostly self-groomed birds and his impressive egg collection deteriorated after his death, with the exception of a few exhibits that ended up in the Vilnius Museum.

social commitment

In 1834 he volunteered in the prison of Dsisna and Kaunas , as well as in a charitable house in Vilnius. He was a member of the Judicial Council for Public Education and between 1839 and 1841 curator of the Minsk grammar school. The country under his administration with 20,000 inhabitants was considered a role model in the region in terms of organization and conservation. Potstwany became known as one of the best stud farms in Lithuania. In Rakichki, which Tyzenhauz administered, a flax production town was established. The quality of the products was so good that the name Tyzenhaus was even known in the markets of England. Here at the Rakichki Castle he also developed and introduced new agricultural implements and machines. In addition, he was always ready to give everyone his advice on medical and veterinary issues.

Dedication names

Stanisław Batys Gorski (1802–1864) dedicated the genus Tyzenhauzia to him in 1852 for his species Tyzenhauzia vespiformis , which is now a synonym for the hoverfly species Sphecomyia vespiformis . In addition, two plant tables with the names Potamogeton tyzenhauzii and Chara Tyzenhauzii by Gorski were in preparation, but they were never published.

Publications (selection)

• O owadach zasiewom szkodliwych . In: Tygodnik Rolniczo-Technologiczny . tape 4 , no. 41 , 1838, pp. 317-319 ( bc.wbp.lublin.pl ).
• Zasady ornitologii, albo nauki o ptakach obejmujące: rys postępu jej literatury, taxonomią, glossologią i terminologią . Nakład autora, Vilnius 1841.
• Ornitologia powszechna, czyli Opisanie ptaków wszystkich części świata . tape 1 . Drukiem Teofila Glücksberga, Vilnius 1843.
• Ornitologia powszechna, czyli Opisanie ptaków wszystkich części świata . tape 2 . Drukiem Teofila Glücksberga, Vilnius 1844.
• Ornitologia powszechna, czyli Opisanie ptaków wszystkich części świata . tape 3 . Drukiem Teofila Glücksberga, Vilnius 1846.
• Remarques sur les Aigles d'Europe . In: Revue Zoologique par La Société Cuvierienne . tape 9 , 1846, pp. 322-326 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
• About the importance of oology for entire ornithology . In: Rhea: Journal for the entire ornithology . No. 1 , 1846, p. 11-17 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
• Notice on the coloration accidetelle rose des canards sauvage . In: Revue Zoologique par La Société Cuvierienne . tape 10 , 1847, p. 273-275 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
• Catalogus Avium et Mammalium, quae habitant in regionibus Europae, positis inter gradum 46–57 ° latitudinis septentrionalis et 35–55 ° longitudinis a Ferro. NA, Riga 1848.
• O orłach europejskich, czyli uwagi nad niektórymi ptakami drapieżnymi w Europie . NA, Vilnius 1848.
• Notice sur une pluie d'insectes observée en Lithuanie le 24 janvier 1849 . In: Revue et magasin de zoologie pure et appliquée (=  2 ). tape 1 , 1849, p. 72-76 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
• Notice sur le Myoxus Dryas, reconnu comme espèces européenne, suivie de quelques observations sur les Loirs d'europe à l'état de domestication . In: Revue et magasin de zoologie pure et appliquée (=  2 ). tape 2 , 1850, p. 359-369 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
• Sur la différence specifique entre la Chouette grise (Strix cinerea) et la Chouette lapone (S. laponia) des auteurs, suivie d'une rectification du double emploi de la Grue à nuque blanche (Grus leucauchen, Temm.) . In: Revue et magasin de zoologie pure et appliquée (=  2 ). tape 2 , 1851, pp. 571-577 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
• Planches ovologiques coloriées pouvant servir d'atlas à l'ouvrage de Temminck 1850-1853 . NA, Paris 1853.
• with Władysław Taczanowski: Oologia Ptakow Polskich, wystawiona na 170 tablicach: do których opisy uiozl . W. Drukarni Gazety Polskiéj, Warsaw 1862 ( rcin.org.pl [PDF; 55.0 MB ]).
• with Władysław Taczanowski: Oologia Ptakow Polskich, (Atlas) . W. Drukarni Gazety Polskiéj, Warsaw 1862 ( rcin.org.pl [PDF; 11.6 MB ]).

literature

• Adam Ferdynand Adamowicz: Notice nécrologique sur le compte Constantin Tyzenhauz . In: Revue et magasin de zoologie pure et appliquée (=  2 ). tape 9 , 1857, pp. 591-600 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
• Ludwig Gebhardt: The ornithologists of Central Europe: 1747 remarkable biographies from the Middle Ages to the end of the 20th century . Aula Verlag, Wiebelsheim. 2006, ISBN 978-3-89104-680-7 .
• Gustav Hartlaub: Report on the achievements in the natural history of birds during the year 1851 . In: Archives for Natural History . tape 18 , no. 2 , 1852, p. 1-31 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
• Société Cuvierienne: Nouveaux membres admis dans la Société curvienne . In: Revue Zoologique par La Société Cuvierienne . tape 6 , 1843, pp. 96 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
• Stanisław Batys Gorski: Analecta ad entomographiam provinciarum occidentali-meridionalium imperii Rossici . Prostat in libraria F. Nicolai, Berlin 1852 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Adam Ferdynand Adamowicz, p. 592.
2. ^ Adam Ferdynand Adamowicz, p. 591.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Adam Ferdynand Adamowicz, p. 593.
4. ^ Adam Ferdynand Adamowicz, p. 594.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Adam Ferdynand Adamowicz, p. 595.
6. ↑ Gustav Hartlaub, p. 18.
7. ^ Société cuviérienne, p. 96.
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Adam Ferdynand Adamowicz, p. 596.
9. ^ Adam Ferdynand Adamowicz, p. 597.
10. ↑ ^{a b} Adam Ferdynand Adamowicz, p. 599.
11. ^ Adam Ferdynand Adamowicz, p. 598.
12. ↑ ^{a b} Ludwig Gebhardt, p. 367.
13. ^ Adam Ferdynand Adamowicz, p. 600.
14. ^ Stanisław Batys Gorski, p. 178.