Pier Antonio Micheli

{{Infobox scientist

|name = Pier Antonio Micheli

|image = Pier'Antonio Micheli. Line engraving by G. Vascellini after Wellcome V0004009.jpg

|image_size =

|caption =

|birth_date = {{birth date|1679|12|11|df=y}}

|birth_place = Florence, Italy

|death_date = {{death date and age|1737|01|01|1679|12|11|df=y}}

|death_place =Florence, Italy

|residence =

|citizenship = Italian

|fields = {{hlist|Botany|Mycology}}

}}

Pier Antonio Micheli (11 December 1679 – 1 January 1737) was a noted Italian botanist,{{cite book|author=Moselio Schaechter|title=Eukaryotic Microbes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DJLIhDnqMk0C&pg=PA19|access-date=14 August 2012|date=1 September 2011|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=978-0-12-383877-3|pages=19–}} professor of botany in Pisa, curator of the Orto Botanico di Firenze, author of Nova plantarum genera iuxta Tournefortii methodum disposita. He discovered the spores of mushrooms, was a leading authority on cryptogams, and coined several important genera of microfungi including Aspergillus and Botrytis.

Biography

Micheli was born in Florence in 1679. He taught himself Latin and began the study of plants at a young age under Bruno Tozzi.According to a short description from the libraries of Harvard University. In 1706 he was appointed botanist to Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, director of the Florence gardens, and a professor at the University of Pisa.

His Nova plantarum genera (1729) was a major step in the knowledge of fungi.{{cite book|author1=Geeta Sumbali|author2=B. M. Johri|title=The Fungi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RU_H_DtbtpEC&pg=PR11|access-date=14 August 2012|date=30 July 2005|publisher=Alpha Science Int'l Ltd.|isbn=978-1-84265-153-7|pages=11–}} In this work, he gave descriptions of 1900 plants, of which about 1400 were described for the first time. Among these were 900 fungi and lichens, accompanied by 73 plates. He included information on "the planting, origin and growth of fungi, mucors, and allied plants", and was the first to point out that fungi have reproductive bodies or spores.{{cite book|author=Marc Ratcliff|title=The Quest for the Invisible: Microscopy in the Enlightenment|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mm8yudcBZfsC&pg=PA26|access-date=14 August 2012|date=1 May 2009|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-6150-4|pages=26–}} His work was met with skepticism by other botanists of the time.{{cite book|author=Frank N. Egerton|title=Roots of Ecology: Antiquity to Haeckel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DiFLxU9tejUC&pg=PA106|access-date=14 August 2012|date=2 June 2012|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-95363-5|pages=106–}}

He observed that when spores were placed on slices of melon the same type of fungi were produced that the spores came from, and from this observation he noted that fungi did not arise from spontaneous generation.{{cite book|author=George N. Agrios|title=Plant Pathology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CnzbgZgby60C&pg=PA17|access-date=14 August 2012|year=2005|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=978-0-12-044565-3|pages=17–}} He also formulated a systematic classification system with keys for genera and species.{{cite book|author1=R. S. Mehrotra|author2=K. R. Aneja|title=An Introduction To Mycology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UUorj_O2dcsC&pg=PA68|access-date=14 August 2012|date=1 December 1990|publisher=New Age International|isbn=978-81-224-0089-2|pages=68–}}

File:Uffizi 21, Pier Antonio Micheli-2.jpg, sculpted by Vincenzo Costiani]]

He was a collector of plant and mineral specimens,{{cite book|author=Dennis Geronimus|title=Piero di Cosimo: Visions Beautiful and Strange|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-jNTjKdel20C&pg=PA160|access-date=14 August 2012|date=31 January 2007|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-10911-5|pages=160–}} and on one of his collecting trips, in 1736, he contracted pleurisy, of which he soon after died in Florence.

Eponymy

In 1737, Linnaeus called the genus Michelia after him.
Via Micheli, Florence, home of the Orto Botanico di Firenze, is named in his honor.

Pier Antonio Micheli

Biography

Eponymy

References

Further reading