View source for Biography:Giovanni Antonio Scopoli

{{Short description|Italian physician and naturalist}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name              = Giovanni Antonio Scopoli
|image             = Portret Giovannija Antonija Scopoli.jpg
|image_size        = 
|alt               = 
|caption           = Giovanni Antonio Scopoli
|birth_date        = {{birth date|df=yes|1723|6|3}}
|birth_place       = Cavalese, Val di Fiemme
|death_date        = {{death date and age|df=yes|1788|5|8|1723|6|3}}
|death_place       = Pavia (now Italy)
|citizenship       = 
|nationality       = Trentino
|ethnicity         = 
|fields            = {{Unbulleted list|[[Earth:Natural history|Natural history]]}}
| occupation       = 	plant scientist, [[Biology:Pteridologist|pteridologist]], chemist, zoologist, ornithologist, physician, biologist, lepidopterologist, arachnologist, mycologist, earth scientist, university professor

|workplaces        = 
|alma_mater        = 
}}
'''Giovanni Antonio Scopoli''' (sometimes [[Social:Latinisation of names|Latinized]] as '''Johannes Antonius Scopolius''') (3 June 1723 – 8 May 1788) was an Italian physician and [[Earth:Natural history|naturalist]]. His biographer Otto Guglia named him the "first anational European" and the "[[Biography:Carl Linnaeus|Linnaeus]] of the Austrian Empire".<ref name="Soban">{{cite news |url=http://www.theslovenian.com/articles/soban.htm |title=A Living Bond between Idrija and Uppsala |first=Branko |last=Soban |newspaper=The Slovenian |access-date=4 April 2012}}</ref>

==Biography==
Scopoli was born at Cavalese in the Val di Fiemme, belonging to the Bishopric of Trent (today's Trentino), son of Francesco Antonio, military commissioner, and Claudia Caterina Gramola (1699-1791), a painter from a patrician family from Trentino. He obtained a degree in medicine at University of Innsbruck, and practised as a doctor in Cavalese and Venice.<ref name=newton>Newton, Alfred 1881. ''Scopoli's ornithological papers.'' The Willoughby Society. [https://archive.org/details/scopolisornithol00scoprich Scanned version]</ref> Much of his time was spent in the [[Place:Alps|Alps]], [[Biology:Plant collecting|collecting plant]]s and [[Biology:Entomology|insect]]s, of which he made outstanding collections.

He spent two years as private secretary to the bishop of Seckau, and then was appointed in 1754 as physician of the [[Chemistry:Mercury (element)|mercury]] mines in Idrija, a small town in the Habsburg realm, remaining there until 1769. In 1761, he published ''De Hydroargyro Idriensi Tentamina'' on the symptoms of [[Medicine:Mercury poisoning|mercury poisoning]] among mercury miners. 
[[File:Scopoli Harrier 1786.png|thumb|Copper engraving from the ''Deliciæ Floræ et Faunæ Insubricæ'' (1786); likely a [[Biology:Eurasian sparrowhawk|Eurasian sparrowhawk]]]]

Scopoli spent time studying the local natural history, publishing ''Flora Carniolica'' (1760) as well as a major work on the insects of Carniola, {{Lang|la|Entomologia Carniolica}} (1763). He also published a series of ''Anni Historico-Naturales'' (1769–1772), which included first descriptions of birds from various collections.<!--the following footnote ref. is dropping out the succeeding paragraph:<ref name=newton>-->

In 1769, Scopoli was appointed a professor of chemistry and metallurgy at Mining Academy at Schemnitz (now Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia), and in 1777 transferred to the [[Organization:University of Pavia|University of Pavia]].<ref name=newton/> He became a bitter rival of [[Biography:Lazzaro Spallanzani|Lazzaro Spallanzani]], who was accused of stealing specimens from the Pavia museum. Spallanzani was tried and the prolonged trial resulted in acquittal. Shortly thereafter, Scopoli died of a stroke.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mazzarello |first=Paolo |year=2004 |title=Costantinopoli 1786: la congiura e la beffa. L'intrigo Spallanzani |location=Torino |publisher=Bollati Boringhieri |isbn=88-339-1573-5 }}</ref> His last work was ''Deliciae Flora et Fauna Insubricae''<ref>Insubria is a historical-geographical region which corresponds to the area inhabited in the past by the Insubres, a Celtic people which dwelt in the 4th–5th centuries BCE. in the area of pre-Alpine lakes and Milan.</ref> (1786–1788), which included scientific names for birds and mammals in northwestern Italy described by Pierre Sonnerat in the accounts of his voyages.

Scopoli corresponded with [[Biography:Carl Linnaeus|Carl Linnaeus]], a Swedish botanist who laid the foundations of modern [[Biology:Taxonomy|taxonomy]].<ref name="Soban"/> Scopoli communicated all of his research, findings, and descriptions (for example of the [[Biology:Olm|olm]] and the dormouse, two little animals hitherto unknown to Linnaeus). Linnaeus greatly respected him and showed great interest in his work. Because of a great distance, they never met.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theslovenian.com/articles/soban.htm |title=A Living Bond between Idrija and Uppsala |access-date=1 December 2007 |last=Soban |first=Branko |date=January 2005 |work=Slovenija.svet  |publisher=Slovene Emigrant Association}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Scopoli |first=Giovanni Antonio|title=Joannes A. Scopoli-Carl Linnaeus. Dopisovanje/Correspondence 1760–1775 |editor-first=Darinka |editor-last=Soban |publisher=Slovenian Natural history society |location=Ljubljana |year=2004 |isbn=961-90751-2-9 }}</ref>

Scopoli is frequently mentioned by Gilbert White in his ''The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne''.

==Works==
[[File:Giovanni Antonio Scopoli - Flora Carniolica.pdf|thumb|page=5|''Flora Carniolica'' (1760)]]
* [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/6681#/summary ''Flora Carniolica'' (1760)]: a [[Earth:Flora|flora]] of Carniola, part of modern-day Slovenia
[[File:Scopoli, Giovanni Antonio – Principia mineralogiae systematicae et practicae, 1772 – BEIC 11984140.jpg|thumb|''Principia mineralogiae systematicae et practicae, 1772'']]
**  {{cite book|last1=Scopoli|first1=Giovanni Antonio|title=Flora Carniolica exhibens plantas Carnioliae indigenas et distributas in classes, genera, species, varietates, ordine Linnaeano|date=1772|publisher=Ioannis Pauli Krauss|location=Vindobonensis (Vienna)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jl9CAAAAYAAJ}}: A revised second edition of the first elaborate description of the flora of Carniola, undertaken when Scopoli lived in Idrija. It has 66 plates engraved by J. F. Rein after original drawings by Scopoli. Whereas the unillustrated first edition of 1760 of 600 pages had no binary names for the plant species, this edition has binary names and is written in the Linnaean tradition in all other respects as well.
*''De Hydroargyro Idriensi Tentamina'' (1761): a medical work on the symptoms of mercury poisoning among miners.
*''Entomologia Carniolica''. Vienna: Trattner. (1763): a major work on [[Biology:Entomology|entomology]] containing many descriptions of new species.
* {{Cite book|title=Entomologia Carniolica|volume=|publisher=Johann Thomas von Trattner (1.)|location=Wien|year=1763|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=804216}}
*''Joh. Ant. Scopoli der Arzneywissenschaft Doktors, Ihro... Majest. Cameralphysici in der Bergstadt Idria ... Einleitung zur Kenntniß und Gebrauch der Foßilien,'' Hartknoch4031. Göttingen: Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Riga (1769). In German. Doctoral Thesis.
*''Anni Historico-Naturales'' (1769–1772): This work included descriptions of new birds.
* {{Cite book|title=Principia mineralogiae systematicae et practicae|volume=|publisher=Wolfgang Gerle|location=Praha|year=1772|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=11984140}}
* {{Cite book|title=Crystallographia Hungarica|volume=|publisher=Wolfgang Gerle|location=Praha|year=1776|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=11983525}}
*''Introductio ad historiam naturalem, sistens genera lapidum, plantarum et animalium hactenus detecta, caracteribus essentialibus donata, in tribus divisa, subinde ad leges naturae''. Prague. (1777): masterwork of natural history describing world genera and species.
*''Fundamenta Botanica Praelectionibus publicis accomodata''. Papiae, S. Salvatoris (1783): A botanical classic with ten engraved plates each depicting ten to sixteen exact drawings.
*With Pierre Joseph Macquer, ''Dizionario di chimica del Sig. Pietro Giuseppe Macquer … Tradotto dal francese e corredato di note e di nuovi articoli...'' Pavia: printed at the Monastery of San Salvatore for G. Bianchi (1783–1784): The chemist Joseph Macquer's Dictionnaire de chymie, the first dictionary of theoretical and general chemistry was written it in haste and concerned about his reputation, Macquer published it anonymously in 1766. Its huge success prompted the preparation of a revised second edition (1778). Then Scopoli translated and extensively augmented it. A second edition of the translated work, without further additions was published in Venice in 1784–1785.
*''Deliciae Flora et Fauna Insubricae Ticini'' (1786–1788): an account including new descriptions of the birds and mammals collected by Pierre Sonnerat on his voyages.
* {{Cite book|title=Deliciae florae et faunae insubricae|volume=1|publisher=Stamperia del Monastero di S. Salvatore |location=Pavia|year=1786|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=11793122}}
* {{Cite book|title=Deliciae florae et faunae insubricae|volume=2|publisher=Stamperia del Monastero di S. Salvatore |location=Pavia|year=1786|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=11852020}}
* {{Cite book|title=Deliciae florae et faunae insubricae|volume=3|publisher=Stamperia del Monastero di S. Salvatore |location=Pavia|year=1788|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=11852554}}

==Some taxa named by Scopoli==
*''Anser albifrons'' (Scopoli, 1769) Greater White-fronted Goose 
*''Oxyura leucocephala'' (Scopoli, 1769) White-headed Duck 
*''Calonectris diomedea'' (Scopoli, 1769) Scopoli’s Shearwater 
*''Ardeola ralloides'' (Scopoli, 1769) Squacco Heron 
*''Porzana parva'' (Scopoli, 1769) Little Crake 
*''Charadrius dubius'' (Scopoli, 1786) Little Ringed Plover 
*''Tyto alba'' (Scopoli, 1769) Western Barn Owl 
*''Athene noctua'' (Scopoli, 1769) Little Owl 
*''Ptyonoprogne rupestris'' (Scopoli, 1769) Eurasian Crag Martin 
*''Prunella collaris'' (Scopoli, 1769) Alpine Accentor 
*''Emberiza melanocephala'' Scopoli, 1769 Black-headed Bunting 
*''Psittacula krameri'' (Scopoli, 1769) Rose-ringed Parakeet
*''[[Biology:Emerita (crustacean)|Emerita]]'' (genus) 1777, mole crab, sand crab, sand bug ([[Biology:Hippidae|Hippidae]]), East Pacific sandy seashores
*''[[Biology:Battus (butterfly)|Battus]]'' (genus) 1777, Swallowtail butterfly ([[Biology:Papilionidae|Papilionidae]]), South America
*''[[Biology:Rhagonycha fulva|Rhagonycha fulva]]'' 1763, soldier beetle ([[Biology:Cantharidae|Cantharidae]]), Europe
*''[[Biology:Cucujus cinnaberinus|Cucujus cinnaberinus]]'' 1763, flat bark beetle ([[Biology:Cucujidae|Cucujidae]]), Europe
*''[[Biology:Osmoderma eremita|Osmoderma eremita]]'' 1763, hermit beetle ([[Biology:Scarabaeidae|Scarabaeidae]]), Europe
*''[[Biology:Sargus bipunctatus|Sargus bipunctatus]]'' 1763, soldier fly species ([[Biology:Diptera|Diptera]]), Europe
*''Bombus pascuorum'' 1763, [[Biology:Bumblebee|bumblebee]] species ([[Biology:Hymenoptera|Hymenoptera]]), Europe
*''Aphis fabae'' 1763, bean aphid (Hemiptera), Worldwide
*Proboscidea (Order, invalid) 1763, thrips, cicadas, [[Biology:Hemiptera|Hemiptera]]: major grouping in ''Entomologia Carniolica''
*''[[Biology:Amanita caesarea|Amanita caesarea]]'' 1772, Caesar's mushroom (edible and highly prized)
*''[[Biology:Laccaria laccata|Laccaria laccata]]'' 1772, deceiver mushroom
*Caudata (Order, invalid), [[Biology:Salamander|salamander]]s: clade as major grouping of [[Biology:Amphibian|Amphibian]]s
*''[[Biology:Dolichovespula sylvestris|Dolichovespula sylvestris]]'' 1763, tree wasp, Europe and Asia<ref name = "bwars">{{cite web |url=http://www.bwars.com/index.php?q=wasp/vespidae/vespinae/dolichovespula-sylvestris |title=''Dolichovespula sylvestris'' (Scopoli, 1763) |publisher=Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society |author=T. Ings & R. Edwards |year=2002|access-date=20 September 2014}}</ref>

==Some taxa dedicated to Scopoli==
*''[[Biology:Scopolia|Scopolia]]'', a genus of plants, and the [[Chemistry:Alkaloid|alkaloid]] scopolamine isolated from such plants
*''Scopolia'', a genus of moths
*''[[Biology:Cerambyx scopolii|Cerambyx scopolii]] '' (Fuessly, 1775), a [[Biology:Longhorn beetle|longhorn beetle]] ([[Biology:Cerambycidae|Cerambycidae]]), Europe
*''[[Biology:Dorcadion scopolii|Dorcadion scopolii]]'' (Herbst, 1784), a [[Biology:Longhorn beetle|longhorn beetle]] ([[Biology:Cerambycidae|Cerambycidae]]), Europe
*Scops owl

{{botanist|Scop.}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
* {{BHL author}}
* {{OL author}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Scopoli, Giovanni Antonio}}
[[Category:Phycologists]]
[[Category:Pteridologists]]

{{Sourceattribution|Giovanni Antonio Scopoli}}