Giorgio Jan
Encyclopedia
Taxonomy
Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...
, zoologist, botanist, herpetologist, and writer. He is also known as Georg Jan or Georges Jan.
After having been an assistant at the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
, Jan obtained the post of professor of botany at the university of Parma
Parma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
as well as becoming Director of the botanical garden. At that time, the duchy of Parma was no longer under Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n jurisdiction following the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo.
Giuseppe de Cristoforis
Giuseppe De Cristoforis
Giuseppe De Cristoforis was an Italian naturalist and collector....
died in 1837 bequeathing his collections to the town of Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
on condition that the municipality created a natural history museum whose direction had to be entrusted to Giorgio Jan, who offered his own collections. Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano was created the following year and is the oldest natural history museum of Italy. Jan immediately engaged Ferdinando Sordelli (1837–1916), artist and naturalist, who then illustrated his publications.
Jan’s main interest was botany, but he made immense collections of natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
, including fossils and minerals. With Giuseppe de Cristoforis
Giuseppe De Cristoforis
Giuseppe De Cristoforis was an Italian naturalist and collector....
, he published many catalogues of specimens, often offered for sale or exchange. In these many new species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
, were described mainly insects and molluscs.
In the scientific field of herpetology
Herpetology
Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians and reptiles...
he is credited with having described more than 85 new species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of snake
Snake
Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
s, and is honored by having several species named after him, such as the Texas night snake, Hypsiglena torquata jani
Hypsiglena torquata jani
The Texas night snake is a species of small colubrid snake native to the southern United States and Mexico. The epithet jani is in honor of Italian taxonomist Giorgio Jan.- Description :...
and the Mexican pine snake, Pituophis deppei jani. In the 1860s he began compiling what was to become Iconographie General des Ophidiens, an extensive illustrated collection of scientific papers relating to snakes, but he died before it was completed. The work was eventually finished and published in several parts by Sordelli.