Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti
Encyclopedia
Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti (December 4, 1735, Vienna – February 17, 1805, Vienna) was an Austria
n naturalist
of Italian origin.
Laurenti is considered the auctor
of the class
Reptilia (reptiles) through his authorship of (1768) on the poisonous function of reptile
s and amphibian
s. This was an important book in herpetology
, defining thirty genera of reptiles; Carl Linnaeus's 10th edition
of Systema Naturae
in 1758 defined only ten genera. In 1768, Laurenti also published an Italian manuscript titled (The Dragon) describing the blind salamander (amphibian): Proteus anguinus, purportedly collected from cave waters in Slovenia
(or possibly western Croatia
); this description represented one of the first published accounts of a cave animal in the western world.
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 naturalist
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...
of Italian origin.
Laurenti is considered the auctor
Auctor
Auctor is Latin for author or originator. The term is used in Scholasticism for a "renowned scholar", and in alpha taxonomy for the scientist describing a species. The term is widely replaced by author in zoological nomenclature, but is still in use in botany.Related to the notion of legitimacy on...
of the class
Class (biology)
In biological classification, class is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, order, family, genus, and species, with class fitting between phylum and order...
Reptilia (reptiles) through his authorship of (1768) on the poisonous function of reptile
Reptile
Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...
s and amphibian
Amphibian
Amphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods...
s. This was an important book in herpetology
Herpetology
Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians and reptiles...
, defining thirty genera of reptiles; Carl Linnaeus's 10th edition
10th edition of Systema Naturae
The 10th edition of Systema Naturae was a book written by Carl Linnaeus and published in two volumes in 1758 and 1759, which marks the starting point of zoological nomenclature...
of Systema Naturae
Systema Naturae
The book was one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carolus Linnaeus. The first edition was published in 1735...
in 1758 defined only ten genera. In 1768, Laurenti also published an Italian manuscript titled (The Dragon) describing the blind salamander (amphibian): Proteus anguinus, purportedly collected from cave waters in Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
(or possibly western Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
); this description represented one of the first published accounts of a cave animal in the western world.