Pierre Magnol
Encyclopedia
Pierre Magnol was a French
botanist. He was born in the city of Montpellier
, where he lived and worked for the biggest part of his life. He eventually became Professor of Botany and Director of the Royal Botanic Garden of Montpellier and even held a seat in the Académie Royale des Sciences de Paris
for a short while. Magnol is of lasting importance because he was one of the innovators of the current botanical scheme of classification. He was the first to publish the concept of plant families as we know them, a natural classification, in which groups of plants with associated common features were described.
In Magnol's days, the study of botany and medicine were inseparable. Thus he enrolled as a student in medicine at the University of Montpellier
on May 19, 1655.
Montpellier is an old city and in Magnol's days it had already been an important commercial and educational centre for several ages. The University of Montpellier
was officially founded in 1289 (though it is said to be older) and it was the first French university to establish a botanic garden, donated in 1593 by Henry IV of France
, for the study of medicine and pharmacology. Its medical school attracted students from all over Europe. Famous botanists such as François Rabelais
(c. 1493-1553), Leonhart Fuchs
(1501-1566), Guillaume Rondelet
(1507-1566), Charles de l'Ecluse
(1526-1609) and Pierre Richer de Belleval
(c. 1564-1632) all studied at this university. So it was in one of the intellectual and botanical capitals that Magnol took his education. He got his doctor's degree (M.D.) on January 11, 1659. After receiving his degree, his attention once again shifted to botany, this time even more serious.
and Magnol was raised in the tradition of Calvinism
. At that time, Roman Catholicism was the official state church, but since the Edict of Nantes
(1598), Protestants officially had religious freedom and the right to work in any field or for the state. The edict did not end religious persecution and discrimination. In his life, Magnol was several times denied a position because of religious discrimination. With the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, Magnol renounced Protestantism, and was converted to Catholicism.
, the Provence
, to the Alpes
and to the Pyrenees
. In 1664 there was a vacancy for 'Demonstrator of plants' in Montpellier and Magnol was proposed for the position. He was denied the appointment because of religious discrimination. This happened again in 1667 when he was the leading candidate for the chair of Professor of medicine.
Meanwhile Magnol had contacts with many prominent botanist and was highly esteemed by his contemporaries. He corresponded with John Ray
, William Sherard
and James Petiver
(England), Paul Hermann
and Petrus Houttuyn
(Leiden), Jan Commelin
(Amsterdam), J.H. Lavater (Zurich
) and J. Salvador (Barcelona
), among others.
In 1687, after his conversion to Catholicism, Magnol eventually became 'Demonstrator of plants' at the botanic garden of Montpellier. In 1693, recommended by Guy-Crescent Fagon
(1638-1718), then court physician, and his own student Joseph Pitton de Tournefort
(1656-1708), he was nominated 'doctor to the kings court'. In 1694 he finally was appointed Professor of medicine at the University of Montpellier. Through intervention of Fagon, he received a brevet de professeur royale. Magnol was also appointed Director of the botanic garden in 1696, for a three year period. After that, he received the title 'Inspector of the garden' for the rest of his life.
Magnol was one of the founding members of the Société Royale des Sciences de Montpellier (1706) and held one of the three chairs in botany. In 1709 he was called to Paris to occupy the seat in the Académie Royale des Sciences de Paris that was left empty when his former student Joseph Pitton de Tournefort died prematurely.
Among Magnol's students were Tournefort and the brothers Antoine
and Bernard de Jussieu
.
1686, Botanicum Monspeliense, sive Plantarum circa Monspelium nascentium index. Adduntur variarum plantarum descriptiones et icones. Cum appendice quae plantas de novo repertas continet et errata emendat. Montpellier. [Flora of Montpellier, or rather a list of the plants growing around Montpellier, with descriptions and plates of several plants added. With an appendix that contains plants newly found and corrects [previously made] errors]
1689, Prodromus historiae generalis plantarum, in quo familiae plantarum per tabulas disponuntur. Montpellier. [Precursor to a general history of plants, in which the families of plants are arranged in tables]
1697, Hortus regius Monspeliense, sive Catalogus plantarum quae in Horto Regio Monspeliensi demonstrantur. Montpellier. [The royal garden of Montpellier, or rather a catalogue of the plants that are on show in the royal garden of Montpellier]
1720, Novus caracter [sic] plantarum, in duo tractatus divisus: primus, de herbis & subfructibus, secundus, de fructibus & arboribus. Montpellier, posthumous edition, attended to by his son, Antoine Magnol
(1676-1759). [New character of plants, divided into two treatises: the first on herbs and small shrublike plants, the second on shrubs and trees]
(1646-1704) gave a flowering tree from the island of Martinique the genus name Magnolia, after Magnol. The name was later adopted by Linnaeus
in the first edition of Species plantarum
, with a reference to Plumier's name. This way, Magnolia became the name of the large genus of ornamental flowering trees as we know it to date. See Origin of the name Magnolia.
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
botanist. He was born in the city of Montpellier
Montpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
, where he lived and worked for the biggest part of his life. He eventually became Professor of Botany and Director of the Royal Botanic Garden of Montpellier and even held a seat in the Académie Royale des Sciences de Paris
French Academy of Sciences
The French Academy of Sciences is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research...
for a short while. Magnol is of lasting importance because he was one of the innovators of the current botanical scheme of classification. He was the first to publish the concept of plant families as we know them, a natural classification, in which groups of plants with associated common features were described.
Youth and education
Pierre Magnol was born into a family of apothecaries (pharmacists). His father Claude ran a pharmacy as did his grandfather Jean Magnol. Pierre's mother was from a family of physicians. Pierre's older brother Cesar succeeded his father in the pharmacy. Pierre, being one of the younger children, had more freedom to choose his own profession, and wanted to become a physician. He had become devoted to natural history and especially botany at an early stage in his life, which might be regarded as self-evident for a son of a pharmacist.In Magnol's days, the study of botany and medicine were inseparable. Thus he enrolled as a student in medicine at the University of Montpellier
University of Montpellier
The University of Montpellier was a French university in Montpellier in the Languedoc-Roussillon région of the south of France. Its present-day successor universities are the University of Montpellier 1, Montpellier 2 University and Paul Valéry University, Montpellier III.-History:The university...
on May 19, 1655.
Montpellier is an old city and in Magnol's days it had already been an important commercial and educational centre for several ages. The University of Montpellier
University of Montpellier
The University of Montpellier was a French university in Montpellier in the Languedoc-Roussillon région of the south of France. Its present-day successor universities are the University of Montpellier 1, Montpellier 2 University and Paul Valéry University, Montpellier III.-History:The university...
was officially founded in 1289 (though it is said to be older) and it was the first French university to establish a botanic garden, donated in 1593 by Henry IV of France
Henry IV of France
Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....
, for the study of medicine and pharmacology. Its medical school attracted students from all over Europe. Famous botanists such as François Rabelais
François Rabelais
François Rabelais was a major French Renaissance writer, doctor, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He has historically been regarded as a writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, bawdy jokes and songs...
(c. 1493-1553), Leonhart Fuchs
Leonhart Fuchs
Leonhart Fuchs , sometimes spelled Leonhard Fuchs, was a German physician and one of the three founding fathers of botany, along with Otto Brunfels and Hieronymus Bock .-Biography:...
(1501-1566), Guillaume Rondelet
Guillaume Rondelet
Guillaume Rondelet , known also as Rondeletus , was Regus Professor of medicine at the University of Montpellier in southern France and Chancellor of the University between 1556 and his death in 1566. He achieved renown as an anatomist and a naturalist with a particular interest in botany and zoology...
(1507-1566), Charles de l'Ecluse
Charles de l'Écluse
Charles de l'Écluse, L'Escluse, or Carolus Clusius , seigneur de Watènes, was a Flemish doctor and pioneering botanist, perhaps the most influential of all 16th century scientific horticulturists....
(1526-1609) and Pierre Richer de Belleval
Pierre Richer de Belleval
Pierre Richer de Belleval , was a French botanist. He is considered the father of scientific botany.Richer de Belleval was born in Châlons-en-Champagne. His father was N. Richer or Richier. He first went to Montpellier to study medicine in 1584, but ended up receiving his MD from Avignon in 1587...
(c. 1564-1632) all studied at this university. So it was in one of the intellectual and botanical capitals that Magnol took his education. He got his doctor's degree (M.D.) on January 11, 1659. After receiving his degree, his attention once again shifted to botany, this time even more serious.
Religion
Montpellier was a bastion of ProtestantismProtestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
and Magnol was raised in the tradition of Calvinism
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
. At that time, Roman Catholicism was the official state church, but since the Edict of Nantes
Edict of Nantes
The Edict of Nantes, issued on 13 April 1598, by Henry IV of France, granted the Calvinist Protestants of France substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. In the Edict, Henry aimed primarily to promote civil unity...
(1598), Protestants officially had religious freedom and the right to work in any field or for the state. The edict did not end religious persecution and discrimination. In his life, Magnol was several times denied a position because of religious discrimination. With the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, Magnol renounced Protestantism, and was converted to Catholicism.
Career
In December 1663 Magnol received the honorary title brevet de médecine royal through mediation of Antoine Vallot, an influential physician of the king. No means of his financial stability are mentioned (Magnol did not have a wealthy family to support him) but it is suggested that he was practicing medicine and had an income out of that. From 1659 on he devoted much of his time to the study of botany and made several trips through the LanguedocLanguedoc
Languedoc is a former province of France, now continued in the modern-day régions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées in the south of France, and whose capital city was Toulouse, now in Midi-Pyrénées. It had an area of approximately 42,700 km² .-Geographical Extent:The traditional...
, the Provence
Provence
Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...
, to the Alpes
Alpes
Alpes may refer to:*Alpes-de-Haute-Provence , a French department in the south of France*Hautes-Alpes, a department in southeastern France*Alpes-Maritimes, a department in the extreme southeast corner of France...
and to the Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
. In 1664 there was a vacancy for 'Demonstrator of plants' in Montpellier and Magnol was proposed for the position. He was denied the appointment because of religious discrimination. This happened again in 1667 when he was the leading candidate for the chair of Professor of medicine.
Meanwhile Magnol had contacts with many prominent botanist and was highly esteemed by his contemporaries. He corresponded with John Ray
John Ray
John Ray was an English naturalist, sometimes referred to as the father of English natural history. Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray. From then on, he used 'Ray', after "having ascertained that such had been the practice of his family before him".He published important works on botany,...
, William Sherard
William Sherard
William Sherard was an English botanist. Next to John Ray, he was considered to be one of the outstanding English botanists of his day.-Life:...
and James Petiver
James Petiver
James Petiver was a London apothecary, a Fellow of the Royal Society as well as London's informal Temple Coffee House Botany Club, famous for his study of botany and entomology.-Life:...
(England), Paul Hermann
Paul Hermann
Paul Hermann was a German born physician and botanist who for 15 years was director of the Hortus Botanicus Leiden....
and Petrus Houttuyn
Petrus Houttuyn
Petrus Houttuyn , often cited as Peter Hotton, was a Dutch botanist and medical professor of medicine and botany at Leiden University...
(Leiden), Jan Commelin
Jan Commelin
Jan Commelin , also known as Jan Commelijn or Johannes Commelinus, was the son of Isaac Commelin a historian; his brother Casparus was a bookseller and newspaper publisher. Jan a botanist became a professor of botany when many plants were imported from the Cape and Ceylon and a new system had to be...
(Amsterdam), J.H. Lavater (Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
) and J. Salvador (Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
), among others.
In 1687, after his conversion to Catholicism, Magnol eventually became 'Demonstrator of plants' at the botanic garden of Montpellier. In 1693, recommended by Guy-Crescent Fagon
Guy-Crescent Fagon
Guy-Crescent Fagon was a physician and botanist. He came from nobility and his great uncle, Guy de La Brosse, had founded the Royal Gardens. Fagon was director of the gardens too. His significance in botany is reflected in the genus Fagonia being named after him. He also acted as the physician of...
(1638-1718), then court physician, and his own student Joseph Pitton de Tournefort
Joseph Pitton de Tournefort
Joseph Pitton de Tournefort was a French botanist, notable as the first to make a clear definition of the concept of genus for plants.- Biography :...
(1656-1708), he was nominated 'doctor to the kings court'. In 1694 he finally was appointed Professor of medicine at the University of Montpellier. Through intervention of Fagon, he received a brevet de professeur royale. Magnol was also appointed Director of the botanic garden in 1696, for a three year period. After that, he received the title 'Inspector of the garden' for the rest of his life.
Magnol was one of the founding members of the Société Royale des Sciences de Montpellier (1706) and held one of the three chairs in botany. In 1709 he was called to Paris to occupy the seat in the Académie Royale des Sciences de Paris that was left empty when his former student Joseph Pitton de Tournefort died prematurely.
Among Magnol's students were Tournefort and the brothers Antoine
Antoine de Jussieu
Antoine de Jussieu was a French naturalist.Jussieu was born in Lyon, the son of Christophe de Jussieu , an apothecary of some repute, who published a Nouveau traité de la theriaque . Antoine studied at the university of Montpellier, and travelled with his brother Bernard through Spain, Portugal...
and Bernard de Jussieu
Bernard de Jussieu
Bernard de Jussieu was a French naturalist, younger brother of Antoine de Jussieu.Bernard de Jussieu was born in Lyon...
.
Major contribution to science
Magnol's most important contribution to science is without doubt the invention of the concept of plant families, a natural classification, based on combinations of morphological characters, as set out in his Prodromus historiae generalis plantarum, in quo familiae plantarum per tabulas disponuntur (1689) (See under major works). In Magnol's day it was common belief that all species had come into existence by divine creation as set out in the Book of Genesis, in which case there's no cause to assume family ties between species. Remember that Magnol was a convinced Protestant. Nevertheless his work may be regarded as one of the first steps towards the composition of a tree of life. In his Prodromus he developed 75 tables, which not only grouped plants into families but also allowed for an easy and rapid identification by means of the morphological characters, the same he used to compose the groups.Major works
1676, Botanicum Monspeliense, sive Plantarum circa Monspelium nascentium index. Lyon. [Flora of Montpellier, or rather a list of the plants growing around Montpellier]1686, Botanicum Monspeliense, sive Plantarum circa Monspelium nascentium index. Adduntur variarum plantarum descriptiones et icones. Cum appendice quae plantas de novo repertas continet et errata emendat. Montpellier. [Flora of Montpellier, or rather a list of the plants growing around Montpellier, with descriptions and plates of several plants added. With an appendix that contains plants newly found and corrects [previously made] errors]
1689, Prodromus historiae generalis plantarum, in quo familiae plantarum per tabulas disponuntur. Montpellier. [Precursor to a general history of plants, in which the families of plants are arranged in tables]
1697, Hortus regius Monspeliense, sive Catalogus plantarum quae in Horto Regio Monspeliensi demonstrantur. Montpellier. [The royal garden of Montpellier, or rather a catalogue of the plants that are on show in the royal garden of Montpellier]
1720, Novus caracter [sic] plantarum, in duo tractatus divisus: primus, de herbis & subfructibus, secundus, de fructibus & arboribus. Montpellier, posthumous edition, attended to by his son, Antoine Magnol
Antoine Magnol
Antoine Magnol was a French physician and botanist who was born in Montpellier. He was the son of famed botanist Pierre Magnol , whom he replaced as chair at the University of Montpellier in 1715...
(1676-1759). [New character of plants, divided into two treatises: the first on herbs and small shrublike plants, the second on shrubs and trees]
Eponymy
In 1703 Charles PlumierCharles Plumier
Charles Plumier was a French botanist, after whom the Frangipani genus Plumeria is named. Plumier is considered one of the most important of the botanical explorers of his time...
(1646-1704) gave a flowering tree from the island of Martinique the genus name Magnolia, after Magnol. The name was later adopted by Linnaeus
Carolus Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...
in the first edition of Species plantarum
Species Plantarum
Species Plantarum was first published in 1753, as a two-volume work by Carl Linnaeus. Its prime importance is perhaps that it is the primary starting point of plant nomenclature as it exists today. This means that the first names to be considered validly published in botany are those that appear...
, with a reference to Plumier's name. This way, Magnolia became the name of the large genus of ornamental flowering trees as we know it to date. See Origin of the name Magnolia.
External links
- http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/rhatch/pages/03-Sci-Rev/SCI-REV-Home/resource-ref-read/major-minor-ind/westfall-dsb/SAM-M.htm