Augustus Quirinus Rivinus (9 December 1652 – 20 December 1723), also known as August Bachmann or A. Q. Bachmann, was a German

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

who helped to develop better ways of classifying plants.

Life and work

Rivinus was born in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, and studied at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

(1669–1671), continued his studies in the

University of Helmstedt The University of Helmstedt (german: Universität Helmstedt; official Latin name: ''Academia Julia'', "Julius University"), was a university in Helmstedt in the Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel that existed from 1576 until 1810. History Founded ...

(where he received M.D. in 1676). In 1677, he started lecturing in medicine at the University of Leipzig, in 1691 appointed to two chairs, that of physiology and of botany, and made the curator of the University medical garden. In 1701, he became professor of pathology, in 1719, professor of therapeutics and permanent dean of the Faculty of Medicine. The same year he became a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. Because of his interest also in astronomy, by the last decade of his life (around 1713), Rivinus was nearly completely blind from looking at sunspots. He died in Leipzig. In his ''Introductio generalis in rem herbariam'' and three books on the plant orders (which comprised but a small part of the whole projected work on a methodical description of plants), Rivinus introduced several important innovations which were later used by other botanists (

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (5 June 165628 December 1708) was a French botanist, notable as the first to make a clear definition of the concept of genus for plants. Botanist Charles Plumier was his pupil and accompanied him on his voyages. Lif ...

and

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

among them). He classified the plants according to the structure of the flower. Like

John Ray John Ray FRS (29 November 1627 – 17 January 1705) was a Christian English naturalist widely regarded as one of the earliest of the English parson-naturalists. Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray. From then on, he used 'Ray', after ...

he extensively used dichotomous keys which led first to the higher groups, which he called higher genera ''(genus summum)'' of plant orders ''(ordo)'', and then to the lower genera. Along with

, Rivinus was the first to apply consistently the rule that the names of all species in a genus should start with the same word (generic name). If a genus contained just one species, the generic name would be its only name. If there were more than one species in the genus, their names should consist of the generic name followed by ''differentia specifica'' (a brief diagnostic phrase). His nomenclature differed from de Tournefort's in not using a diagnostic phrase with the first plant of a genus, adding ''differentiae'' only to the second and subsequent plant species. He corresponded with

on matters of plant classification.

Principal works

*''Introductio generalis in rem herbariam.'' Lipsiae

: Typis Christoph. Güntheri, 1690. + 39 p
Digital edition
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Beic Digital Library
*''Ordo Plantarum qvae sunt Flore Irregulari Monopetalo.'' Lipsiae: Typis Christoph. Fleischeri, 1690. 22 + p. + 124 tab
Digital edition
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Beic Digital Library
*''Ordo Plantarum qvae sunt Flore Irregulari Tetrapetalo.'' Lipsiae: Typis Christoph. Fleischeri, 1691. + 20 + p. + 121 tab. *''Ordo Plantarum qvae sunt Flore Irregulari Pentapetalo.'' Lipsiae: Typis Joh. Heinrici Richteri, 1699. + 28 + p. + 139 tab
Digital edition
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Beic Digital Library
*''D.A.Q.R. ad celeberrimum virum dominum Johan. Rajum... Epistola'' Lipsiae: Prostat apud Davidem Fleisherum, 1694. 24 p. *''Censura medicamentorum officinalium.'' Lipsiae, J. Fritsch, 1701 *''Manuductio ad Chemiam pharmaceuticam'' Norimbergae, Tauber, 171
Digital edition
by the

University and State Library Düsseldorf The University and State Library Düsseldorf (german: Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf, abbreviated ULB Düsseldorf) is a central service institution of Heinrich Heine University. Along with Bonn and Münster, it is also one of th ...

Associated eponyms

* ''notch of Rivinus'': a notch in the upper part of the tympanic portion of the

temporal bone The temporal bones are situated at the sides and base of the skull, and lateral to the temporal lobes of the cerebral cortex. The temporal bones are overlaid by the sides of the head known as the temples, and house the structures of the ears. Th ...

* ''Rivinus’ ligament'': also known as Shrapnell's membrane; the flaccid portion of the

tympanic membrane In the anatomy of humans and various other tetrapods, the eardrum, also called the tympanic membrane or myringa, is a thin, cone-shaped membrane that separates the external ear from the middle ear. Its function is to transmit sound from the air ...

. * ''

Viola riviniana ''Viola riviniana'', the common dog-violet, is a species of flowering plant in the family Violaceae, native to Eurasia and Africa. It is also called wood violet and dog violet. It inhabits woodland edges, grassland and shady hedge banks. It is f ...

'': a species of violet; its popular name is the common dog violet. * Ducts of Rivinus: The collective name for the minor sublingual salivary ducts. * ''

Rivina ''Rivina'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Petiveriaceae. The name honors German botanist Augustus Quirinus Rivinus (1652-1723). Selected species * '' Rivina brasiliensis'' Nocca * ''Rivina humilis'' L. – Pigeonberry ( Ameri ...

'', a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s in the

pokeweed ''Phytolacca americana'', also known as American pokeweed, pokeweed, poke sallet, dragonberries, and inkberry, is a poisonous, herbaceous perennial plant in the pokeweed family Phytolaccaceae. This pokeweed grows . It has simple leaves on green ...

family,

Phytolaccaceae Phytolaccaceae is a family (biology), family of flowering plants. Though almost universally recognized by Taxonomy (biology), taxonomists, its circumscription has varied. It is also known as the Pokeweed family. The APG II system, of 2003 (unch ...

Life and work

Principal works

Associated eponyms

See also

References

Further reading