Carlo Antonio Fornasini

Carlo Antonio Fornasini (1802/18051865) was an Italian ivory trader and amateur field naturalist who worked in Mozambique. He collected numerous specimens of animals, insects and plants, and presented them to the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna in his home city for scientific study. He is remembered for having had several taxa named in his honour during his lifetime.

Biography

Little seems to be known of his life or background. The honorific ''cavaliere'' (roughly equivalent to the British 'Sir'; in the Latin-language sources which mention him, ''eques'') suggests that he himself or his family had some civil distinction. He was from Bologna. Either, he travelled to Pernambuco in Brazil, and, on returning by way of Lisbon and Genoa to Bologna, was encouraged by Professor Antonio Bertoloni and by Count Camilla Salina to pursue in Africa his interest in natural history, and travelled to Mozambique; or, the House of Salina took a paternal interest in him, he left Bologna for Lisbon to pursue a career in commerce, and from there he went to Mozambique. He was a trader in ivory. In a letter dated 1843, he said that he had first visited Mozambique twelve years earlier. He was active as a naturalist in the Inhambane area of Mozambique from 1839 or from 1842. He presented the many natural history specimens he collected during his time in Africa to the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna, where they were studied by Antonio Bertoloni (1775-1869, physician and botanist), his son Giuseppe Bertoloni (1804-1874, botanist and entomologist), and Giovanni Giuseppe Bianconi (1809-1878, zoologist, herpetologist, botanist and geologist), all professors at the University of Bologna, all full of praise for his labours., ewto us). It would seem fair to say that Fornasini was central to both their scientific careers. Antonio Alessandrini, another professor at the university, called him 'courageous' ( it, coraggioso).). (Bertoloni's remarks about the hazards of dealing with "naked black savages" except from an armed merchant ship may perhaps be overstated. History suggests that native inhabitants were often willing to trade with foreign visitors on mutually advantageous terms.) German naturalist and explorer Wilhelm Peters (1815-1883), who had been in Mozambique from 1843 to 1848, in 1852 called the climate of Mozambique 'hostile to Europeans' (german: Das Klima ist den Europäern ..feindselig); and apologised for being so slow in writing up his discoveries, because he had been recovering from the tropical fevers he had contracted there. He was last mentioned in the scientific annals of Bologna in 1866.

He does not seem to have written any scientific papers. He is not named as author in any of the journals published by the Academy of Sciences between 1834 and 1866.

Taxa named in honour

These are (in date order of the epithet ''fornasini'' and suchlike):
*''Anthia fornasinii'' G.Bertoloni 1845, a ground beetle
*Thornback cowfish, ''Lactoria fornasini'' Bianconi 1846 (as ''Ostracion fornasini''), a marine fish
* Fornasini's blind snake, ''Afrotyphlops fornasinii'' Bianconi 1849 (as ''Typhlops fornasinii'')
* Fornasini's spiny reed frog, ''Afrixalus fornasini'' Bianconi 1849 (as ''Euchnemis fornasini'')
*'' Fornasinia'' Bertol. 1849, a genus of legume in family Leguminosae
* '' Fornasinia ebenifera'' Bertol. 1849 (type species), a species in genus ''Fornasinia''
* ' Bianconi 1851 (as ''Menippe fornasinii''), a crab in genus ' in family Menippidae
* ' G.Bertoloni 1853, a genus of scarab beetle in subfamily Cetoniinae
* ' G.Bertoloni 1853 (as ''Goliathus fornasini''; type species), a species in genus ''Fornasinius''
*''Fulvia fragilis'' Forsskål in Niebuhr 1775, ''Cardium fornasinianum'' Bianconi 1856, a cockle (a shellfish) in genus ''Fulvia''
*''Eleotris fusca'' Forster 1801, ''Eleotris fornasini'' Bianconi 1856, a freshwater and estuarine fish
*Harlequin quail, ''Coturnix delegorguei'' Delegorgue 1847, ''Coturnix fornasini'' Bianconi 1865, a bird

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fornasini, Carlo Antonio
Year of birth uncertain
1800s births
Scientists from Bologna
1865 deaths
Date of death unknown
Place of death unknown
19th-century Italian botanists
19th-century Italian zoologists
Businesspeople from Bologna
19th-century Italian businesspeople