Giorgio Jan (21 December 1791 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

– 8 May 1866,

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

) was an Italian taxonomist,

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

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 ...

, herpetologist, and writer. He is also known as Georg Jan or Georges Jan.

Biography

After having been an assistant at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

, Jan obtained the post of professor of botany at the university of

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

as well as becoming Director of the botanical garden. At that time, the duchy of Parma was no longer under

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n jurisdiction following the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

after the defeat of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

at Waterloo. Giuseppe de Cristoforis died in 1837 bequeathing his collections to the town of

on condition that the municipality created a natural history museum whose direction had to be entrusted to Giorgio Jan, who offered his own collections. The '' 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, including

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...

and

minerals In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2 ...

. With Giuseppe de Cristoforis, he published many catalogues of specimens, often offered for sale or exchange. In these many new

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, were described mainly insects and molluscs. In the scientific field of

herpetology Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and rept ...

he is credited with having described more than 85 new

snake Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Ma ...

s, and is honored by having several species and subspecies named after him, such as the Texas night snake (''

Hypsiglena torquata jani ''Hypsiglena jani'', commonly known as the Texas night snake or the Chihuahuan night snake, is a small species of mildly venomous snake in the Family (biology), family Colubridae. The species is native to the southwestern United States and adja ...

'' ), the Mexican pine snake ('' Pituophis deppei jani'' ), Jan's shovelsnout snake (''

Prosymna janii Prosymna ( grc, Πρόσυμνα) was a town in ancient Argolis, in whose territory the celebrated Heraeum, or temple of Hera, stood. Statius gives it the epithet "celsa." Pausanias mentions only a district of this name. According to Greek myt ...

'' #REDIREC

and Jan's centipede snake ('' Tantilla, Tantilla jani'' ). In the 1860s he began compiling what was to become the ''Iconographie Général 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.

Publications (incomplete list)

*''Iconographie Générale des Ophidians'' (1860–1866). (in French). (in French).

References

External links

''Museo Civico di Storia Naturale Milano''
(in Italian).
Gaedike R, Groll EK, Taeger A (2012). Bibliography of the literature on entomology from the beginning until 1863 : online database - version 1.0 - ''Senckenberg Deutsches Entomologisches Institut''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jan, Giorgio Italian entomologists 19th-century Italian botanists Italian zoologists Scientists from Vienna Academics of the University of Vienna University of Parma faculty 1791 births 1866 deaths

Biography

Publications (incomplete list)

References

Further reading

External links