Giacomo Damiani (August 1871,
Portoferraio
Portoferraio () is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Livorno, on the edge of the eponymous harbour of the island of Elba. It is the island's largest city. Because of its terrain, many of its buildings are situated on the slopes of a tiny h ...
– 1944) was an
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
ichthyologist and
ornithologist
Born into a wealthy family on
Elba island
Elba ( it, isola d'Elba, ; la, Ilva) is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano National ...
, Giacomo Damiani graduated from the
University of Genoa
The University of Genoa, known also with the acronym UniGe ( it, Università di Genova), is one of the largest universities in Italy. It is located in the city of Genoa and regional Metropolitan City of Genoa, on the Italian Riviera in the Liguri ...
and became a
teacher
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...
of
Natural Sciences
Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...
in secondary schools. By the age of 20, in 1891 he was in contact with
Enrico Giglioli, the leading Italian ornithologist of the time, who was based at the museum in Florence. He was instrumental in assembling a zoological collection called “la collezione Elbana” at Villa San Martino (
:it:Villa di San Martino), now dispersed. Many of his specimens are in the
La Specola
The Museum of Zoology and Natural History, best known as La Specola, is an eclectic natural history museum in Florence, central Italy, located next to the Pitti Palace. The name '' Specola'' means observatory, a reference to the astronomical obser ...
museum in Florence.
Works
partial list:
*1892 ‘Rondini e Rondoni’ (martins and swifts) ''Bollettino del Naturalista''.
*1892 ‘Prima contribuzione alla ittiofauna del mare dell’Elba’ ''Bollettino del Naturalista'' Marine fish.
*1892 ‘Note ornitologiche dall’Elba the first of a series of papers with this title published during the next 20 years in the journal ''Avicula''.
*1909. Su alcuni rari scombridi dell'isola Elba (1898–1908). ''Bollettino della Società Zoologica Italiana, Roma'', ser. 2, 10, p. 106, 112, 113.
*1911. Sovra una Balaenoptera del novembre 1910 a Marciana Marina (Elba). ''Bollettino della Società Zoologica Italiana'', Roma 1911:50-57.
*1912 with
Conte Arrigoni degli Oddi E. Note sopra una raccolta di Uccelli dell'Arcipelago Toscano. ''Riv. ital. Orn.'' 1 (I s.): 241–261. Birds of the
Tuscan Archipelago.
References
* Nicola Baccetti1 & Joe Sultana, 2008 Local Ornithologists and the Early Study of Central Mediterranean Avifauna: the Role of Schembri and Damiani in the Maltese and Tuscan Islands, ''Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences'' Fourth Series Volume 59, Supplement I, No. 7, pp. 111–116, 2 figs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Damianie, Giacomo
Italian naturalists
Italian ornithologists
1944 deaths
1871 births
University of Genoa alumni