Dr Emerich Frivaldszky von Frivald (6 February 1799 in Bacskó,

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

(now Bačkov, Trebišov District,

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

) – 19 October 1870 in Jobbágyi, Hungary), known as Imre Frivaldszky, was a Hungarian

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 ...

and

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

Biography

Born into a family of landed gentry, Frivaldszky studied at the gymnasiums in

Sátoraljaújhely Sátoraljaújhely (; archaic german: Neustadt am Zeltberg ; sk, Nové Mesto pod Šiatrom; yi, איהעל, Ihel, or ) is a town located in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county in northern Hungary along the Slovak border. It is east from the county ...

and

Eger Eger ( , ; ; also known by other alternative names) is the county seat of Heves County, and the second largest city in Northern Hungary (after Miskolc). A city with county rights. Eger is best known for its castle, thermal baths, baroque build ...

, then philosophy at the Royal Academy of Kassa. He graduated in medicine from the University of Budapest in 1823. While still a student in Eger he accompanied

Pál Kitaibel Pál Kitaibel (3 February 1757 – 13 December 1817) was a Hungarian botanist and chemist. He was born at Nagymarton (today Mattersburg, Austria) and studied botany and chemistry at the University of Buda. In 1794 he became Professor and t ...

and Jószef Sadler on botanical excursions. By the time he graduated in medicine he was already assistant curator at the

Hungarian National Museum The Hungarian National Museum ( hu, Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum) was founded in 1802 and is the national museum for the history, art, and archaeology of Hungary, including areas not within Hungary's modern borders, such as Transylvania; it is not to ...

in Budapest in 1822, where he later served as curator until his retirement in 1851. In 1824 he abandoned the practice of medicine and spent the rest of his life as a botanist and zoologist. He made many collecting trips throughout

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

and Italy. Frivaldszky wrote extensively on plants, snakes, snails and especially insects (

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...

and

Coleoptera Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

). A large part of his huge entomological collection was destroyed in a flood in 1838, the rest in 1956 during the anticommunist revolution. Many of his specimens are in the

Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa The Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa is a natural history museum in the city of Pisa in Tuscany, Italy. It houses one of the largest collection of cetaceans skeletons in Europe. The museum's oldest collections are seashells co ...

. His nephew János Frivaldszky also became an entomologist and curator at the Hungarian National Museum.

Notes

* ''This article includes material from the Slovak and Hungarian Wikipedia.''

References

External links

Frivaldszky family website

Obituary in the Österreichische botanische Zeitschrift, 1870

Bálint Zs. and S Abadjev: ''An annotated list of Imre Frivaldszky’s publications''. Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Naturalis Hungarici 98:185,2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frivaldszky, Imre 1799 births 1870 deaths People from Trebišov District Botanists with author abbreviations 19th-century Hungarian botanists Hungarian entomologists Hungarian lepidopterists Pteridologists Members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences