Lamberto Loria (12 February 1855 – 4 April 1913) was an Italian

ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

, naturalist and

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

Biography

Born in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

from a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family, after the death of his mother Clara, he returned with his father Marco in Italy, in

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...

. Here he graduated in 1881 in mathematics.Lucia Cec
Lamberto Loria
in Treccani - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 66 (2006) Then he approached the Italian Society of Anthropology and Ethnology founded in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

Paolo Mantegazza Paolo Mantegazza (; 31 October 1831 – 28 August 1910) was an Italian neurologist, physiologist, and anthropologist, noted for his experimental investigation of coca leaves into its effects on the human psyche. He was also an author of fictio ...

(1870), becoming interested to the ethno-anthropological studies. In 1883 he visited Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia, reaching to the

Turkestan Turkestan, also spelled Turkistan ( fa, ترکستان, Torkestân, lit=Land of the Turks), is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and Xinjiang. Overview Known as Turan to the Persians, western Turke ...

, places where he collected numerous items of ethnographic interest. In 1886, he left for New Guinea together with

Elio Modigliani Elio Modigliani (13 June 1860 – 6 August 1932) was an Italian anthropologist, zoologist, explorer, and plant collector. Biography The son of a Florentine banker, he first made his name in the Italian scientific community at the age of 20, wh ...

, but for health reasons he just stood briefly in India. Then he visited the upper Egypt going up the Nile to the First Cataract. Soon he turned his scientific and ethnographic interests towards New Guinea, already partially explored between 1865 and 1886 by

Luigi Maria d'Albertis Luigi Maria D'Albertis (21 November 1841 – 2 September 1901) was an Italian naturalist and explorer who, in 1875, became the first Italian to chart the Fly River in what is now called Papua New Guinea. He undertook three voyages up this river f ...

and

Odoardo Beccari Odoardo Beccari (16 November 1843 – 25 October 1920) was an Italian botanist famous for his discoveries in Indonesia, particularly New Guinea, and Australia. He has been called the greatest botanist to ever study Malesia. His author abbreviat ...

. He left for the Southeast of New Guinea and at the end of 1888 for Papua, region that he explored in the years 1889-1890 and in 1892-1897. In

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

he lived for a total of seven years Lamberto Loria - Nella Nuova Guinea, in Boll. della Soc. geografica italiana, s. 3, III

890 __NOTOC__ Year 890 ( DCCCXC) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * The Frankish nobles, who have ruled Provence in anarchy (since 887), declare L ...

pp. 479-494, 550-586 and visited the

Trobriand Islands The Trobriand Islands are a archipelago of coral atolls off the east coast of New Guinea. They are part of the nation of Papua New Guinea and are in Milne Bay Province. Most of the population of 12,000 indigenous inhabitants live on the main isla ...

. In 1905 he made one last short trip to

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

. His very rich natural and ethnographic collections were donated to the largest Italian museums (

Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova The Museo Civico di Storia Naturale Giacomo Doria is a natural history museum in Genoa, northern Italy. It is named after the naturalist Giacomo Doria, who was the founder and the curator for over forty years. The museum was founded in 1867 and c ...

Pigorini National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography The "Luigi Pigorini" National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography is a public and research museum located in Rome, Italy. Established in 1875 and opened in 1876 by Luigi Pigorini, from 2016 it is one of the four museums inside the Museum of Civi ...

, Museo di storia naturale sezione di antropologia ed etnologia of Florence and Museo Archeologico Etnologico of

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

). Nevertheless, he published very little works about his researches in New Guinea, which remained unpublished in the form of notes and diaries. In his honor were named various species of animals, for example a species of frog ('' Oreophryne loriae''), the Boulenger's bow-fingered gecko ('' Cyrtodactylus loriae''),Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Loria", p. 160). a skink (''

Sphenomorphus The genus ''Sphenomorphus'' – vernacularly known as the common skinks – currently serves as a "wastebin taxon" for numerous skinks. While most or all species presently placed here are probably rather close relatives, the genus as pr ...

loriae''), the common worm-eating snake (''

Toxicocalamus ''Toxicocalamus'' is a genus of snakes in the family Elapidae. The genus is endemic to New Guinea. Description Most species of ''Toxicocalamus'' are relatively small, the largest specimen known being the holotype of the recently described ''To ...

loriae''), the Loria's satinbird ('' Cnemophilus loriae''), the Large tree mouse (''

Pogonomys loriae The large tree mouse (''Pogonomys loriae'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found on the island of New Guinea (Indonesia and Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu ...

''), two subspecies of birds (''Ptilorrhoa leucosticta loriae'', ''Pitta erythrogaster loriae'') and others.

Works

*Lettera al prof. P. Mantegazza, in Arch. per l'antropologia e l'etnologia, XIV (1884), pp. 414–418; *Dall'interno della Nuova Guinea. Lettera del dott. Lamberto Loria., in Boll. della Soc. geografica italiana, s. 3, IV (1891), pp. 905–911; *I viaggi del dott. Lamberto Loria alla Nuova Guinea, ibid., X (1897), pp. 156–161; *Atti del Congresso coloniale italiano in Asmara, ( 1905, a cura di C. Rossetti, Roma 1906, II, pp. 34, 52, 98, 104, 124, 132, 159; *Sulla raccolta di materiali per la etnografia italiana, Firenze 1906; *Per la etnografia italiana. Del modo di promuovere gli studi di etnografia italiana, Roma 1910; *Atti del I Congresso di etnografia italiana, Roma( 1911, Perugia 1912, pp. 17–20; *Due parole di programma, in Lares, I (1912), pp. 9–24; *L'Etnografia, strumento di politica interna e coloniale, ibid., pp. 73–79.

Bibliography

*Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins, Michael Grayson: The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals JHU Press, 2009, : S. 246 *De Simonis P., Dimpflmeier F. (a cura di), ''Lamberto Loria e la ragnatela dei suoi significati'', fascicolo monografico di ''Lares. Quadrimestrale di studi demoetnoantropologici'', Vol. LXXX/1, 2014. *G.A. Colini, Collezione etnografica della Nuova Guinea formata dal dott. L. L., in Boll. della Soc. geografica italiana, s. 3, IV (1891) *M. Régimbart (1892), Viaggio di Lamberto Loria nella Papuasia orientale. IV. Haliplidae, Dytiscidae, et Gyrinidae, in: Ann. Mus. Civ. Storia Nat. Genoa *P. Mantegazza et al., Istruzioni etnologiche per il viaggio dalla Lapponia al Caucaso dei soci L. e Michela, in Arch. per l'antropologia e l'etnologia, XIII (1883), pp. 109–114; *Puccini S., ''L'Itala gente dalle molte vite. Lamberto Loria e la Mostra di Etnografia Italiana del 1911'', Melteni, Roma 2005. *T. Salvadori, Caratteri di cinque specie nuove di uccelli della Nuova Guinea orientale-meridionale raccolti da Lamberto Loria, Genova 1894; *T. Salvadori, Viaggio di Lamberto Loria nella Papuasia orientale. Collezioni ornitologiche, Genova 1890;

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loria, Lamberto Italian explorers Ethnographers Italian naturalists Italian Jews 1855 births 1913 deaths