Fermo
Fermo (ancient: Firmum Picenum) is a town and ''comune'' of the Marche, Italy, in the Province of Fermo.
Fermo is on a hill, the Sabulo, elevation , on a branch from Porto San Giorgio on the Adriatic coast railway.
History
The oldest hu ...
– 12 February 1964,
Pavia
Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the cap ...
agriculturalist
An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.), is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the ...
University of Bologna
The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continu ...
. From 1925 to 1932, he was based in the
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...
, where he helped establish an experimental agricultural station in
Santiago de los Caballeros
Santiago de los Caballeros (; '' en, Saint James of the Knights''), often shortened to Santiago, is the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic and the fourth-largest city in the Caribbean by population. It is the capital of Santiago Prov ...
for studies of
cassava
''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated ...
. While in Latin America, he also conducted research of diseases affecting cacao in
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...
. In 1934–35 he was stationed in
Italian Somaliland
Italian Somalia ( it, Somalia Italiana; ar, الصومال الإيطالي, Al-Sumal Al-Italiy; so, Dhulka Talyaaniga ee Soomaalida), was a protectorate and later colony of the Kingdom of Italy in present-day Somalia. Ruled in the 19th centu ...
, performing organizational work involving agrarian services.Treccani.it Ciferri, Raffaele, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 25 (1981) Raffaele Ciferri (1897 - 1964)
In 1936 he was appointed professor of botany to the faculty of agriculture in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
, and from 1942 onward, served as a professor of botany at the
University of Pavia
The University of Pavia ( it, Università degli Studi di Pavia, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; la, Alma Ticinensis Universitas) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one ...
.
A prolific writer, he was the author of well over a 1000 published works on subjects that included mycology,
plant pathology
Plant pathology (also phytopathology) is the scientific study of diseases in plants caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Organisms that cause infectious disease include fungi, oomy ...
and
physiology
Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...
virology
Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, th ...
,
lichenology
Lichenology is the branch of mycology that studies the lichens, symbiotic organisms made up of an intimate symbiotic association of a microscopic alga (or a cyanobacterium) with a filamentous fungus.
Study of lichens draws knowledge from several ...
, the systematics of cultivated plants, agronomy, and the history of botany. The ambrosia fungus genus ''
Raffaelea
''Raffaelea'' is a genus of ambrosia fungi in the family Ophiostomataceae. It was circumscribed by mycologists Josef Adolph von Arx and Grégoire L. Hennebert in 1965 with '' Raffaelea ambrosiae'' as the type species. The genus is named in hon ...
'' is named in his honor, as are multiple species with the epithet ''ciferrii''.
Together with mycologist
Ruggero Tomaselli
Ruggero Tomaselli (Trento, 22 August 1920 – Monzuno, 30 March 1982) was an Italian botanist. He introduced the study of phytosociology to Italy.
Biography
Tomaselli was born in Trento on 22 August 1920. In 1943 he graduated from the Uni ...
, Ciferri published 215 alternative names for the fungal component (the
mycobiont
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.lichens; most of these ended in the suffix ''-myces''. The vast majority of these names were later determined to be formally illegitimate according to nomenclatural rules.
Selected works
* "Micoflora Domingensis", 1929.
* ''I Cereali dell'Africa Italiana'', 1939 – Cereals of Italian Africa.
* ''Fisiologia vegetale e piante agrarie'', 1943 – Plant physiology and agricultural plants.
* ''Manuale di patologia vegetale'', 1952 – Manual of plant physiology.
* "Thesaurus literaturae mycologicae et lichenologicae", 1957.
* ''Manuale di micologia medica'', 1958 – Manual of
medical mycology Pathogenic fungi are fungi that cause disease in humans or other organisms. Approximately 300 fungi are known to be pathogenic to humans. Markedly more fungi are known to be pathogenic to plant life than those of the animal kingdom. The study of fu ...
.
* "Bibliographia mycopathologica, 1800-1940", 1958.
* ''Il cacao e la sua evoluzione'', 1963 – Cacao and its evolution.Open Library published works