Giovanni Battista de Toni (2 January 1864,

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

– 31 July 1924,

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 ...

) was an Italian

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 ...

mycologist Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungus, fungi, including their genetics, genetic and biochemistry, biochemical properties, their Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and ethnomycology, their use to humans, including as a so ...

and phycologist. In 1885 he graduated from the

University of Padua The University of Padua ( it, Università degli Studi di Padova, UNIPD) is an Italian university located in the city of Padua, region of Veneto, northern Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from B ...

, where he studied

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 ...

and

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

with

Pier Andrea Saccardo Pier Andrea Saccardo (23 April 1845 in Treviso, Treviso – 12 February 1920 in Padua) was an Italian botanist and mycologist. Life Saccardo studied at the Lyceum in Venice, and then at the Technical Institute of the University of Padua wher ...

(1845-1920) and Francesco Filippuzzi (1824-1886). For several years, he worked as a

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...

in the museum of Padua, afterwards teaching botany at the

University of Camerino The University of Camerino ( it, Università degli Studi di Camerino) is a university located in Camerino, Italy. It is the best university of Italy among those with fewer than 10,000 students, according to the Guida Censis Repubblica 2011 and 201 ...

(1900). Following duties as a professor of botany in

Sassari Sassari (, ; sdc, Sàssari ; sc, Tàtari, ) is an Italian city and the second-largest of Sardinia in terms of population with 127,525 inhabitants, and a Functional Urban Area of about 260,000 inhabitants. One of the oldest cities on the island, ...

, he relocated to Modena, where from 1903, he served as a professor of botany and as associate director of the

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

. During his career, he took numerous scientific trips throughout Europe — travels where he met and studied with scientists that included

Jacob Georg Agardh Jacob Georg Agardh (8 December 1813 in Lund, Sweden – 17 January 1901 in Lund, Sweden) was a Sweden, Swedish botanist, phycologist, and taxonomist. He was the son of Carl Adolph Agardh, and from 1854 until 1879 was professor of botany at Lund ...

(1813-1901),

Alfred Mathieu Giard Alfred Mathieu Giard (8 August 1846 – 8 August 1908) was a French zoologist born in Valenciennes. Biography In 1867 he began his studies of natural sciences at the École Normale Supérieure, followed by work as ''préparateur de zoologie'' a ...

(1846-1908), Louis Mangin (1852-1937) and

Narcisse Théophile Patouillard Narcisse Théophile Patouillard (2 July 1854 – 30 March 1926) was a French pharmacist and mycologist. He was born in Macornay, a town in the department of Jura (department), Jura. He studied in Besançon, then furthered his education at the � ...

(1854-1926). His earlier work dealt mainly with

plant systematics The history of plant systematics—the biological classification of plants—stretches from the work of ancient Greek to modern evolutionary biologists. As a field of science, plant systematics came into being only slowly, early plant lo ...

, his later research involved studies in the fields of phytophysiology and

phytogeography Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution ...

. In 1889 he began work on "''Sylloge algarum omnium hucusque cognitarum''", a massive project that was an index of all known

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

. In collaboration with Saccardo, he made important contributions to "''Sylloge Fungorum hucusque cognitorum''" (index of

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

). As a naturalist-historian, he published a work on

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...

, titled "''Le piante e gli animali in Leonardo da Vinci''" (The plants and animals in (the works of) Leonardo da Vinci). From 1890, he was editor of the journal "''La Nuova Notarisia''", a quarterly magazine dedicated to the study of algae. He was honoured in 1894, in the naming of '' Detonula'', which is a genus of

diatom A diatom (Neo-Latin ''diatoma''), "a cutting through, a severance", from el, διάτομος, diátomos, "cut in half, divided equally" from el, διατέμνω, diatémno, "to cut in twain". is any member of a large group comprising sev ...

s belonging to the family Thalassiosiraceae. He was also honoured 1934, in '' Johannesbaptistia'' is a genus of brackish–freshwater

cyanobacteria Cyanobacteria (), also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum of gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis. The name ''cyanobacteria'' refers to their color (), which similarly forms the basis of cyanobacteria's common name, blu ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:De Toni, Giovanni Battista 1864 births 1924 deaths Scientists from Venice 19th-century Italian botanists Italian mycologists Phycologists Academic staff of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia University of Padua alumni 20th-century Italian botanists