Étienne Pierre Ventenat (1 March 1757 – 13 August 1808) was a French

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

born in

Limoges Limoges ( , , ; , locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region. Situated o ...

. He was the brother of

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

Louis Ventenat (1765–1794). Clerodendrum viscosum

While employed as director of the ecclesiastic library Sainte-Geneviève in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, Ventenat took a trip to England. Here he investigated the country's botanical gardens, inspiring him to pursue a vocation in sciences. Following his time at library he became an active botanist, studying under and collaborating with botanist

Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle (; 15 June 1746 – 18 August 1800) was an 18th-century French botanist and civil servant. Born into an affluent upper-class Parisian family, connections with the French Royal Court secured him the position ...

(1746–1800). In 1795 he was elected a member of the ''Institut national des sciences et des arts'', later known as the ''

Académie des sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

''. In 1794 he wrote a treatise on the principles of botany titled . After publication he became so disappointed with its mediocrity that he reportedly made efforts to procure all copies of the book and have them destroyed. In 1798 he published a French translation of

Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (; 12 April 1748 – 17 September 1836) was a French botanist, notable as the first to publish a natural classification of flowering plants; much of his system remains in use today. His classification was based on an e ...

's ''Genera plantarum'' as . In his translation of the work, Ventenat added information involving the properties and uses of plants. In 1799 he published , a work that described flora in 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. is ...

of Jacques Philippe Martin Cels (1740–1806), and in 1803 he published , being written at the request of

Joséphine de Beauharnais Joséphine Bonaparte (, born Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie; 23 June 1763 – 29 May 1814) was the first wife of Emperor Napoleon I and as such Empress of the French from 18 May 1804 until their marriage was annulled on 10 Janua ...

(1763–1814), who wished to immortalize the rare species of plants found in the gardens and

greenhouse A greenhouse is a structure that is designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside. There are different types of greenhouses, but they all have large areas covered with transparent materials that let sunlight pass an ...

s of Château de Malmaison. The illustrations in the two aforementioned works were performed by famed botanical artist

Pierre-Joseph Redouté Pierre-Joseph Redouté (, 10 July 1759 – 19 June 1840), was a Painting, painter and botanist from the Austrian Netherlands, known for his watercolours of roses, lily, lilies and other flowers at the Château de Malmaison, many of which we ...

(1759–1840). Ventenat is also credited with continuing the work on

Jean Baptiste François Pierre Bulliard Jean Baptiste François Pierre Bulliard (; 24 November 1752 in Aubepierre-sur-Aube Haute-Marne – 26 September 1793 in Paris), also known simply as Pierre Bulliard, was a French physician and botanist. Bulliard studied in Langres, where he b ...

's , a landmark work on

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing Sporocarp (fungi), fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or another food source. ''Toadstool'' generally refers to a poisonous mushroom. The standard for the n ...

s native to France.

Works

Principes de botanique : expliqués au Lycée républicain 1792
* *
Vol. I
Discours sur l'étude de la botanique p. i, Dictionaire de botanique p. 1, Nomenclature méthodique p. 579 *
Vol. II
Acotylédones p. 1, Monocotylédones p. 75, Dicotylédones p. 225 *
Vol. III
Dicotylédones (continued: Class 12 Polypetales onwards) Schema p. 139 * ''Description des plantes nouvelles et peu connues, cultivées dans le jardin de J.-M. Cels'', 1799
Choix de plantes : dont la plupart sont cultivées dans le jardin de Cels 1803
* * ''Decas Generum Novorum'', 1808.

References

Bibliography

* Adrien Davy de Virville (dir.),Histoire de la botanique en France, SEDES, Paris, 1955 : 394 p. * H. Walter Lack, Un Jardin d’Eden. Chefs-d’œuvre de l’illustration botanique, Taschen, Cologne, 2001 : 576 p. * William Wheeler, L'Illustration botanique, Les Éditions du Carrousel, Paris, 1999 : 175 p. * *

External links

ventenatii/ventenatiana * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ventenat, Etienne Pierre French taxonomists 1757 births 1808 deaths Members of the French Academy of Sciences People from Limoges 19th-century French botanists 18th-century French botanists