José Mariano Mociño Suárez Lozano (24 September 1757 – 12 June 1820), or simply José Mariano Mociño, was a
naturalist from
New Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...
.
After having studied philosophy and medicine, he conducted early research on the botany, geology, and anthropology of his country and other parts of North America.
Biography
He was born in
Temascaltepec
Temascaltepec is a municipality located in the Ixtapan Region of the State of Mexico in Mexico. Temascaltepec has an area of 547.5 km2. It borders the municipalities of Valle de Bravo, Amanalco de Becerra, Tejupilco, San Simón de Guerrero, ...
(modern-day
Mexico State
The State of Mexico ( es, Estado de México; ), officially just Mexico ( es, México), is one of the administrative divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Commonly known as Edomex (from ) to distinguish it from th ...
) in 1757. Being poor, he worked in many different jobs to study in the ''Seminario Tridentino de México'', where he devoted himself especially to physics, mathematics, botany, and chemistry. In 1778 he graduated in philosophy. In 1791 he was called to join the scientific expedition of
Martín de Sessé Martin may refer to:
Places
* Martin City (disambiguation)
* Martin County (disambiguation)
* Martin Township (disambiguation)
Antarctica
* Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land
* Port Martin, Adelie Land
* Point Martin, South Orkney Islands
Austr ...
, the Royal Botanical Expedition, which had started in 1787. They traveled across New Spain, reaching the most inhospitable places of the
Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
, being especially notable his trips to the
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...
. Although the pay for his job was minimal, he created one of the most important natural history collections of his times.
Beginning in 1795, by order of
Charles IV, he made several journeys to examine the natural products of Mexico. He traveled more than 3,000 leagues and formed a valuable collection, including a considerable herbarium and a great number of sketches, which he took to Spain in 1803. There Mociño was two times secretary and four times president of the Royal Medicine Academy of Madrid.
Mociño sympathised with
Joseph Bonaparte
it, Giuseppe-Napoleone Buonaparte es, José Napoleón Bonaparte
, house = Bonaparte
, father = Carlo Buonaparte
, mother = Letizia Ramolino
, birth_date = 7 January 1768
, birth_place = Corte, Corsica, Republic of ...
, and when the French withdrew after the
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...
, he was taken prisoner, accused of ''
afrancesado
''Afrancesado'' (, ; " Francophile" or "turned-French", lit. "Frenchified" or "French-alike") refers to the Spanish and Portuguese partisan of Enlightenment ideas, Liberalism or the French Revolution.
In principle, ''afrancesados'' were upper- ...
''. Finally, he managed to flee to France. In 1816 in
Montpellier
Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...
he met the naturalist
Augustin Pyramus de Candolle
Augustin Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (, , ; 4 February 17789 September 1841) was a Swiss botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple of years de Candol ...
, to whom he showed the collections he could save, and entrusted to him the manuscripts for a ''Flora Mexicana''.
Candolle
Augustin Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (, , ; 4 February 17789 September 1841) was a Swiss botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple of years de Candolle ...
brought him to Geneva, where he became professor in the
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centu ...
. In 1818 he returned to Spain. He asked Candolle to return his manuscripts, which Candolle did after having the talented botanical illustrator,
Jean-Christophe Heyland
Jean-Christophe Heyland aka Jean-Christophe Kumpfler (1791 Frankfurt – 29 August 1866 Genoa), was a Swiss engraver, watercolourist, and illustrator, who produced the plates for many botanical works such as the 1825-27 ''Plantes Rares du Jardin d ...
, make copies of the plates. The originals are deposited at the botanical garden of Madrid along with the manuscripts for a ''Flora de Guatemala''. He died in Barcelona, poor and blind, in 1820.
He was one of the most famous
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
naturalists of the
colonial period. Among his publications were ''Descripción del Volcan
Jorullo
El Jorullo is a cinder cone volcano in Michoacán, central Mexico, on the southwest slope of the central plateau, 33 miles (53 kilometers) southeast of Uruapan in an area known as the Michoacán-Guanajuato volcanic field. It is about 6 mi ...
en versos latinos'' (Mexico, 1801), and “Observaciones sobre la resina del
hule,” published in the ''Anales de Ciencias Naturales'' (Madrid, 1804).
Pablo de la Llave
Dr. Pablo de la Llave (1773–1833) was a Mexican Roman Catholic, Catholic Priest#Catholic .26 Orthodox, priest, politician, and natural history, naturalist.
He was born to a wealthy family and grew up in Córdoba, Veracruz. After a brillian ...
named the
resplendent quetzal
The resplendent quetzal (''Pharomachrus mocinno'') is a small bird found in southern Mexico and Central America, with two recognized subspecies, ''P. m. mocinno'' and ''P. m. costaricensis''. These animals live in tropical forests, particularly ...
''Pharomachrus mocinno'' to honour his mentor Mociño, who was the first to
classify the bird.
References
Further reading
**
External links
Biography from the Government of the State of Mexico's website* Sessé y Lacasta, Martín de & Mociño y Losada, José Mariano.
Flora Mexicana, 1894' at the Biblioteca Digital del Real Jardín Botanico CSIC
Plantæ Novæ Hispaniæ, 1893at the Biblioteca Digital del Real Jardín Botanico CSIC
Attribution
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mocino, Jose Mariano
1757 births
1820 deaths
Botanists active in North America
Mexican botanists