Count Nicolò Bertolucci Contarini (26 September 1780 – 16 April 1849) was an Italian nobleman and amateur naturalist. He collected plants and insects around Venice and published several catalogues. Contarini was born in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

in a noble family, the son of Senator Bertucci Paolo. He was sent to the Barnabite college in Udine where he received a classical education. In his private time he began to study natural history through direct field studies and collected plants from the region and built up a herbarium. From 1830 he began to write about insects in agriculture and in 1840 he was inducted into the Venetian institute of sciences, letters and arts. He published a catalogue of the birds and insects of Padova and Venice. He described several species of Cecidomyiid flies including one that he found on the wings of birds. He also took an interest in marine biology, describing new species of ''Actinia'' and sea anemones in 1841. Along with Giuseppe Meneghini and

Giovanni Zanardini Giovanni Antonio Maria Zanardini (12 June 1804, Venice – 24 April 1878) was an Italian physician and botanist who specialized in the field of phycology. In 1831 he obtained his medical doctorate from the University of Padua, followed by a degre ...

he went on trips to lagoons and mountains. His collection of about 500 bird specimens, and a herbarium are part of the

Museo Correr The Museo Correr () is a museum in Venice, northern Italy. Located in Piazza San Marco, St. Mark's Square, Venice, it is one of the 11 civic museums run by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia. The museum extends along the southside of the squar ...

in Venice. The herbarium was reorganized by Vincenzo Lazari and

Pier Andrea Saccardo Pier Andrea Saccardo (23 April 1845 in Treviso, Province of Treviso, Treviso – 12 February 1920 in Padua, Italy, Padua) was an Italian botany, botanist and mycology, mycologist. His multi-volume ''Sylloge Fungorum'' was one of the first attempt ...

around 1860.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Contarini, Nicolo Bertucci 1780 births 1849 deaths Republic of Venice people Italian naturalists