Carlo Antonio Fornasini

Cavaliere Carlo Antonio Fornasini (1802/1805 – 1865) was an Italian ivory trader and amateur field naturalist who worked in Mozambique.[lower-alpha 2] He collected numerous specimens of animals, insects and plants, and presented them to the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna in his home city for scientific study. He is remembered for having had during his lifetime several taxa named in his honour.

This article is about the field naturalist who worked in Mozambique. For the later palaeontologist who worked in Italy, see Carlo Fornasini.

Cavaliere

Carlo Antonio Fornasini
Born1802 [1] or 1805 [2]
Bologna, Cisalpine Republic or Italian Republic or Kingdom of Italy [lower-alpha 1]
Died1865 [2] (aged 59-60 or 62-63)
NationalityItalian
Occupation
Years active1839 or 1842 – no later than 1866
Known forThe taxa named in his honour

Biography

Little seems to be known of his life or background.[lower-alpha 3] The honorific cavaliere (roughly equivalent to the British 'Sir'; in the Latin-language sources which mention him, eques) suggests that he himself or his family had some civil distinction. He was from Bologna.[5]:587[6][7]:173 Either, he travelled to Pernambuco in Brazil, and, on returning by way of Lisbon and Genoa to Bologna, was encouraged by Professor Antonio Bertoloni and by Count Camilla Salina to pursue in Africa his interest in natural history, and travelled to Mozambique;[6] or, the House of Salina took a paternal interest in him, he left Bologna for Lisbon to pursue a career in commerce, and from there he went to Mozambique.[8] He was a trader in ivory.[5]:587[6][9] In a letter dated 1843, he said that he had first visited Mozambique twelve years earlier.[10] He was active as a naturalist in the Inhambane [5]:587[9] area of Mozambique from 1839 [2] or from 1842.[8][10] He presented the many natural history specimens he collected during his time in Africa to the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna,[8][lower-alpha 4] where they were studied by Antonio Bertoloni (1775-1869, physician and botanist),[5] his son Giuseppe Bertoloni (1804-1874, botanist and entomologist),[9] and Giovanni Giuseppe Bianconi (1809-1878, zoologist, herpetologist, botanist and geologist),[11] all professors at the University of Bologna, all full of praise for his labours.[lower-alpha 5] Antonio Alessandrini, another professor at the University, called him 'courageous' (Italian: coraggioso).[9][lower-alpha 6] He was last mentioned in the scientific annals of Bologna in 1866.[14]

He does not seem to have written any scientific papers. He is not named as author in any of the journals published by the Academy of Sciences between 1834 and 1866.

Taxa named in honour

These are (in date order of the epithet fornasini and suchlike):

Notes
  1. The country of his birth depends on his exact date of birth. The Italian Republic replaced the Cisalpine Republic on 26 January 1802, and was itself replaced by the Kingdom of Italy on 17 March 1805.
  2. During Fornasini's lifetime, Mozambique was to some extent a Portuguese colony, but the political situation was confused; see Portuguese Mozambique#History.
  3. The first mention of any Fornasini in the scientific annals of Bologna seems to have been in 1844, when Antonio Bertoloni wrote that one Josephus Fornasinius (latinised version of Giuseppe Fornasini) of Bologna, a trader in Zanzibar, had corresponded with his (Bertoloni's) son.[3] This may have been the Giuseppe Fornasini who addressed a meeting of the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna in 1852 on the topic of improvement of agriculture;[4] but there seems to be nothing more than the name to connect the two, or either with Carlo.
  4. 19th century field naturalists were expert not only in observation. They were usually also expert in collecting specimens (for fauna, that means killing them); in describing them, even if not in the formal scientific manner; in drawing them; and in preserving them in such good condition that a skilled academic naturalist, who might be in another continent, could decide whether or not a species was, on the available evidence, new to science or the same as one already described.
  5. The younger Bertolini published at least 13 papers on the natural history of Mozambique (1849-1864) and Bianconi at least 16 (1850-1866), most of which acknowledge specimens contributed by Fornasini. Both of them described many such specimens as species new to science (Latin: nobis, [new] to us). It would seem fair to say that Fornasini was central to both their scientific careers.
  6. That was not just flowery language. Giuseppe Bertoloni called Mozambique 'that inhospitable land' (Latin: inhospita terra).[12] (Bertoloni's remarks about the hazards of dealing with "naked black savages" except from an armed merchant ship [6] may perhaps be overstated. History suggests that native inhabitants were often willing to trade with foreign visitors on mutually advantageous terms.) German naturalist and explorer Wilhelm Peters (1815-1883), who had been in Mozambique from 1843 to 1848, in 1852 called the climate of Mozambique 'hostile to Europeans' (German: Das Klima ist den Europäern [...] feindselig); and apologised for being so slow in writing up his discoveries, because he had been recovering from the tropical fevers he had contracted there.[13]
  7. F. ebenifera is an unresolved name.[20] It has been said to be a basionym of Millettia ebenifera,[19][21] a species in genus Millettia Wight and Arn. 1834.
  8. No description by Bianconi of Menippe fornasinii has been located. This species may be the same as Galene fornasinii Bianconi 1851,[23] which is absent from the WoRMS database record for genus Galene.[24]
  9. It is unclear when and by whom Fornasinius was elevated to the rank of genus.
  10. No 1856 description of E. Fusca has been located. Bianconi's 1858 description calls the species nobis (Latin for '[new] to us').
  11. C. fornasini was identified as a junior synonym of C. delegorguei by Ogilvie-Grant in 1892.[32]
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References
  1. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 92. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5.
  2. "Fornasini, Cavalier Carlo Antonio (plant collection)". Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  3. Bertolonii, Antonii (1844). "Miscellanea Botanica III". Novi Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Instituti Bononiensis (in Latin). 6: 419 at 423.
  4. Fornasini, Giuseppe (1852). "Discorso d'apertura letto dal direttore Dott. Signore Giuseppe Fornasini". Nuovi Annali delle Scienze Naturali. 3 (in Italian). 5: 548.
  5. Bertolonii, Antonii (1849). "Miscellanea Botanica Octava". Novi Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Instituti Bononiensis (in Latin). 9: 573.
  6. Bertolonii, Josephi (1849). "Illustratio rerum naturalium Mozambici. Dissertatio I. De Coleopteris". Novi Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Instituti Bononiensis (in Latin). 10: 381 at 381–383.
  7. Bianconi, J. Josephi (1850). "Specimina zoologica Mosambicana. Fasciculus I." Memorie della Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna (in Latin). 1: 171.
  8. Bianconi, G. Giuseppe (1852). "Per l'apertura del Nuovo Museo di Storia Naturale". Nuovi Annali delle Scienze Naturali. 3 (in Italian). 6: 377 at 387–391.
  9. Alessandrini, A. (1845). "Rendiconto delle sessione dell'Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna". Nuovi Annali delle Scienze Naturali. 2 (in Italian). 4: 416.
  10. Bertolini, Giuseppe (1853). "Illustrazione di piante Mozambicesi. Dissertazione III". Memorie della Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna (in Italian). 4: 535 at 536–538.
  11. Bianconi, G. Giuseppe (1846). "Lettera del Professore G. Giuseppe Bianconi al Nobil Uomo Signor Conte Camillo Salina". Nuovi Annali delle Scienze Naturali. 2 (in Italian). Bologna. 5: 113.
  12. Bianconi, J. Josephi (1850). Specimina zoologica mosambicana quibus vel novae vel minus notae animalium species illustrantur (in Latin). Bologna Academy of Sciences. pp. Praemonitum. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  13. Peters, Wilhelm C. H. (1852). Reise nach Mossambique. DFG-Viewer (in German). Berlin: Georg Reimer. pp. vii–ix.
  14. Bianconi, J. Jos. (1866). "Specimina zoologica Mosambicana. Fasciculus XVI". Memorie della Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna. 2 (in Latin). 6: 610 at 612.
  15. Bianconi, G. Giuseppe (26 April 1849). "Alcune nuove specie di rettili del Mozambico". Nuovi Annali delle Scienze Naturali. 2 (in Italian). Bologna. 10: 106.
  16. Bianconi, J. Josephi (1850). "Specimina zoologica Mosambicana. Fasciculus II". Memorie della Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna (in Latin). 1: 187 at 193–194.
  17. "Fornasinia". International Plant Names Index (IPNI). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  18. "Fornasinia". theplantlist.org.
  19. "Fornasinia ebenifera Bertol". International Plant Names Index (IPNI). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  20. "Fornasinia ebenifera Bertol". theplantlist.org.
  21. "Millettia". University of Florida. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  22. "Myomenippe fornasinii (Bianconi, 1851)". WoRMS. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  23. Bianconi, J. Jos. (1851). "Specimina zoologica Mosambicana. Fasciculus V." Memorie della Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna (in Latin). 3: 91 at 108–109.
  24. "Galene De Haan, 1833". WoRMS. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  25. "Fornasinius Bertolini 1853". GBIF. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
  26. Richard, Denis; Maquart, Pierre-Olivier; Malec, Petr (2016). "Les Fornasinius, de discrets goliaths" (PDF). Insectes (in French) (183): 3. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  27. Bertolini, Giuseppe (1853). "Illustrazione dei prodotti naturali del Mozambico. Dissertazione IV". Memorie della Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna (in Italian). 4: 343 at 345–347.
  28. "Fulvia fragilis (Forsskål in Niebuhr, 1775)". WoRMS. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  29. Bianconi, J. Jos. (1856). "Specimina zoologica Mosambicana. Fasciculus IX". Memorie della Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna (in Latin). 7: 403 at 409–410.
  30. Bianconi, J. Jos. (1858). "Specimina zoologica Mosambicana. Fasciculus XI". Memorie della Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna (in Latin). 9: 435 at 441–443.
  31. Bianconi, J. Josephi (1864). "Specimina zoologica Mosambicana. Fasciculus XIV". Memorie della Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna. 2 (in Latin). 4: 519 at 521–522.
  32. Ogilvie-Grant, William Robert (1892). "Notes on the Genus Coturnix". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 6. 10 (56): 173. doi:10.1080/00222939208677386.
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