Eduard Rüppell
Wilhelm Peter Eduard Simon Rüppell ( born November 20, 1794 in Frankfurt am Main, † December 10, 1884 ) was a German naturalist and explorer.
Life
He learned as the son of a banker ( bank Rüppell and Harnier ), first banking. Financially independent, he undertook in 1817 a first trip to Egypt. 1822 to 1827 he undertook an expedition to the Gulf of Aqaba, the Red Sea and Nubia. After reviewing and editing the collections he went from 1831 to 1834 on another trip, this time to Abyssinia, which he brought with him, among other things, a number of manuscripts. A Psalter of the Abyssinian Emperor Hezekiah (reigned 1780-1786 ) shows the emperor on the only illustration at the foot of King David playing the lyre lying.
In 1841 he became second director of he co-founded the Senckenberg Nature Research Society (see Johann Christian Senckenberg ) ( SNG). From 1849 to 1850 he made his last trip to Africa. The information gathered on his travels preparations were the foundation for the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt.
Five animal species and 79 animal and plant species are named after him. In zoological experts it was his first description of the previously unexplored mole rats under the scientific name Heterocephalus glaber in 1842 in the Ethiopian province of Shewa known.
As the first foreigner he received in 1839 in London, the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society.
The city of Frankfurt gave Rüppell 1840, the life-size seated statue of Goethe by Pompeo Marchesi. After falling out with the SNG he turned to numismatics. He gave his hometown Frankfurt stocks medals, coins of the Ptolemies and of Roman Imperial coins in Alexandria. After the annexation of Frankfurt by Prussia in 1866, he fled to Zurich, but soon returned. After 1870 he lived in retirement in Frankfurt, highly honored for his contributions to the field of zoology, mineralogy, paleography, geography, and numismatics.
Major works
- Atlas of travel in northern Africa. Bronner, Frankfurt from 1826 to 1828. doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.53779
- Travel in Nubia, Kordofan and the Petraea Arabia excellent in geographical- statistical terms. Friedrich Wilmans, Frankfurt am Main, 1829.
- Travel in Abyssinia. 2 volumes and atlas. Schmerber, Frankfurt from 1838 to 1840.
- New Vertebrata to the fauna of Abyssinia proper. Schmerber, Frankfurt from 1835 to 1840. doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.53778
- Descriptions and depictions of medals, which were made in remembrance of residents of Frankfurt. Adelmann, Frankfurt 1855.
Other works (selection)
- Description and illustration of several new fish, discovered in the Nile. Bronner, Frankfurt 1829 doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.14870
- Discovered continuation of the description and illustration of several new fish in the Nile. Bronner, Frankfurt 1829 doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.14871
- Systematic survey of the birds north-east Africa. with illustration and description of fifty partly unknown, partly species not depicted. S. Schmerber'sche bookstore, Frankfurt 1845 doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.51961