Francisco Hernández de Toledo
Francisco Hernandez de Toledo ( * 1514 or 1517 in La Puebla de Montalbán, † January 28, 1587 in Madrid ) was a Spanish doctor. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " F.Hern. ".
Life and work
Francisco Hernández studied at the University of Alcalá medicine. He then worked as a doctor in Torrijos and later in the hospital of the monastery of Guadalupe. Scientific recognition he found with his studies on the medical effects of plants and a Spanish translation of the Natural History of Pliny the Elder.
In 1567 he became the personal physician of King Philip II of Spain. In August 1570 he broke commissioned by the king from his home in Seville to the first modern scientific expedition to the New World. He was accompanied among others by his son Juan and the cosmographer Francisco Dominguez. After a six-month journey he reached 1571 Veracruz in February.
In New Spain collected Hernández and his Indian companions numerous plants, animals and minerals. Hernandez described the findings and let make drawings of them. In 1577 he brought her to a seven -year stay back a total of 17 large volumes, seven of them with descriptions and ten with drawings, to Spain.
Hernandez wanted to publish his journey results in three versions: in Latin for European researchers, in Spanish for his countrymen and in Nahuatl for the inhabitants of New Spain. However, the publication of his, often gathered under difficult circumstances, work was denied him. Philip the II gave the volumes of the Library of El Escorial for storage. There they were destroyed by a fire in the summer of 1671. A new part edition of his works took place in 1790 by Casimiro Gómez Ortega with the help of the found in Madrid in the Colegio Imperial de los Jesuitas work " Francisci Hernandi, medici atque Historici Philippi II, Hispan et indiar. Regis, et totius orbis novi archiatri. Opera, cum edita, tum meditative, autobiographical ad fidem et jusu regional ".
Ehrentaxon
Charles Plumier named in his honor, the genus of the plant family Hernandia the Hernandiaceae. Linnaeus later took the name.