Franco Andrea Bonelli

Franco Andrea Bonelli ( born November 10, 1784 in Cuneo, Piedmont, † November 18, 1830 in Turin ) was an Italian zoologist, ornithologist and collector.

From Bonelli's career little is known. It is known that he was already interested in a young age for the fauna of his surroundings, animals hunted, prepared and collected and wrote down his observations. The ill with rickets Bonelli was only 1.37 m tall.

In 1807 he was elected a member of the Reale Società Agraria di Torino (Royal Agricultural Society of Turin) and lectured there on the beetle Piedmont. Due to the high quality of its finishes the naturalists of his time were aware of him.

In April 1810 Georges Cuvier of the Napoleonic French Government was sent to Turin to reform the local university and to unite with the founded by Napoleon Imperial University. Cuvier learned Bonelli know, was impressed by this and encouraged him to complete his education. Bonelli visited then from 1810 courses at the French National Museum of Natural History ( Muséum National d' Histoire Naturelle ) in Paris.

1811 Bonelli was finally appointed professor of zoology at the University of Turin and the new director of the Zoological Museum of the University. During his time at the museum, he put on one of the largest ornithological collections in Europe.

1811 Bonelli wrote a catalog of the birds of Piedmont, in which he described 262 species. In 1815 he discovered the mountain Warbler (Phylloscopus bonelli, for the first time in 1819 by Louis Vieillot described ) and Bonelli's eagle ( Hieraaetus fasciatus, for the first time in 1822 also described by Vieillot ). The hawk eagle was known in French and English as Aigle de Bonelli Bonelli 's Eagle and.

Bonelli's successor at the Turin museum was Carlo Giuseppe Gené ( 1800-1847 ).

Works

• Catalogue des Oiseaux du Piedmont, 1811