Guillaume-Antoine Olivier

Guillaume- Antoine Olivier ( born January 19, 1756 in Les Arcs, near Toulon, † October 1, 1814 in Lyon) was a French physician, and zoologist. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Olivier ".

Life and work

As the son of a physician, he studied also medicine at the University of Montpellier, Université Montpellier. His interest in natural history was, inter alia, awakened by Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet. With little enthusiasm, he practiced medicine in his home town of Les Arcs.

Olivier traveled with Jean- Guillaume Bruguiere 1792-1798 eastern North Africa and the Middle East where she gained many plants and animals. Many beetles were described by him for the first time for science. He returned to France with a large natural history collections of the countries visited, as the Ottoman Empire, Asia Minor, Persia (Iran ), Egypt and some islands in the Mediterranean, such as the Greek islands (Cyprus, Crete ( 1 August 1794-29 October. , 1794 ), Santorini, Corfu ).

During his stay in the Levant, Olivier visited Istanbul three times. He first came on May 22, 1793 and lived there until October 26. His second visit lasted from 14 July to 30 August 1795, the third of 17 October 1797 to 30 May 1798. In 1800 he was appointed professor of zoology at the Veterinary School in Alfort, École nationale vétérinaire d ' Alfort appointed. His extensive collection was national d' histoire naturelle incorporated in the Muséum in Paris. A smaller part of the collection is housed in a museum in Edinburgh.

He was a close friend of Johan Christian Fabricius and a conveyor Pierre André Latreilles. But even with Jean -Baptiste de Lamarck and Jean -Guillaume Bruguiere was G.-A. Olivier friends. Last accompanied him on his expedition to the Near East.

From March 26, 1800 he was Member of the Académie des Sciences in Paris.

Works (selection)

• Voyage dans l' empire Othoman, l' Égypte et la Perse, 1801-1807. ( Journey through the Turkish Empire, Egypt and Persia, during the first six years of the French Republic, or from 1792 to 1798: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3 )
• Entomology, ou histoire naturelle of Insectes, 1808.
• Encyclopedie methodique. History naturelle. Insectes Vol 5 Panckoucke, Paris. 793 pp. (1790)
• Encyclopedie methodique. Histoire naturelle. Insectes Vol 5 Panckoucke, Paris. 827 pp. (1792 a )
• Encyclopedie methodique. Histoire naturelle. Insects. Vol 6: 369-704. Paris. (1792 b. )
• Latreille, P. A.; M. Olivier ( ed.): Encyclopaedia méthodique. Histoire Naturelle. Insectes. Agasse, Paris. Vol 8, 567-587. (1811 )