Johann Anton Güldenstädt

Johann Anton von Güldenstädt (. * 26 Apriljul / May 7 1745greg in Riga, Russian Empire, .. . † 23 Märzjul / April 3 1781greg in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire ) was a Russian naturalist and explorer Baltic German origin. His botanical author abbreviation is " Güldenst. ".

Güldenstädt lost his parents early and studied from 1763 to pharmacology, botany and natural history in Berlin. At the age of 22, he became in 1767 a doctoral degree in medicine at the Alma Mater Viadrina in Frankfurt ( Oder). In June of the following year, the Russian Academy of Sciences on behalf of Catherine II sent him on an expedition to explore the southern borders of Russia. Güldenstädt traveled in the following years along with Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin by the Astrakhan region, Ukraine, through the northern Caucasus to Georgia. His expedition was the first systematic investigation of the Caucasus.

In March 1775 he returned to St. Petersburg and wrote in the following years a number of geographical, historical and natural history publications in German and Latin, including a first description of the jungle cat.

In March 1781 Güldenstädt died of a fever. His record of his expedition were posthumously by Peter Simon Pallas under the title travels through Russia and published in Caucasischen Gebürge ( 1787-91 ).

Publications

• Chaus - Animal feli adfine descriptum. Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae Volume 20, St. Petersburg, 1776. Pp.. 483
• Travel through Russia and in Caucasischen Gebürge. Russian Kayserliche Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 1787.
• Pallas, P. S. ( Eds.), Johann Anton Güldenstädt. Travel through Russia and in Caucasischen Gebürge, volume 2 Kayserliche Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg 1791 ( digitized )
• Puteshestvie po Kavkazu v 1770-1773 gg translated by TK Schafranovskaia. Peterburgskoe Vostokovedenie, St. Petersburg 2002.