Johann Philipp Breyne

Johann Philipp Breyne ( born August 9, 1680 in Gdansk, † December 12, 1764 ) was a German botanist, zoologist and paleontologist.

Life

Johann Philipp Breyne is the son of Jacob Breyne. After the death of his father he went to study at the University of Leiden. Among his teachers were, inter alia, Govard Bidloo and Herman Boerhaave. In 1699 he earned the title of Doctor of Medicine there.

In August 1702, he traveled, provided with letters of his teachers, to a nine-month study visit to England. There he was first received by James Petiver and soon learned more influential members of the Royal Society know, such as Hans Sloane and John Ray.

In October 1703 he arrived on board an English frigate in Italy. In Padua he attended Antonio Vallisneri. About Bologna, he comes to Ancona, where he collects on the Adriatic sea animals. About Austria, Bohemia, Germany and Holland, finally, he returns back to the end of 1704 Danzig. There he practiced first as a doctor and married a short time later Constantia Ludewig. The marriage produced six children.

In his house in the Gdansk Long Street, which was located in the immediate vicinity of Jacob Theodor Klein, he builds up through exchange with other scientists an extensive natural history collection on. In his garden he maintains a wide variety of exotic plants. His garden is visited in 1716 by Tsar Peter I and his personal physician Robert Erskine ( 1677-1718 ). Since Breyne was wealthy, he was finally able to turn to all of science.

His varied interests are clearly in his works. Already in 1705 he published a short article in the Philosophical Transactions of the observations cochineal Porphyrophora polonica, which he had made on the Spanish coast near Valencia. 1731, he dedicated the small animal an extensive publication. In 1725 he reported on a plant leaf in amber. And together with Hans Sloane in 1737 he published a work that deals with excavated in Siberia mammoth bones.

His most important achievement is the completion of the work left behind by his father, prodromal fasciculi rariorum plantarum primus et secundus ... where he has worked since his return to Gdansk until 1739.

At the suggestion of Hans Sloane, he is on 21 April 1703 Member of the Royal Society. He was also a member of the Leopoldina ( 1715 ) and the Societas litteraria (since 1720) a precursor of the Natural History Society in Gdansk.

The estate of Breyne family is now in the Gotha Research Library.

Honors

The extinct species Lituites breynius animal Nautiloidea family is named after him.

Writings (selection )

  • De Plantis & Insectis Quibusdam Rarioribus in Hispania Observatis, In: Philosophical Transactions. Vol 24, pp. 2044-2055, 1704/1705
  • Epistola DJ Phil Breynij, MD Gedanensis, & Reg Societ. Lond. Sodium carbonate. ad D. Hans Sloane, MD Dictoe Societatis Secretarium; Varias Observationes continens in Itinere by Italiam Suscepto, Anno 1703. Vol. 17, pp. 447-459, 1710/1712
  • Dissertatiuncula de Agno Vegetabili Scythico, Bora Metz Vulgo Dicto, In: Philosophical Transactions. Vol 33, pp. 353-360, 1724/1725
  • Observatio de Succinea Gleba, Plantae Cujusdam Folio Impraegnata, rarities, vol 34, pp. 154-156, 1725/1726
  • Historia naturalis Cocci radicum Tinctorii quod polonicum vulgo audit (Danzig, 1731)
  • Some Corrections and Amendments by JP Breynius, MD F.R.S. Concerning the generation of the Insect Called by Him Coccus radicum, in His Natural History Thereof, Printed in the Year 1731 ..., In: Philosophical Transactions Vol 37, pp. 444-447, 1731/1732
  • A Letter from John Phil Breyne, to Sir Hans Sloane MDFRS, Bart. Pres. RS with Observations, and a Description of Some Mammoth 's Bones Dug up in Siberia, Proving Them to Have Belonged to Elephants, In: Philosophical Transactions Vol 40, p 124-138, 1737
  • Prodromi fasciculi rariorum plantarum primus et secundus ... ( 1739 ) - from the estate of his father
  • Observatio de Immodico & Funesto Lapidum Cancrorum, Similiumque Terrestrium Absorbentium Usu, Indeque Ortis Calculis in ventrículo & Renibus, In: Philosophical Transactions Vol 41, pp. 557-559, 1739/1741 ( with Hans Sloane )

Swell

  • Entry to Breynius, John Philip ( c 1680-1764 ) in the archives of the Royal Society, London ( English)
  • Stefan Siemer: sociability and method. Natural History collection in the 18th century. Philip of Saverne, Mainz 2004, ISBN 3-8053-2995-4.
  • Stefan Siemer: The education of the eye. In: kunsttexte.de. 2001, number 1, pp. 1-12 (PDF).
  • W. Joost: Bird's eye images of Danzig naturalist Johann Philipp Breyne ( 1680-1764 ). In: Journal of Ornithology. Volume 108, Number 3, 1967.
  • Helmut Roob: Jacob and Johann Philipp Breyne: two Danzig botanist in the 17th and 18th centuries: Nachlassverzeichnis.Forschungsbibliothek Gotha, Gotha, 1988, ISBN 3-910027-00-8.
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