Pietro Rossi (scientist)

Pietro Rossi ( * 1738 in Florence, † December 21, 1804 in Pisa ) was an Italian naturalist and entomologist.

The academic career Rossi took place at the University of Pisa. He was there in 1759 received his doctorate in philosophy and medicine, then taught from 1763 to 1801 as a professor of logic, before he finally in 1801 the chair of natural history specializing in Insektologie received, for which he is now often described as the world's first professor of entomology. His publications in this area, particularly the fauna etrusca (1790 ) and the Mantissa insectorum (1792 ), are considered pioneering work of entomology, who still have scientific validity in many parts in their taxonomy and nomenclature. His important collection was temporarily owned by Johann Christian Ludwig Hellwig in Brunswick and is now in the Museum of Natural History of the Humboldt University in Berlin.

Rossi was named after the Museo entomologico Pietro Rossi, which was later incorporated in the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale in Milan.

Works

• Fauna Etrusca: sistens insecta quae in Provinciis Florentina et Pisan praesertim collegit. Two volumes, Livorno 1790