Background
Antoni de Martí Franquès was born on June 14, 1750, in Altafulla, Catalonia, Spain to a rich and noble Catalan family.
Plaça de la Universitat, 25200 Cervera, Lleida, Spain
Antoni de Martí Franquès started his studies at the University of Cervera but left because of his disgust with the Scholastic atmosphere.
Plaça de la Universitat, 25200 Cervera, Lleida, Spain
Antoni de Martí Franquès started his studies at the University of Cervera but left because of his disgust with the Scholastic atmosphere.
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biologist chemist geologist meteorologist
Antoni de Martí Franquès was born on June 14, 1750, in Altafulla, Catalonia, Spain to a rich and noble Catalan family.
Antoni de Martí Franquès started his studies at the University of Cervera but left because of his disgust with the Scholastic atmosphere. He continued his education himself, first learning French, and later English, German, and Italian.
Initially, as a member of the Sociedad de Amigos del País, Martí Franquès took an interest in promoting the development of the cotton-spinning, weaving, and chinaware industries in the region of Tarragona.
Martí Franqués later became interested in scientific matters, but he was a retiring person and almost never announced his discoveries. In 1785 he started analyses of air that concluded in establishing, on 12 May 1790, that the oxygen content of the atmosphere is between 21 and 22 percent. He devised an instrument to control the air pressure and temperature in his atmospheric analyses which was a forerunner of Walter Hempel’s burette. In 1791 he became absorbed in the sexual reproduction of plants, and as a result of his experiments, he understood and defended Linnaeus against Spallanzani. In all these studies he demonstrated that he was aware of the latest developments of the leading scientists of that period, notably Priestley and Cavendish.
The Peninsular War (1808-1814) curtailed Martí Franqués’ experiments. The bombardment of Tarragona destroyed part of his laboratory, and he himself was taken prisoner by the French. After the war, he continued his reproduction experiments, but they were much less important than the ones he had done previously.
Among his disciples and friends were the botanists Mariano Lagasca y Segura, Mariano de la Paz Graells, and the physicist Juan Agell.
Martí Franquès is remembered for the impact he had on the development of Catalan science. The Institut d'Estudis Catalans created a prize that bears his name. Institut Antoni de Martí i Franquès is named after him. A street in Tarragona is named Martí d'Ardenya, a name under which he was also known.
Martí Franquès knew and admired the work of Lavoisier, but that did not prevent him from recognizing the priority of Cavendish in the synthesis of water.
In 1773 Antoni de Martí Franquès married Isabel Mora Franquès.
