Antonio José Cavanilles

Background

Cavanilles was born on January 16, 1745, in Valencia, Spain.

Education

Cavanilles was educated at the University of Valencia.

Career

In his youth Cavanilles specialized in the study of mathematics and physics and obtained a doctorate in theology. Because he failed to secure the professorship to which he aspired, he accepted the post of guardian to the sons of the Duke of Infantado and accompanied the duke to Paris in 1777. In 1780 he became fascinated with botany and took courses given by the renowned naturalists A. Laurent de Jussieu and Lamarck. He published, in 1785, the first of ten monographs that constitute his Monadelphiae.

His return to Spain in 1789 marked the beginning of a rivalry with the director of the Madrid Botanical Gardens, Casimiro Gomez Ortega, and the botanist Hipolito Ruiz. In 1791 he was ordered to travel throughout the peninsula to study its botanical wealth; and, starting in 1799, he collaborated on the newly created Anales de historia natural. In 1801 he was given a professorship and the directorship of the Madrid Botanical Gardens; and the Spanish government ordered that any expeditions exploring Spanish America at that time send the Botanical Gardens examples of any herbs, seeds, and other plant forms that might be collected.

Achievements

• Cavanilles was a leading taxonomic botanist of the 18th century. He named many plants, particularly from Oceania, and was one of the first Spanish scientists to use the classification method invented by Carl Linnaeus.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Quarta Dissertatio Botanica De Geranio

    (Latin Edition)

  • Descripcion De Las Plantas

    (Volume 1)

    1801

References

• Dictionary of Scientific Biography Volume 3
  1971