Giorgio Jan

Giorgio Jan (21 December 1791 in Vienna – 8 May 1866, Milan) was an Italian taxonomist, zoologist, botanist, herpetologist, and writer. He is also known as Georg Jan or Georges Jan. He was the first director of the natural history museum at Milan.

Giorgio Jan
Born
Giorgio Jan

(1721-12-21)21 December 1721
Died8 May 1866(1866-05-08) (aged 74)

Biography
Ferdinando Sordelli.

After having been an assistant at the University of Vienna, Jan obtained the post of professor of botany at the university of Parma as well as becoming Director of the botanical garden. At that time, the duchy of Parma was no longer under Austrian jurisdiction following the Congress of Vienna after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. Giuseppe de Cristoforis died in 1837 bequeathing his collections to the town of Milan on condition that the municipality created a natural history museum whose direction had to be entrusted to Giorgio Jan, who offered his own collections. The Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano was created the following year and is the oldest natural history museum of Italy. Jan immediately engaged Ferdinando Sordelli (1837–1916), artist and naturalist, who then illustrated his publications.

Jan's main interest was botany, but he made immense collections of natural history, including fossils and minerals. With Giuseppe de Cristoforis, he published many catalogues of specimens, often offered for sale or exchange. In these many new species, were described mainly insects and molluscs.

In the scientific field of herpetology he is credited with having described more than 85 new species of snakes, and is honored by having several species and subspecies named after him, such as the Texas night snake (Hypsiglena torquata jani ), the Mexican pine snake (Pituophis deppei jani ), Jan's shovelsnout snake (Prosymna janii, and Jan's centipede snake (Tantilla jani ).[1][2] In the 1860s he began compiling what was to become the Iconographie Général des Ophidiens, an extensive illustrated collection of scientific papers relating to snakes, but he died before it was completed. The work was eventually finished and published in several parts by Sordelli.

Publications (incomplete list)
  • Iconographie Générale des Ophidians (1860–1866).[4] (in French).

References
  1. Beltz, Ellin (2007). "Scientific and Common Names of Reptiles and Amphibians of North America – Explained".
  2. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Jan", p. 133).
  3. International Plant Names Index.  Jan.
  4. "Iconographie Générale des Ophidiens (1864)". (in French).

Further reading
  • Conci, Cesare (1966). "Il centenario di Giorgio Jan, la sua attività malacologica e le collezioni di Molluschi del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano". Lavori della Società Malacologica Italiana 3: 1–8. (in Italian).
  • Conci, Cesare (1978). Il Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano. Milan: Banca Popolare di Milano. (in Italian).
  • Conci, Cesare (1984). Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano, Musaeum Septalianum una collezione scientifica nella Milano del Seicento a cura di Antonio Aimi, Vincenzo De Michele, Alessandro Morandotti. Florence: Giunti Marzocco. (in Italian).
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