
Lorenz Spengler (22 September 1720 – 20 December 1807) was a
Danish turner
Turner may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name
*One who uses a lathe for tur ...
and
naturalist
Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
.
Born in
Schaffhausen
Schaffhausen (; ; ; ; ), historically known in English as Shaffhouse, is a list of towns in Switzerland, town with historic roots, a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of Schaffh ...
,
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
he arrived at Copenhagen in 1743 and became a tutor to
Christian VI of Denmark
Christian VI (30 November 1699 – 6 August 1746) was King of Denmark and Norway from 1730 to 1746. The eldest surviving son of Frederick IV of Denmark, Frederick IV and Louise of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, he is considered one of Denmark-Norway's m ...
and later
Frederick V of Denmark
Frederick V (Danish language, Danish and Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''Frederik V''; 31 March 1723 – 14 January 1766) was King of Denmark–Norway, Denmark and Norway and Duke of Schleswig-Holstein from 6 August 1746 until his death in 1766. ...
in the art of turning. From 1771 he was head of the Royal Art Chamber (Det Kongelige Kunstkammer), a position he held until his death in 1807. Among his works is "''Beskrivelse og Oplysning over den hindindtil lidet udarbeidede Sloegt af mangeskallede Konchylier som Linnaeus har kaldet ''Lepas'' med tilfoiede nye og ubeskrevne Arter'' ", a treatise on shelled molluscs including many new species descriptions, of which six taxa are still valid. Spengler maintained a personal natural history collection, the ''Museo Spengleriano''.
Spengler is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of Southeast Asian turtle, ''
Geoemyda spengleri''.
[Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Spengler", p. 250).] He is also celebrated in the common name of the Spengler's freshwater mussel, ''
Margaritifera auricularia''.
References
External links
Rosenborg SlotSpengler's correspondence to Linnaeus
Conchologists
1720 births
1807 deaths
18th-century Danish scientists
Danish naturalists
Swiss naturalists
People from Schaffhausen
Swiss emigrants to Denmark
Scientists from Denmark–Norway
Danish Calvinist and Reformed Christians
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