Raffaele Ciferri (30 May 1897,

Fermo Fermo (; ancient: Firmum Picenum) is a town and ''comune'' of the Marche, Italy, in the Province of Fermo. Fermo is on a hill, the Sabulo, elevation , on a branch from Porto San Giorgio on the Adriatic coast railway. History The oldest huma ...

– 12 February 1964,

Pavia Pavia ( , ; ; ; ; ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, in Northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino (river), Ticino near its confluence with the Po (river), Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was a major polit ...

) was an Italian

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

agriculturalist An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.) is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the Uni ...

and

mycologist Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their taxonomy, genetics, biochemical properties, and use by humans. Fungi can be a source of tinder, food, traditional medicine, as well as entheogens, poison, and ...

. He studied

agricultural sciences Agricultural science (or agriscience for short) is a broad multidisciplinary field of biology that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. Professiona ...

at the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...

. From 1925 to 1932, he was based in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

, where he helped establish an experimental agricultural station in

Santiago de los Caballeros Santiago de los Caballeros ("James, son of Zebedee, Saint James of the Knights"), often shortened to Santiago, is the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic and the fourth-largest city in the Caribbean by population. It is the capital of ...

for studies of

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

. While in Latin America, he also conducted research of diseases affecting cacao in

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. In 1934–35 he was stationed in

Italian Somaliland Italian Somaliland (; ; ) was a protectorate and later colony of the Kingdom of Italy in present-day Somalia, which was ruled in the 19th century by the Sultanate of Hobyo and the Majeerteen Sultanate in the north, and by the Hiraab Imamate and ...

, performing organizational work involving agrarian services.Treccani.it
Ciferri, Raffaele, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 25 (1981)
Raffaele Ciferri (1897 - 1964) In 1936 he was appointed professor of botany to the faculty of agriculture in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, and from 1942 onward, served as a professor of botany at the

University of Pavia The University of Pavia (, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; ) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest un ...

. A prolific writer, he was the author of well over 1000 published works on subjects that included mycology,

plant pathology Plant pathology or phytopathology is the scientific study of plant diseases caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Plant pathology involves the study of pathogen identification, disease ...

and

physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

microbiology Microbiology () is the branches of science, scientific study of microorganisms, those being of unicellular organism, unicellular (single-celled), multicellular organism, multicellular (consisting of complex cells), or non-cellular life, acellula ...

virology Virology is the Scientific method, scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host (biology), ...

lichenology Lichenology is the branch of mycology that studies the lichens, symbiotic organisms made up of an intimate symbiotic association of a microscopic alga (or a cyanobacterium) with a Hypha, filamentous fungus. Lichens are chiefly characterized by th ...

, the systematics of cultivated plants,

agronomy Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and ...

, and the history of botany. Ciferri issued the

exsiccata Exsiccata (Latin, ''gen.'' -ae, ''plur.'' -ae) is a work with "published, uniform, numbered set of preserved specimens distributed with printed labels". Typically, exsiccatae are numbered collections of dried herbarium Biological specimen, spe ...

''Mycoflora Domingensis exsiccata''. The ambrosia fungus genus ''

Raffaelea ''Raffaelea'' is a genus of ambrosia fungi in the family Ophiostomataceae. It was circumscribed by mycologists Josef Adolph von Arx and Grégoire L. Hennebert in 1965 with '' Raffaelea ambrosiae'' as the type species. The genus is named in hono ...

'' is named in his honor, as are multiple species with the epithet ''ciferrii''. Together with mycologist

Ruggero Tomaselli Ruggero Tomaselli (Trento, 22 August 1920 – Monzuno, 30 March 1982) was an Italian botanist. He introduced the study of phytosociology to Italy. Biography Tomaselli was born in Trento on 22 August 1920. In 1943 he graduated from the Univ ...

, Ciferri published 215 alternative names for the fungal component (the

mycobiont A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualistic relationship.

) of

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

s; most of these ended in the suffix ''-myces''. The vast majority of these names were later determined to be formally illegitimate according to nomenclatural rules.

Selected works

* "Micoflora Domingensis", 1929. * ''I Cereali dell'Africa Italiana'', 1939 – Cereals of Italian Africa. * ''Fisiologia vegetale e piante agrarie'', 1943 – Plant physiology and agricultural plants. * ''Manuale di patologia vegetale'', 1952 – Manual of plant physiology. * "Thesaurus literaturae mycologicae et lichenologicae", 1957. * ''Manuale di micologia medica'', 1958 – Manual of medical mycology. * "Bibliographia mycopathologica, 1800-1940", 1958. * ''Il cacao e la sua evoluzione'', 1963 – Cacao and its evolution.Open Library
published works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ciferri, Raffaele 1897 births 1964 deaths People from Fermo University of Bologna alumni Academic staff of the University of Florence Academic staff of the University of Pavia 20th-century Italian botanists Italian mycologists Italian agriculturalists