Francesco Cupani ( 21 January 1657,

Mirto Mirto may refer to: People * Alexander Mirto Frangipani, Roman Catholic prelate * Fabio Mirto Frangipani (died 1587), Roman Catholic prelate * Mirto Davoine (1933-1999), Uruguayan football player * Mirto Picchi (1915-1980), Italian dramatic ten ...

– 19 January 1710,

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

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 ...

mainly interested in

botany 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 ...

. In 1692 he became the first Director of the

botanic garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...

Misilmeri Misilmeri () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, Sicily. It is approximately from Palermo and its name means "the resting place or the messuage of the Emir", and dates from the Muslim emirate of Sicily. The village rose ...

. Here the plants were classified a system taxonomy of

binomial nomenclature In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

later made standard by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

. This work put him in contact with many botanists, for instance

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (5 June 165628 December 1708) was a French botanist, notable as the first to make a clear definition of the concept of genus for plants. Botanist Charles Plumier was his pupil and accompanied him on his voyages. Li ...

Caspar Commelin Caspar Commelijn or Caspar Commelin (14 October 1668 Amsterdam – 25 December 1731 Amsterdam), was a Dutch botanist. Life and work He was the son of the bookseller, historian and publisher, Casparus Commelijn and his first wife, Margrieta Heyda ...

William Sherard William Sherard (27 February 1659 – 11 August 1728) was an English botanist. Next to John Ray, he was considered to be one of the outstanding English botanists of his day. Life He is still a little-known figure of that era coming as he did fr ...

James Petiver James Petiver () was a London apothecary, a fellow of the Royal Society as well as London's informal Temple Coffee House Botany Club, famous for his specimen collections in which he traded and study of botany and entomology. He corresponded with ...

Johann Georg Volckamer Johann, typically a male given name, is the German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew name '' Yochanan'' () in turn from its extended form (), meaning "Yahweh is Gracious" ...

Felice Viali Felice is a unisex given name. It is a common name in Italian, where it is equivalent to Felix. Notable people with the name include: Arts and entertainment Acting *Felice Andreasi (1928–2005), Italian actor *Felice Farina (born 1954), Italia ...

(1638–1722) and

Giovanni Battista Trionfetti Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...

. He is credited with cultivating wild sweetpeas and introducing them to the world. A sweetpea variety is named for him.

Works

* ''Catalogus plantarum sicularum Noviter adinventarum'' Palermo, 1692. * ''Syllabus plantarum Siciliae Nuper detectarum'' Palermo, 1694. * ''Hortus Catholicus'' Napoli, 1696. * ''Pamphyton siculum'', a natural history (fauna as well as flora) of Sicily published posthumously in 1713 and the result of 25 years work.

References

Bibliography

External links

*
Herbarium (Cupani Hortus Siccus)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cupani, Francesco 1657 births 1710 deaths People from the Metropolitan City of Messina 17th-century Italian botanists Italian naturalists Scientists from Sicily 18th-century Italian botanists