Lamberto Loria (12 February 1855 – 4 April 1913) was an Italian

ethnographer Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

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 ...

and

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

Biography

Born in

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

from a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family, after the death of his mother Clara, he returned with his father Marco in Italy, in

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

. Here he graduated in

1881 Events January * January 1– 24 – Siege of Geok Tepe: Russian troops under General Mikhail Skobelev defeat the Turkomans. * January 13 – War of the Pacific – Battle of San Juan and Chorrillos: The Chilean army ...

in mathematics.Lucia Cec
Lamberto Loria
in Treccani - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 66 (2006) Then he approached the Italian Society of Anthropology and Ethnology founded 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 ...

Paolo Mantegazza Paolo Mantegazza (; 31 October 1831 – 28 August 1910) was an Italian neurologist, physiologist, and anthropologist, known for his experimental investigation of coca leaves and its effects on the human psyche. He was also an author of fiction ...

(1870), becoming interested to the ethno-anthropological studies. In 1883 he visited Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia, reaching to the

Turkestan Turkestan,; ; ; ; also spelled Turkistan, is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and East Turkestan (Xinjiang). The region is located in the northwest of modern day China and to the northwest of its ...

, places where he collected numerous items of ethnographic interest. In 1886, he left for New Guinea together with

Elio Modigliani Elio Modigliani (13 June 1860 – 6 August 1932) was an Italian anthropologist, zoologist, explorer, and plant collector. Biography The son of a Florence, Florentine banker, he first made his name in the Italian scientific community at the age o ...

, but for health reasons he just stood briefly in India. Then he visited the upper Egypt going up the Nile to the First Cataract. Soon he turned his scientific and ethnographic interests towards New Guinea, already partially explored between 1865 and 1886 by Luigi Maria d'Albertis and

Odoardo Beccari Odoardo Beccari (16 November 1843 – 25 October 1920) was an Italian botanist famous for his discoveries in Indonesia, New Guinea, and Australia. He has been called the greatest botanist to ever study Malesia. Life Youth and education (18 ...

. He left for the Southeast of New Guinea and at the end of 1888 for Papua, region that he explored in the years 1889-1890 and in 1892-1897. In

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

he lived for a total of seven years Lamberto Loria - Nella Nuova Guinea, in Boll. della Soc. geografica italiana, s. 3, III

890 __NOTOC__ Year 890 ( DCCCXC) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar, the 890th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 890th year of the 1st millennium, the 90th year of the 9th century, and the ...

pp. 479-494, 550-586 and visited the

Trobriand Islands The Trobriand Islands are a archipelago of coral atolls off the east coast of New Guinea. They are part of the nation of Papua New Guinea and are in Milne Bay Province. Most of the population of 60,000 (2016) indigenous inhabitants live on the m ...

. In 1905 he made one last short trip to

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

. His very rich natural and ethnographic collections were donated to the largest Italian museums (

Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova The Museo Civico di Storia Naturale Giacomo Doria is a natural history museum in Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live wi ...

Pigorini National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography The "Luigi Pigorini" National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography was a public and research museum located in Rome, Italy Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the ...

, Museo di storia naturale sezione di antropologia ed etnologia of Florence and Museo Archeologico Etnologico of

Modena Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbis ...

). Nevertheless, he published very little works about his researches in New Guinea, which remained unpublished in the form of notes and diaries. In his honor were named various species of animals, for example a species of frog ('' Oreophryne loriae''), Boulenger's bow-fingered gecko (''

Cyrtodactylus loriae Boulenger's bow-fingered gecko (''Cyrtodactylus loriae'') is a species of gecko, a lizard in the family Gekkonidae. The species is endemic to Papua New Guinea. Etymology The specific name, ''loriae'', is in honor of Italian ethnologist Lamberto ...

''), Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Loria, p. 160). a skink ('' Sphenomorphus loriae''), the common worm-eating snake ('' Toxicocalamus loriae''), Loria's satinbird ('' Cnemophilus loriae''), the large tree mouse ('' Pogonomys loriae''), two subspecies of birds (''Ptilorrhoa leucosticta loriae'', ''Pitta erythrogaster loriae''), and others.

Works

*Lettera al prof. P. Mantegazza, in Arch. per l'antropologia e l'etnologia, XIV (1884), pp. 414–418; *Dall'interno della Nuova Guinea. Lettera del dott. Lamberto Loria., in Boll. della Soc. geografica italiana, s. 3, IV (1891), pp. 905–911; *I viaggi del dott. Lamberto Loria alla Nuova Guinea, ibid., X (1897), pp. 156–161; *Atti del Congresso coloniale italiano in Asmara, ( 1905, a cura di C. Rossetti, Roma 1906, II, pp. 34, 52, 98, 104, 124, 132, 159; *Sulla raccolta di materiali per la etnografia italiana, Firenze 1906; *Per la etnografia italiana. Del modo di promuovere gli studi di etnografia italiana, Roma 1910; *Atti del I Congresso di etnografia italiana, Roma( 1911, Perugia 1912, pp. 17–20; *Due parole di programma, in Lares, I (1912), pp. 9–24; *L'Etnografia, strumento di politica interna e coloniale, ibid., pp. 73–79.

Bibliography

*Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins, Michael Grayson: The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals JHU Press, 2009, : S. 246 *De Simonis P., Dimpflmeier F. (a cura di), ''Lamberto Loria e la ragnatela dei suoi significati'', fascicolo monografico di ''Lares. Quadrimestrale di studi demoetnoantropologici'', Vol. LXXX/1, 2014. *G.A. Colini, Collezione etnografica della Nuova Guinea formata dal dott. L. L., in Boll. della Soc. geografica italiana, s. 3, IV (1891) *M. Régimbart (1892), Viaggio di Lamberto Loria nella Papuasia orientale. IV. Haliplidae, Dytiscidae, et Gyrinidae, in: Ann. Mus. Civ. Storia Nat. Genoa *P. Mantegazza et al., Istruzioni etnologiche per il viaggio dalla Lapponia al Caucaso dei soci L. e Michela, in Arch. per l'antropologia e l'etnologia, XIII (1883), pp. 109–114; *Puccini S., ''L'Itala gente dalle molte vite. Lamberto Loria e la Mostra di Etnografia Italiana del 1911'', Melteni, Roma 2005. *T. Salvadori, Caratteri di cinque specie nuove di uccelli della Nuova Guinea orientale-meridionale raccolti da Lamberto Loria, Genova 1894; *T. Salvadori, Viaggio di Lamberto Loria nella Papuasia orientale. Collezioni ornitologiche, Genova 1890;

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loria, Lamberto Italian explorers Italian ethnographers Italian naturalists Italian Jews 1855 births 1913 deaths