Nathanael Matthaeus von Wolf, Nathanael Matthäus von Wolf, (28 January 1724 in Konitz – 15 December 1784 in

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

) was an ethnic German

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 ...

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

, and

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

who lived most of his life in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Wolf was born in

Chojnice Chojnice (; or ; or ) is a town in northern Poland with 38,789 inhabitants, as of June 2023, near the Tuchola Forest. It is the capital of the Chojnice County in the Pomeranian Voivodeship. Founded in , Chojnice is a former royal city of Poland ...

( Konitz) in Royal Prussia,

Crown of the Kingdom of Poland The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (; ) was a political and legal concept formed in the 14th century in the Kingdom of Poland, assuming unity, indivisibility and continuity of the state. Under this idea, the state was no longer seen as the Pat ...

. He went to study

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

at the

University of Erfurt The University of Erfurt () is a public university located in Erfurt, the capital city of the German state of Thuringia. It was founded in 1379, and closed in 1816. It was re-established in 1994, three years after German reunification. Therefore ...

and received his degree of M.D. in 1748. He became the personal physician of Teodor Kazimierz Czartoryski, the

Prince-bishop A prince-bishop is a bishop who is also the civil ruler of some secular principality and sovereignty, as opposed to '' Prince of the Church'' itself, a title associated with cardinals. Since 1951, the sole extant prince-bishop has been the ...

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

, until the bishop's death in 1768. The next year he opened a private office at

Tczew Tczew (, formerly ) is a city on the Vistula River in the Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland, with 59,111 inhabitants (December 2021). It is the capital of Tczew County and the largest city of the ethnocultural region of Kociewie within th ...

and then following the

First Partition of Poland The First Partition of Poland took place in 1772 as the first of three partitions that eventually ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The growth of power in the Russian Empire threatened the Kingdom of Prussia an ...

in 1772 moved his practise to Danzig (

) which remained part of Poland. He went on to spend most of his adult life in Danzig. He was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1777. As an astronomer, Wolf also taught the Corps of Cadets in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

. He was a member of the Danzig Research Society (''Naturforschende Gesellschaft Danzig'') and left his scientific collections to them. He greatly supported the building of a planetarium. On 10 May 1785, a few months after Wolf's death, the Danzig physician Philipp Adolph Lampe presented a memorial at the Danzig Research Society.

Notes

Works

**Genera Plantarum, Vocabulis characteristicis definita S.l. 1776 **Genera et Species Plantarum vocabulis characteristicis definita. Marienwerder, Typis Joan. Jac. Kanteri, 1781 **Concordantia Botanica. Dantisci, Muller, 1780

References

* J.C. Poggendorff (1863). ''Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch zur geschichte der exacten wissenschaften.'' Verlag von Johann Ambrosius Barth. (Leipzig). * Edmund Cieślak "Historia Gdańska", t. III, /1:1655-1793,

1993 * Kazimierz Kubik & Lech Mokrzecki "Trzy wieki nauki gdańskiej", Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich,

1976 (s. 125-126) * "Mieszczaństwo gdańskie", Gdańskie Towarzystwo Naukowe,

1997 1724 births 1782 deaths Ethnic German people 18th-century Polish–Lithuanian scientists 18th-century Polish–Lithuanian physicians 18th-century Polish–Lithuanian astronomers 18th-century German botanists Fellows of the Royal Society People from Chojnice {{Poland-scientist-stub