
Franz de Paula Adam Norbert Wenzel Ludwig Valentin von Waldstein (14 February 1759 – 24 May 1823) was an
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n soldier, explorer and naturalist.
A member of the noble
Waldstein family, he was born in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, the third son of Count Emanuel Philibert von Waldstein-Wartenberg (1731–1775) and his wife Maria Anna Theresia von
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German language, German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constit ...
. His younger brother Count
Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel von Waldstein (1762–1823) became known as patron of
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
.
Waldstein married Karolina Ferdinandi (1777–1844). As a soldier he took part in
Habsburg campaigns against the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
and
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...
.
From 1789, he studied the botany of Hungary with
Pál Kitaibel
Pál Kitaibel (3 February 1757 – 13 December 1817) was a Hungarian botanist and chemist.
He was born at Nagymarton (today Mattersburg, Austria) and studied botany and chemistry at the University of Buda. In 1794 he became Professor and tau ...
. His
herbarium
A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study.
The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (calle ...
is archived in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
. Together with Kitaibel he wrote ''Descriptiones et icones plantarum rariorum Hungariae'' ("descriptions and pictures of the rare plants of Hungary"; M. A. Schmidt, Vienna, three volumes, 1802–1812).
In 1814, Waldstein was appointed member of the
Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities
The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (german: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften) is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowled ...
. He died at his manor in
Litvínov (german: Oberleutensdorf),
Bohemia. The genus
Waldsteinia (
Rosaceae
Rosaceae (), the rose family, is a medium-sized family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera.
The name is derived from the type genus ''Rosa''. Among the most species-rich genera are '' Alchemilla'' (270), '' Sorbu ...
) was named after him by
Carl Ludwig von Willdenow
Carl Ludwig Willdenow (22 August 1765 – 10 July 1812) was a German botanist, pharmacist, and plant taxonomist. He is considered one of the founders of phytogeography, the study of the geographic distribution of plants. Willdenow was ...
, as well as a ''
Campanula
''Campanula'' () is one of several genera of flowering plants in the family Campanulaceae commonly known as bellflowers. They take both their common and scientific names from the bell-shaped flowers — ''campanula'' is Latin for "little b ...
'' (bellflower) species (''Campanula waldsteiniana'') by
Josef August Schultes
Josef (Joseph) August Schultes (15 April 1773 in Vienna – 21 April 1831 in Landshut) was an Austrian botanist and professor from Vienna. Together with Johann Jacob Roemer (1763–1819), he published the 16th edition of Linnaeus' ''Systema ...
.
References
External links
Detailed biography
Franz de Paula Adam Graf von Waldstein and Paul Kitaibel, ''Descriptiones et icones plantarum rariorum Hungariae'' on DIGITUM: Depósito Digital Institucional de la Universidad de Murcia.----
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Waldstein, Franz de Paula Adam von
18th-century Austrian botanists
Austrian explorers
Austrian soldiers
1759 births
1823 deaths
Bohemian nobility
Scientists from Vienna
Franz de Paula Adam
19th-century Austrian botanists
18th-century explorers
19th-century explorers