Pierre Magnol Totally Explained

Everything about Pierre Magnol totally explained

Pierre Magnol (June 8, 1638 - May 21, 1715) was a French botanist. He was born in the city of Montpellier, where he lived and worked for the biggest part of his life. He eventually became Professor of Botany and Director of the Royal Botanic Garden of Montpellier and even held a seat in the Académie Royale des Sciences de Paris for a short while. Magnol is of lasting importance because he was one of the innovators of the current botanical scheme of classification. He was the first to publish the concept of plant families as we know them, a natural classification, in which groups of plant with associated common features were described.

Youth and Education

Pierre Magnol was born into a family of apothecaries (pharmacists). His father Claude ran a pharmacy as did his grandfather Jean Magnol. Pierre's mother was from a family of physicians. Pierre's older brother Cesar succeeded his father in the pharmacy. Pierre, being one of the younger children, had more freedom to choose his own profession, and wanted to become a physician. He had become devoted to natural history and especially botany at an early stage in his life, which might be regarded as self-evident for a son of a pharmacist. In Magnol's days, the study of botany and medicine were inseparable. Thus he enrolled as a student in medicine at the University of Montpellier on May 19, 1655.
   Montpellier is an old city and in Magnol's days it had already been an important commercial and educational centre for several ages. The University of Montpellier was officially founded in 1289 (though it's said to be older) and it was the first French university to establish a botanic garden, donated in 1593 by Henry IV of France, for the study of medicine and pharmacology. Its medical school attracted students from all over Europe. Famous botanists such as Francois Rabelais (c. 1493-1553), Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566), Guillaume Rondelet (1507-1566), Charles de l'Ecluse (1526-1609) and Pierre Richer de Belleval (c. 1564-1632) all studied at this university. So it was in one of the intellectual and botanical capitals that Magnol took his education. He got his doctor's degree (M.D.) on January 11, 1659. From 1659 on he devoted much of his time to the study of botany and made several trips through the Languedoc, the Provence, to the Alpes and to the Pyrenees. In 1664 there was a vacancy for 'Demonstrator of plants' in Montpellier and Magnol was proposed for the position. He was denied the appointment because of religious discrimination. This happened again in 1667 when he was the leading candidate for the chair of Professor of medicine.
   Meanwhile Magnol had contacts with many prominent botanist and was highly esteemed by his contemporaries. He corresponded with John Ray, William Sherard and James Petiver (England), Paul Hermann and Petrus Houttuyn (Leiden), Jan Commelin (Amsterdam), J.H. Lavater (Zurich) and J. Salvador (Barcelona), among others.
   In 1687, after his conversion to Catholicism, Magnol eventually became 'Demonstrator of plants' at the botanic garden of Montpellier. In 1693, recommended by Guy-Crescent Fagon (1638-1718), then court physician, and his own student Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656-1708), he was nominated 'doctor to the kings court'. In 1694 he finally was appointed Professor of medicine at the University of Montpellier. Through intervention of Fagon, he received a brevet de professeur royale. Magnol was also appointed Director of the botanic garden in 1696, for a three year period. After that, he received the title 'Inspector of the garden' for the rest of his life.
   Magnol was one of the founding members of the Société Royale des Sciences de Montpellier (1706) and held one of the three chairs in botany. In 1709 he was called to Paris to occupy the seat in the Académie Royale des Sciences de Paris that was left empty when his former student Joseph Pitton de Tournefort died prematurely.
   Among Magnol's students were Tournefort and the brothers Antoine and Bernard de Jussieu.

Major Contribution to Science

Magnol's most important contribution to science is without doubt the invention of the concept of plant families, a natural classification, based on combinations of morphological characters, as set out in his Prodromus historiae generalis plantarum, in quo familiae plantarum per tabulas disponuntur (1689) (See under major works). This may seem trivial now but it certainly wasn't during his lifetime. In Magnol's days it was common belief that all species had come into existence by divine creation at the same time, as set out in the biblical book of Genesis. In that case there's no cause to assume family ties between species. It took some genius to classify plants that way. Remember that Magnol was a convinced Protestant. Nevertheless his work may be regarded as one of the first steps towards the composition of a tree of life. In his Prodromus he developed 75 tables, which not only grouped plants into families but also allowed for an easy and rapid identification by means of the morphological characters, the same he used to compose the groups.

Major Works

1676, Botanicum Monspeliense, sive Plantarum circa Monspelium nascentium index. Lyon. [Floraof Montpellier, or rather a list of the plants growing around Montpellier] 1686, Botanicum Monspeliense, sive Plantarum circa Monspelium nascentium index. Adduntur variarum plantarum descriptiones et icones. Cum appendice quae plantas de novo repertas continet et errata emendat. Montpellier. [Floraof Montpellier, or rather a list of the plants growing around Montpellier, with descriptions and plates of several plants added. With an appendix that contains newly found plants and corrects errors] 1689, Prodromus historiae generalis plantarum, in quo familiae plantarum per tabulas disponuntur. Montpellier. [Precursorto a systematic account of the genera of plants, in which the families of plants are arranged in tables] 1697, Hortus regius Monspeliense, sive Catalogus plantarum quae in Horto Regio Monspeliensi demonstrantur. Montpellier. [Theroyal garden of Montpellier, or rather a catalogue of the plants that are on show in the royal garden of Montpellier] 1720, Novus caracter [sic] plantarum, in duo tractatus divisus: primus, de herbis & subfructibus, secundus, de fructibus & arboribus. Montpellier, posthumous edition, attended to by his son, Antoine Magnol (1676-1759). [Newcharacter of plants, divided into two treatises: the first on herbs and small shrubs, the second on shrubs and trees]

Eponymy

In 1703 Charles Plumier (1646-1704) gave a flowering tree from the island of Martinique the genus name Magnolia, after Magnol. The name was later adopted by Linnaeus in the first edition of Species plantarum, with a reference to Plumier's name. This way, Magnolia became the name of the large genus of ornamental flowering trees as we know it to date. See Origin of the name Magnolia.

Notes and References

Aiello, T. (2003). Pierre Magnol: His life and works, Magnolia, the Journal of the Magnolia Society Vol. 38 issue 74: 1-10.

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