Giacomo Bresadola

{{Short description|Italian mycologist}} {{redirect|Bres.|other uses|Bres (disambiguation)}} {{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = | name = Giacomo Bresadola | honorific_suffix = | image = Giacomo Bresadola.jpg | caption = Engraving of Tozzi | birth_date = {{Birth date|1847|02|14}} | birth_place = Mezzana, Trentino, Austrian Empire | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1929|6|9|1847|02|14}} | death_place = Trento, Kingdom of Italy | footnotes = | field = Mycology and botany | academic_advisors = | notable_students = | workplaces = | alma_mater = | known_for = | spouse = | children = | author_abbrev_bot = Bres. | parents = Simone Bresadola and Domenica Bresadola | resting_place = }} '''Giacomo Bresadola''' (Mezzana, Trento; often given as '''Giacopo''') 14 February 1847 – Trento 9 June 1929) was an eminent Italian mycologist. Fungi he named include the deadly ''Lepiota helveola'' and ''Inocybe patouillardii'', though the latter is now known as ''Inosperma erubescens'' as this latter description predated Bresadola's by a year. He was a founding member of the ''Société mycologique de France'' (Mycology Society of France).

== Life == Bresadola was born in 1847 into a farming family in Trent, then an Austrian possession. From a very early age, he showed an interest in botany. After attending elementary school at Mezzana, he was sent by his father to Cloz in the Val di Non at the age of nine to continue his studies with his uncle who was a priest. His uncle, however, considered him too rambunctious and quickly sent him home again. In 1857, his father moved to Montichiari in Brescia to become a bronze merchant. At twelve years of age, he left to study at the technical institute in Rovereto. Having placed at the head of his class four years in a row, he was so disappointed at being classed second that he abandoned his studies to enter the seminary at Trent.

Upon becoming a priest, he was appointed to the parishes of Baselga di Pinè, Roncegno, and Malè. In 1878, he became the vicar at Magràs, a position he held for five years. During this period, he again started to become keenly interested in botany and spent time with Francesco Ambrosi, who introduced him to the bryologist Gustavo Venturi and the work of Carlo Vittadini. Both the large number of mushrooms that he found during his excursions and his contact with various mycologists led to a specific interest in mycology.

Thus he met with Pier Andrea Saccardo, a professor of botany at the University of Padua and celebrated mycologist. Saccardo directed Bresadola to Lucien Quélet and later Émile Boudier, with whom he would have a warm relationship. From this point on, he maintained a voluminous and broad correspondence with upwards of 400 Italian and foreign specialists, a collection that is now housed at the Museo delle Scienze in Trento.

Starting in 1881, he published the first installment of ''Fungi tridentini novi vel novum vel nondum delineati,'' a work which, when finished in 1892, ran to 232 pages of text and 217 plates. In 1884, he left to become vicar in Trent, where he would remain for the rest of his life. In 1887, he was named administrator of the Trent episcopacy's estates, a position he held until 1910.

He became a leading specialist in various areas, in which he enjoyed close collaborations: Agaricomycetes, with Quélet and Adalbert Ricken; Aphyllophoromycetideae, with Narcisse Théophile Patouillard and the Canon Hubert Bourdot; and finally Discomycetes with Boudier. He also developed a keen interest in exotic specimens and published various observations on examples he received from all parts of the world, including Cameroon, Congo, Hungary, Saxony, Poland, San Tomé, and Samoa. Under the auspices of the Italian Botanical Society and the Natural History Museum in Trent, he undertook the monumental ''Iconographia mycologica,'' a partially posthumous work which comprised some 25 volumes and 1,250 colour plates. In 1910, he retired and relied on his friends and family for a reasonable pension. Unfortunately, the First World War diminished its value considerably and to survive he was forced to sell off piecemeal his extensive library, his plant collection and his original drawings. In 1927, the University of Padua conferred upon him a doctorate ''honoris causa'' and the Italian government named him to the Order of the Crown of Italy. He died in Trent in June, 1929 and was buried at municipal expense.

Bresadola is the author of 1017 species of mushrooms and some fifteen genres in roughly sixty publications, almost all of which are written in Latin. His collections are today conserved in various institutions. The Natural History Museum of Stockholm has the largest collection (some thirty thousand species), although additional parts of Bresadola's collection are to be found in the Universities of Washington, Trent, Uppsala, Leiden and Paris. Bresadola issued two exsiccata-like series, namely ''Fungi Tridentini'' and ''Champignons des Iles de St. Thomé et des Princes'', the latter in cooperation with Casimir Roumeguère.<ref name="Triebel & Scholz 2001-2025">Triebel, D. & Scholz, P. 2001–2025 ''IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae''. – Botanische Staatssammlung München: http://indexs.botanischestaatssammlung.de. – München, Germany.</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Fungi Tridentini: IndExs ExsiccataID=302267648 |website=IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae |publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München |url=https://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=302267648 |access-date=9 June 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Champignons des Iles de St. Thomé et des Princes: IndExs ExsiccataID=1223746047 |website=IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae |publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München |url=https://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=1223746047 |access-date=9 June 2025}}</ref>

== Works ==

*1890 : Fungi Kamerunenses a cl. viro Joanne Braun lecti, additis nonnullis aliis novis, vel criticis ex regio museo bot. Berolinensi. ''Bulletin de la Société Mycologique de France'' '''6''' (1): 32-49. *1891 Fungi Lusitani collecti a cl. viro Adolphus Fr. Moller, anno 1890. ''Boletim da Sociedade Broteriana'' '''9''': 1-9 [reprint pag.]. *1891 : Champignons de la Hongrie. ''Revue Mycologique Toulouse'' '''13''': 20-33. *1892 : Fungi aliquot Saxonici novi lecti a cl. W. Krieger. ''Hedwigia'' '''31''': 40-41. *1893 : Fungi aliquot Saxonici novi lecti a cl. W. Krieger. ''Hedwigia'' '''32''': 32-[?]. *1894 : Fungi aliquot Saxonici novi vel critici a cl. W. Krieger lecti (contributio III ad Floram Mycol. Saxoniae). ''Hedwigia'' '''33''': 206-210. *1896 : Fungi aliquot Saxonici novi a cl. W. Krieger lecti. IV. ''Hedwigia'' '''35''': 199-[200]. *1896 : Fungi Brasilienses lecti a cl. Dr Alfredo Möller. ''Hedwigia'' '''35''': 276-302. *1897 : Hymenomycetes Hungarici Kmetiani. Atti dell'I.R. ''Accademia di Scienze Lettere ed Arti degli Agiati in Rovereto'' Ser. '''3''' 3: 66-[114]. *1899 : I funghi mangerecci e velenosi dell'Europa media con speciale riguardo a quelli che crescono nel Trentino (première édition). *1900 : Fungi aliquot Saxonici novi. VI. ''Hedwigia'' '''39''': 325-[347]. *1900 : Hymenomycetes Fuegiani a cl. P. Dusén et O. Nordenskjöld lecti. ''K. Vetenskaps-Akademiens Förhandlingar'' '''2''': 311-316. *1900 : Hymenomycetes fuegiani a Dusén, Nordenskjold lecti. ''Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der Schwedischen Expedition nach den Magellansländern''. 1895-1897 Band. III. *1902 : Mycetes Lusitanici novi. Atti dell'I.R. ''Accademia di Scienze Lettere ed Arti degli Agiati in Rovereto'' Ser. '''3''' 8: 128-133. *1903 : Fungi Polonici a cl. Viro B. Eichler lecti (continuatio). ''Annales Mycologici'' '''1''' (1-2): 65-131, 1 planche. *1903 : Fungi Polonici. ''Annales Mycologici'' '''1''' (1): 65-96. *1903 : Mycologia Lusitanica. Diagnoses fungorum novorum. ''Brotéria'' Ser. Botânica ''2'': 87-92. *1905 : Hymenomycetes novi vel minus cogniti. ''Annales Mycologici'' '''3''': 159-164. *1906 : I funghi mangerecci e velenosi dell'Europa media con speciale riguardo a quelli che crescono nel Trentino. II edizione riveduta ed aumentata. Trento: Stab. Lit. Tip. Giovanni Zippel 1906. 8vo, p (1-5) 6-142 et 121 planches (don't 120 lithographies coul.). *1908 : Fungi aliquot Gallici novi vel minus cogniti. ''Annales Mycologici'' '''6''': 37-47. *1908 : Drittes Verzeichniss zu meiner Exsiccatenwerk `Fungi Selecti Exsiccati', Serien IX-XII (201-300). ''Verhandlungen des Botanischen Vereins der Provinz Brandenburg'' '''50''': 29-51. *1911 : Fungi Congoenses. ''Annales Mycologici'' '''9''': 266-276. *1911 : Adnotanda mycologica. ''Annales Mycologici'' '''9''' (4): 425-428. *1912 : Polyporaceae Javanicae. ''Annales Mycologici'' '''10''': 492-508. *1912 : Basidiomycetes Philippinenses. Series I. ''Hedwigia'' '''51''' (4): 306-326. *1912 : Basidiomycetes Philippinenses. Series II. ''Hedwigia'' '''53''': 46-80. *1913 : Champignons de Congo Belge. ''Bulletin du Jardin Botanique de l'État à Bruxelles'' '''4''': 6-30. *1915 : Neue Pilze aus Sachsen. ''Annales Mycologici'' '''13''': 104-106. *1915 : Basidiomycetes Philippinenses. Series III. ''Hedwigia'' '''56''' (4): 289-307. *1916 : Synonymia et adnotanda mycologica. ''Annales Mycologici'' '''14''' (3-4): 221-242. *1920 : Selecta mycologica. ''Annales Mycologici'' '''18''' (1-3): 26-70. *1925 : New species of fungi. ''Mycologia'' '''17''' (2): 68-77. *1926 : Selecta mycologica II - ''Studi Trentini Sen Il. Sci. Nat. ed. Econ.'' '''7''' (1): 51-81. *1927 [publ. 1928] : ''Iconografia Mycologica'' '''3''': 101-150. Mediolani. *1929 : ''Iconografia Mycologica'' '''9''': 401-450. *1929 : ''Iconografia Mycologica'' '''12''': 551-600. *1930 : ''Iconografia Mycologica'' '''16''': 751-800. *1893 : Bresadola, G., Hennings, P. & Magnus, P.. Die von Herrn P. Sintenis auf der Insel Portorico 1884-1887 gesammelten Pilze. ''Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeografie'' '''17''': 489-501, 1 planche. *1897 : Bresadola, G. & Saccardo, P.A.. Enumerazione dei funghi della Valsesia raccolti dal Ch. Ab. Antonio Carestia. ''Malpighia'' '''11''': 241-325. *1899 (1900) : Bresadola, G. & Saccardo, P.A.. Fungi Congoenses. ''Bulletin de la Société Royale de Botanique de Belgique'' '''38''': 152-168, 5 planches.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category}} * {{DBI |title= BRESADOLA, Giacomo |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/giacomo-bresadola_(Dizionario-Biografico)|last= Giacomini|first= Valerio|volume= 14}} * {{Gutenberg author | id=41570| name=Giacomo Bresadola}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Giacomo Bresadola}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bresadola, Giacomo}} Category:1847 births Category:1929 deaths Category:19th-century Italian botanists Category:20th-century Italian botanists Category:Italian mycologists Category:Catholic clergy scientists