{{Short description|Italian scientist (1567–1640)}} {{For|the bishop|Fabio Colonna (bishop)}} {{more citations needed|date=February 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}} {{Infobox scientist |name = Fabio Colonna |birth_place = Naples, Italy |birth_date = 1567 |death_place =Naples, Italy |death_date = {{Death date and age|1640|7|25|1567|1|1|df=y}} |residence = |citizenship = |field = Naturalist and Botanist |image=Portrait_of_Colonna_1572.jpg |caption=Fabio Colonna }} '''Fabio Colonna''' (called ''Linceo'';<ref>{{Cite Grove |title=Colonna, Fabio|first=Howard Mayer |last=Brown |orig-year=2001 |date=28 February 2002 |id=15241}}</ref> 1567 &ndash; 25 July 1640) was an Italian naturalist and botanist.

== Biography ==

He was the son of Girolamo Colonna, a philologist and antique dealer who was also editor of the fragments of the Latin poet Ennius. As a youngster he became proficient in Latin and Greek before attending the University of Naples, where he graduated in law in 1589. He suffered from epilepsy, which prevented him from practicing law, so he turned to studying the ancient authors of medicine, botany and natural history. He noticed numerous errors and omissions in Dioscorides' ''Materia medica'', but his commentary on that work is now lost.

In the period between 1606 and 1616, Colonna studied fossils, finding evidence for their organic origins.

The publication of his first works on botany, such as ''De purpura'' made him a celebrity among naturalists and one of the first members of the Accademia dei Lincei in Naples, which had been founded by Federico Cesi in 1612. In the following years, his academic activity at the Lincei was intense, including the writing of the ''Apiario'' and the ''Tesoro Messicano'' that the Lincei published in 1625 and 1628.

Colonna became interested in the recently invented telescope and microscope, corresponding with Galileo Galilei and other Lincean academics on astronomy.<ref>[http://www.lincei-celebrazioni.it/icolonna.html Fabio Colonna – Accademia dei Lincei]</ref>

In 1625 he published two drawings, ''Apiarium'' and ''Melissographia'', regarding bees.

Colonna was also interested in music, inventing a stringed, meantone temperament instrument, the ''pentecontachordon'', having 50 strings in which the octave is divided into 31 parts and the tone into 5 parts.

Colonna was a pupil of Ferrante Imperato and a friend of Giambattista della Porta and Bartolomeo Maranta.

== Selected works == * [https://books.google.com/books?id=Le5v5sSQDiIC ''Φυτοβασανος''] ("Phytobasanos": "Torture of plants"), Naples, 1592.<ref>''Phytobasanos sive plantarum aliquot historia in qua describuntur diversi generis plantæ veriores, ac magis facie, viribúsque respondentes antiquorum Theophrasti, Dioscoridis, Plinii, Galeni, aliquorúmque delineationibus, ab alijs hucusque (sic) non animaduersæ''.</ref> * ''Minus cognitarum'' […] ** [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/nat_hist/id/27413 ''Minus cognitarum rariorumque nostro coelo orientium stirpium εκφρασις''], 1616 (Linda Hall Library) ** [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/nat_hist/id/7809 ''Minus cognitarum stirpium pars altera''], 1616. Part 2. Includes (p. 85) ''Erucæ rutaceæ, eiusque chrysalidis & papilionis observatio'' (Linda Hall Library) * ''Ekphrasis altera'', Rome, 1616. It contains 156 drawings by Colonna himself as well as two appendices: ''De Purpura ''and ''De glossopetris dissertatio'', where Colonna makes an argument in favor of the organic origin of the glossopetrae. * [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/color/id/28760 ''Purpura''], 1616. About Tyrian purple. * [https://books.google.com/books?id=Z5YXAQAAIAAJ&pg=PP7 ''La sambuca lincea, ovvero dell'istromento &#91;sic&#93; musico perfetto''], Naples, 1618 (''The Lincean sambuca,<ref>A musical instrument related to the harp.</ref> in other words about the perfect musical instrument''), the construction of the ''pentecontachordon''. * [http://www.e-rara.ch/zut/content/pageview/5496726 "De glossopetris"]. In: ''De corporibus marinis lapidescentibus quae defossa reperiuntur, auctore Augustino Scilla – Addita dissertatione Fabii Columnae De glossopetris'', Rome, 1747

==Sources==

The first version of this text was partially or fully derived from the project [http://www.imss.fi.it/milleanni Mille anni di scienza in Italia] and edited by the Istituto Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze. It is released under the Creative Commons License CC-BY-3.0.

== Further reading == * "Janus Plancus" (Giovanni Bianchi<ref>The identification of Janus Plancus with Giovanni Bianchi is based on [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/876483238 that made by worldcat.org].</ref>). [https://books.google.com/books?id=-YRaAAAAcAAJ&pg=PR1 "Fabii <!-- "FabI", not a typo-->Columnae Lincei Vita"]. In: ''Phytobasanos'', 1744, p.&nbsp;I–X {{in lang|la}} * See the list of works compiled by Augusto De Ferrari. [http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/fabio-colonna_(Dizionario-Biografico)/ « Colonna, Fabio »]. In: ''Dizionario biografico degli Italiani''.

== Notes and references == <references/>

== See also == {{Portal|Biology|Ecology}} * Giovan Battista della Porta * Niels Stensen

== External links == * {{Cite web |title= Fabio Colonna (1567–1640) |author=Università di Palermo |url=http://math.unipa.it/~brig/sds/MATERIALI/Scienze%20Naturali/Sicilia_XVII-XX/Bio_Colonna_Fabio.htm |website=math.unipa.it |publisher=Università degli Studi di Palermo }} * [http://hos.ou.edu/galleries//01Ancient/HeroOfAlexandria/1575//15thCentury/Vespucci//16thCentury/Colonna/ Online Galleries, History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries]{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} High resolution images of works by and/or portraits of Fabio Colonna * Colonna's (1616) [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/color/id/28760 ''De purpura ab animali testaceo fusa''] – digital facsimile from the Linda Hall Library * Colonna's (1616) [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/nat_hist/id/7809 ''Minus cognitarum stirpium''] – digital facsimile from the Linda Hall Library * Colonna's (1616) [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/nat_hist/id/27413 ''Minus cognitarum rariorumque nostro coelo orientium stirpium''] – digital facsimile from the Linda Hall Library

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Colonna, Fabio}} Category:16th-century Italian botanists Category:Scientists from the Kingdom of Naples Category:Italian paleontologists Category:1567 births Category:1640 deaths Category:Members of the Lincean Academy Category:17th-century Italian botanists