| AdminHistory | Pier' Antonio Micheli (1679 - 1737) was an Italian botanist and professor, and is considered to be the founder of scientific mycology.
Micheli was born on 11 December 1679 in Florence. It is believed that he taught himself Latin and began the study of plants at a young age under Bruno Tozzi. In 1706 he was appointed botanist to Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, director of the Florence gardens, and a professor at the University of Pisa. He also became the curator of the Orto Botanico di Firenze, and was the author of 'Nova plantarum genera iuxta Tournefortii methodum disposita' (1729). He discovered the spores of mushrooms, was a leading authority on cryptogams, and coined several important genera of microfungi including Aspergillus and Botrytis. He was a collector of plant and mineral specimens, and on one of his collecting trips, in 1736, he contracted pleurisy. He died soon after in Florence on 1 January 1737. |