Paolo Boccone

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Paolo Silvio Boccone (1633-1704) was a Sicilian botanist whose interest in plants had been sparked by a visit to the botanical gardens (l'Orto Botanico) founded in Messina by the Roman doctor Pietro Castelli, who became his instructor. Born in Palermo, he traveled across Sicily, Corsica, Paris, and London and later became a lecturer in Padua. He published Recherches et observations naturelles (Paris, 1671), which concerned itself with various theories of nature, and supplied important contributions to the fields of medicine and toxicology.

He was employed as court botanist to Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany as well as to Ferdinando's son, Cosimo III.

In the work Museo di piante rare della Sicilia, Malta, Corsica, Italia, Piemonte, e Germania (1697), Boccone described many rare plants of Sicily, Malta, Italy, Piedmont, and Germany. A fungus scientifically named Pisolithus tinctorius was called in the Sicilian dialect catatùnfuli, and Boccone writes that this fungus was employed by the women of Messina in order to dye cloth.

In the same year, Boccone entered the order of the Cistercians and took the name Silvio.

Boccone had been widely regarded by the scientific community, and was in contact with many European naturalists. The French botanist Charles Plumier studied under him at Rome. Boccone died in Palermo. Carolus Linnaeus named the genus Bocconia, in the family of the Papaveraceae, after him.

[edit] Works[1]

Recherches & observations touchant le corail, la pierre étoilée, les pierres de figure de coquilles, etc...., Amsterdam, 1674.
Recherches et observations naturelles. Amsterdam: Chez Jean Jansson, 1674.
Icones et descriptiones rariorum plantarum Siciliae, Melitae, Galliae et Italiae... auctore Paulo Boccone,... (Edidit R. Morison.), Oxford, e theatro Sheldoniano, 1674. In-4 ? , XVI-96 p., fig.
Icones et descriptiones rariorum plantarum Siciliae, Melitae, Galliae et Italiae... auctore Paulo Boccone,...cum praefatione Roberti Mossiockii, Lugduni, apud Robertum Scott, 1674.
Novitiato ala segreteria del signore Paolo Boccone, gentiluomo di Palermo, lettura grata non meno a principi che a loro segretari, per mostrare con faciltà e brevità l'arte d'un accorto secretario, Genuae, apud haeredes Calenziani, sd. In-12°.
Osservazioni naturali, ove si contengono materie medico-fisiche, e di botanica, produzioni naturali fossofori diversi, fuochi sotterranei d'Itali e altre curiosità, disposte en trattati familiari, Bononiae, apud Monolessos, 1684. In-12°.
Lettre de Monsieur Boccone,... écrite à Mr. l'Abbé Bourdelot,... touchant l'embrasement du mont Etna, S. l. n. d. In-12, paginé 67-78, carte.
Museo di fisica e di esperienze variato e decorato di osservazioni naturali, note medicinali..., Venetia : J. B. Zuccato, 1697. In-4 ? , VIII-319 p., pl. et portr.
Della pietra Belzuar minerale siciliana lettera familiare, Monteleoni, apud Dominicum Ferrum, 1669.
Museo di piante rare della Sicilia, Malta, Corsica, italia, Piemonte e Germania con figure 133 in rame, Venetiis, apud Ioannem Baptistam Zuccarum, 1697.
Epistola botanica
Recherches et observations naturelles touchant le corail, pierre estoilee, embrasement du mont Etna, Parisiis, apud Baloin ad Palatum, 1672.
Museum experimentale-physicum, complectens observationes eruditis et curiosis, Francofurti, apuc Michaelem Rohrbach, 1697. In-12°.