THE STATUEThis statue of Pier Antonio Micheli is one othe the 28 that decorate the columns of the Uffizi gallery. In it Pier Antonio Micheli has a book in his right hand, a plant in his left hand and at his feet he has another plant. He he his represented in real size and using period clothing.
"With rescript grand-ducal of 11 March 1842 established the Florentine Deputation to implement in the Loggia degli Uffizi statues in honor of various famous Tuscan, chaired by John Ginori, intended to carry out the project of 28 statues of the Florentine Vincenzo Batelli typesetter, who had had to give up for lack of means. The statues, depicting personalities of politics, art, science, literature, etc.., Made in the course of several years (the first 11 in 15 years) were donated to the Community on the occasion of the feast of the patron and placed in the niches designed by Vasari for architectural purposes. To raise the necessary funds resorted to various means: the statue of Nicola Pisano (made from rings) and those of Giotto (Dupré) and Galileo (Costoli) were donated by Lorena, sometimes the States carried out of his own pocket, as in If the Statue of Amerigo Vespucci, paid by Sir Henry Danty or, famous artists such as Lorenzo Bartolini, with "generous patriotism," were content to be paid as other lesser-known artisans, "postergando any special interest." In general, however, to raise funds, the Deputation was organizing "a stake in the round ', or a horse race with jockeys, and some raffles at the Uffizi and Piazza S. Maria Novella. In June 1848, the Deputation, giving the statue by Donatello Bardi, announced that within two years he would donate the other three, 'without doubt, however, the event of the seven statues that then fail to complete the decoration of these Uffizi, because their existence is now exclusively connected making and the outcome of the public raffles. " Translated From: (
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THE PERSON"Pier Antonio Micheli (December 11, 1679 – January 1, 1737) was a Catholic priest and noted Italian botanist, professor of botany in Pisa, curator of the Orto Botanico di Firenze, author of Nova plantarum genera iuxta Tournefortii methodum disposita. He discovered the spores of mushrooms, was a leading authority on cryptogams, and coined several important genera of microfungi including Aspergillus and Botrytis.
Micheli was born in Florence in 1679. According to a short description from the libraries of Harvard University, 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.
His Nova plantarum genera (1729) was a major step in the knowledge of fungi. In this work, he gave descriptions of 1900 plants, of which about 1400 were described for the first time. Among these were 900 fungi and lichens, accompanied by 73 plates. He included information on "the planting, origin and growth of fungi, mucors, and allied plants", and was the first to point out that fungi have reproductive bodies or spores. His work was meet with skepticism by other botanists of the time.
He observed that when spores were placed on slices of melon the same type of fungi were produced that the spores came from, and from this observation he noted that fungi did not arise from spontaneous generation. He also formulated a systematic classification system with keys for genera and species.
He was a collector of plant and mineral specimens, and on one of his collecting trips, in 1736, he contracted pleurisy, of which he soon after died in Florence.
The standard author abbreviation P. Micheli is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name."
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