Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656–1708)

‘In [botany], it is absolutely necessary to combine into groups those plants which resemble one another, and to separate them from those which they do not resemble. This resemblance should be deduced solely from the closest sign of relationship, i.e., from the structure of one of the parts of the plant, and must pay no attention to more distant signs of relationship that can be found between certain plants, such as the possession of similar [medicinal] virtues, or the place in which they occur’

Quote from Tournefort’s Élémens de botanique (1694), in Sloan (1972, p.40).

Mavi Boncuk | 

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (5 June 1656 – 28 December 1708) was a French botanist, notable as the first to make a clear definition of the concept of genus for plants. He studied medicine at Montpellier, but was appointed professor of botany at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris in 1683. 

Tournefort was then sent by Louis XIV on a journey through what was then called the Levant with a wide scope not just confined to plants or natural history; he was to bring back information on the peoples and cities (including city plans) and their trade, manufactures and religions. He left Paris in 1700 visiting first Crete, then Greece, the Cyclades islands, Constantinople, Turkey and Georgia, returning in 1702. He was accompanied by the German botanist Andreas Gundesheimer (1668-1715) and the artist Claude Aubriet (1651-1743)[1]. 

Tournefort died in Paris in 1708 some months after a street accident eerily like the one suffered by Morison, but an account of the journey Relations d’un Voyage au Levant was published posthumously in 1717 and was rapidly translated into English and Dutch. Worth bought a 1718 Amsterdam edition of this work.

His description of this journey was published posthumously (Relation d'un voyage du Levant), he himself having been killed by a carriage in Paris; the road on which he died now bears his name (Rue de Tournefort in the 5ème arrondissement). 

 [1] Aubriet was a botanical artist who worked at the Jardin du Roi in Paris. His work attracted the attention of botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, who commissioned Aubriet as illustrator of Tournefort's 1694 Elemens de Botanique. From 1700 to 1702 he accompanied Tournefort on an expedition to the Middle East where he performed botanical drawings of the region's flora. Afterwards, Aubriet continued to work with other botanists at the Jardin du Roi. 

[Image Source Relation d'un voyage du Levant / Volume I.p.32 :] Grec. Turc. Candiotes Publisher : Aux dépens de la Compagnie (Amsterdam) 1718

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, (born June 5, 1656, Aix-en-Provence, Fr.—died Dec. 28, 1708, Paris), French botanist and physician, a pioneer in systematic botany, whose system of plant classification represented a major advance in his day and remains, in some respects, valid to the present time.

Tournefort’s interest in botany began early, but only after the death of his father, who was forcing him toward the priesthood, was he able to drop theology and study botany. He became a physician to support himself but continued his botanical studies. In 1688 he received an appointment as professor at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, a position he held until his death. He collected many plant species on scientific expeditions to the Pyrenees, Asia Minor, and Greece and acquired a wide reputation for his botanical works, particularly the beautifully illustrated Éléments de botanique (1694).

Tournefort placed primary emphasis on the classification of genera, basing his classification entirely upon the structure of the flower and fruit. He excelled in observation and description, and some of his generic descriptions are still acceptable. He was less innovative in theory, however, for he denied the sexuality of plants, and the classifications that he put forward above the level of the genus were often artificial. By his use of a single Latin name for the genus, followed by a few descriptive words for the species, he provided a major step in the development of the binomial nomenclature—that is, the use of a two-word Latin name to denote each species.

SOURCE

TOURNEFORT, Joseph Pitton (Claude AUBRIET, illustrator).

Elemens de botanique, ou methode pour connoître les plantes.
Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1694. 8vo. With 3 engraved title pages, engraved royal arms on the title page, 2 engraved headpieces, 2 engraved initials and 451 engraved botanical plates.Early 19th-century red morocco. [1], [1 blank], [18], 562, [20] pp.