Theophrastus short biography. Theophrastus - biography, information, personal life. Theophrastus: a short biography

The history of the development of botany is associated with the name Aristotle. It was this ancient Greek scientist who began to take a closer look at the surrounding nature and its representatives. One of the most significant works of Aristotle for botany is “The Theory of Plants,” in which he attempted to talk about representatives of living and inanimate nature from a philosophical point of view. Unfortunately, only isolated fragments of his statements have survived to this day.

Theophrastus - one of Aristotle's students, whose works on the study of plants made a huge contribution to botany as a science. His most famous scientific treatises are “ History of Plants" and "Causes of Plants", in which he describes more than five hundred different plant species found in the Mediterranean basin. Unfortunately, many of the species he described are quite difficult to compare with modern specimens, since many species have not survived.

« Father of Botany"- that’s what Theophrastus is called, and for good reason. It was he who gave not only detailed descriptions of some types of plants and their purpose, but was also able to distribute the plants by classification, for all representatives of the plant world on trees, grass, shrubs. Theophrastus also classified herbs, dividing them into perennial and annual. belong to Theophrastus first attempts to describe plant physiology and the process of their reproduction. He was able to study the structure of flowers, the location of the ovary, and also made classification of flowers into interpetalous and free-petaled. After Theophrastus, many scientists tried to continue his work - Nikander of Colophon, Varro Columel and others, but they only described various plants without trying to study them. Only four centuries after Theophrastus, Dioscorides in his scientific work described more than 600 species plants that were used in those days medicinal purposes. Dioscorides divided the plants used into several groups:

for food use,
plants for winemaking,
for medical needs,
plants used to create various incense.

When writing this scientific treatise, Dioscorides was guided solely by the knowledge he acquired about plants, without diluting the description with his comments and personal opinions.

During antiquity, many representatives scientific world They have repeatedly tried to study and qualify representatives of the plant world. Scientific works have survived to this day Indian doctor Charak. IN European science the most authoritative for the development of botany is scientific work German philosopher A. Bolstedt, who was able to study the structure of the stem and, based on it, describe the differences between monocots and dicots.

The turning point in the history of botany came at the end of the 15th century, during the era of great geographical discoveries. New plant species began to be imported from overseas countries, and the need arose for their inventory, i.e. description, naming and classification. At this time, forms of plant conservation arose and developed for their comparative study. In the middle of the 16th century, the beginning was made herbarization. The first botanical gardens appeared in Italy (1540 - in Padua, 1545 - in Pisa), Switzerland (1560 - in Zurich). During this period, the foundations of basics of botanical terminology, reaches its peak descriptive plant morphology.

In 1583, the Italian Cesalpino made an attempt to classify plants, based on signs of the structure of fruits and seeds(identified 15 classes). The outstanding English naturalist Robert Hooke (16351703) improved the microscope and, when examining a section of a cork, discovered that it consisted of tiny cells. In 1665, he described plant cells and coined the term "cellula", which means "cell" in Latin. Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694) and Nehemiah Grew (1641-1712) laid the foundation for plant anatomy by describing cells and tissues various types and their meaning. In 1671, they, independently of each other, published books with the same title “Anatomy of Plants”.

Systematics and descriptive morphology of the 18th century. reached its highest development in the works of the Swedish botanist Carla Linnaeus(1707-1778). In 1735, Linnaeus published the book “System of Nature”, where he classified plants according to the structure of the reproductive organ - androecium. He identified 24 classes. This system was artificial, because it was based not on the relationship of plants, but on the similarity of some characteristics. However, Linnaeus' system was very convenient: according to it, it was easy to find a plant based on the structure of the flower. Linnaeus's important innovation in systematics was binary nomenclature. Everyone in it the species was denoted by two words(the first is the genus name, the second is the specific epithet).

The 19th century was marked by significant advances in botany. Such sections as physiology, geography and ecology of plants, geobotany, paleobotany, embryology, etc. took shape and emerged. A huge amount of factual material has been accumulated in all branches of botany, which has created the basis for generalizing theories. The most important of them were cell theory and theory of evolutionary development of life.

In 1838, the German botanist M. Schleiden established that the cell is a universal structural unit in the body of plants, and in 1839, zoologist T. Schwann extended this conclusion to animals. The development of cell theory had a huge impact on the further development of biology and laid the foundation for cytology.

Appearance Charles Darwin's theory of evolution(1809-1882) marked the beginning of a new era in the development of all biological sciences. A new period for taxonomy has begun - evolutionary(phylogenetic), i.e. the need arose to unite into one taxa species that were common in origin, and not in external similarity. Morphologists began to study in what ways and under the influence of what causes organisms historically developed. The patterns of geographical distribution of organisms began to be explained not only by modern conditions, but also by historical reasons.

A new breakthrough in the development of botany, like all biology, occurred in the 20th century. One of its reasons was scientific and technological progress, which stimulated the emergence of new research tools and methods. In the middle of the century, electron microscopes with high resolution were invented, which determined the rapid development of anatomy, cytology, biochemistry, molecular biology, and genetics.

P. Koshel

In 1907, the Belgian playwright, poet and thinker Maurice Maeterlinck, author of The Blue Bird ( Nobel Prize 1908 in literature) wrote a book about flowers called “The Mind of Flowers.” This is what he writes.

“Our mechanical genius has existed since yesterday, while the mechanics of flowers has been functioning for millennia. When the flower appeared on our earth, there was no model around it that it could imitate. At that time when we knew only a hoe, a bow; in recent times, when we invented the wheel, the block, the ram; at a time when our masterpieces were catapults, clocks and the art of weaving, the sage had already invented the revolving crossbars and the counterweight of its precise scales. Who, less than a hundred years ago, could have suspected the properties of the Archimedes screw, used by maple and linden since the birth of trees? When will we be able to build a parachute as light, accurate, gentle and faithful as that of a dandelion? When will we discover the secret of inserting into such a fragile fabric, like the silk of petals, such a powerful spring, like the one that throws golden gorse pollen into space?

We've included this long quote to get you thinking a little: What is a plant? From a small acorn a giant oak tree grows, from a tiny tomato seed a huge bush will be born from which you can collect many fruits.

It was not the attraction to the beauty of plant forms, not idle curiosity and not attempts to answer the questions of an inquisitive mind that laid the foundation for man’s acquaintance with the world of plants. The harsh necessity of life and, above all, the threat of starvation forced our distant ancestor at the earliest stages of his development to pay attention to beneficial features plants.

Gathering wild fruits and seeds, digging up mealy roots and succulent bulbs were the earliest forms of economic activity primitive man and at the same time the first steps in the development of his knowledge of the plant world. Traces of these distant prehistoric forms of economic activity have been preserved among some peoples to this day.

For example, in the shifting sands of Western Mongolia, in some places there are wild thickets of tall upland grasses, which attracted the attention of the population of nearby areas at certain times of the year. Entire caravans, on camels, with supplies drinking water The Mongols came here to harvest and thresh wild grains. They took the collected grain with them, dried it in the sun and ground it into flour in hand mills.

From collecting seeds from such thickets to sowing somewhere in a convenient place is one step. It is possible that random sowing of seeds occurred at the places of threshing or cleaning, which apparently repeated itself the following year, then became common and aroused the desire to reproduce it consciously.

Having embarked on the path of plant cultivation, primitive not only significantly enriched his stock of practical knowledge about them, but also acquired a number of new work skills, which led to the emergence, among other things, of articulate human speech.

Thus, the beginning of human cultivation of plants is lost in the endless distance of centuries that separate us from the early stages of the evolution of the human race. Archaeologists also confirm the great antiquity of the beginnings of plant culture.

Excavations carried out at the site where the remains of Neolithic pile structures were discovered indicate a fairly high development of plant growing and economic skills among people who lived on Earth several tens of thousands of years ago. The inhabitants of the pile buildings already knew how to cultivate various varieties of wheat and barley, and sowed lentils and flax. They had stone grain grinders and simple equipment for making coarse fabrics.

The formation of large slave states was also associated with the development of plant culture. Ancient world. They appeared only when cultivated plants began to be cultivated on large areas. 3–4 thousand years BC. in Egypt there were already permanent crops of three types of wheat, two types of barley and flax (linen fabrics of Ancient Egypt were considered the best for many subsequent centuries). In addition, the culture included: lentils, peas, beans, castor beans, poppy seeds, grapes and many other plants. The fruit trees grown were teak palm, fig tree and olive.

Ancient Egyptian culture also left us traces of very serious undertakings in the field of gardening and decorative art. One of the ancient Egyptian frescoes depicts the garden plan of a wealthy Egyptian. Apparently, many such gardens adorned the surroundings of ancient Thebes.

These gardens had a regular rectangular shape. In the center of the garden, on high trellis arches, flexible grape vines were spread out, forming a whole series of shady transverse alleys. The boundaries of the vineyard were marked by rows of date palms. Next, massive stocky fig trees, slender palms, tamarinds and low pomegranate trellises were placed in regular groups. Four mirrored areas of ponds were located symmetrically in the garden, on the surface of which white and blue water lily flowers adorned. The banks of the ponds were bordered by thickets of sacred lotus and papyrus.

The Egyptians sought to expand the range of plants used at the expense of the plant wealth of neighboring countries. They took advantage of every successful military campaign to export valuable plant species from the conquered countries. On the walls of the tomb of the pharaohs in Thebes, interesting frescoes were discovered depicting scenes of the Egyptians’ campaign in the country of Punt during the IV dynasty (2900–2750 BC).

An ancient artist depicted an Egyptian warship ready to sail. A whole line of slaves is busy carrying frankincense, or myrtle, trees planted in tubs onto the ship for shipment to Egypt. Following each tree, leather bellows with a supply of fresh water are loaded onto the ship for watering the trees during the sea voyage. The country of Punt, according to historians, lay on both banks of the Red Sea, stretching along the eastern coast of Africa to Zanzibar and even, perhaps, further south.

The fragrant resin of frankincense, or myrtle, trees was highly valued in the Ancient world and was considered healing. Writings related to the era Ancient kingdom(3300 BC), tell us that the ancient Egyptians were familiar with many medicinal plants. The Egyptians also needed fragrant plant resins for embalming the corpses of noble people, i.e. turning them into mummies. The decoration of mummies in sarcophagi required, according to the customs of that time, rare and valuable foreign plants, and these plants, apparently, were also imported into Egypt from neighboring countries.

The herbarium of the Botanical Institute of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg houses a collection of plants from the tomb of the pharaohs in ancient Thebes. These plants, which made up the decoration of the mummy of Ramses II, date back to 1100–1000. BC, i.e. They are about 3 thousand years old. Modern botanists have found that the Egyptians made funeral garlands from the leaves of the evergreen plant Mimusops schimperi, strung on the veins of a date palm leaf. The petals of Nile water lilies (Nymphaea coerulea or N.lotus) were placed in the axils formed by strung leaves. It also turned out that the Mimusops plant is alien to the flora of Egypt and was apparently imported from Abyssinia.

No less interest in understanding the beneficial properties of plants for humans existed in Ancient China. Back in the 3rd century. BC. the famous Chinese scientist Yen Ti set out to learn and teach others to recognize species useful plants. Yen Ti's observations and remarks were collected in the Shu-King manuscripts (circa 2200 BC). They presented a description of the characteristics and methods of cultivating more than 100 types of plants - cereals, rice, sorghum, peas, millet, beans, cotton, etc.

The most ancient Chinese chronicles point to the annual ceremony of sowing grain performed by the Emperor of China - a magical rite of communication between the “son of heaven and the Sun” and the productive forces of the earth. In the spring, a solemn procession came out from the capital of China to the fields. The emperor, accompanied by magnificently dressed mandarins, walked behind the plow and threw into the plowed ground the seeds of certain varieties of agricultural plants that served as the main source of food for the country's population (here were grains of wheat, rice, barley, millet, soybeans, etc.). This ritual was established, according to ancient Chinese chronicles, by Emperor Chen Nung 3 thousand years BC.

The French historian, famous physicist and astronomer Jean Baptiste Biot, in a work devoted to the translation and commentary of a number of ancient Chinese documents, points to the existence in Ancient China in the 11th century. BC. special civil servants whose duties included:

1) observe and establish the rate of maturation of various varieties of cultivated plants cultivated in the fields of farmers, and learn from the population the popular names of these plants (especially early-ripening and productive varieties);

2) find out by “visiting neighboring lands” how these plants grow in other regions of China, and notice which varieties are especially suitable for the conditions of a given area;

3) compile digital reports on the size of the seed harvest for each region.

Consequently, in Ancient China there was a whole system of state activities, which can be compared with modern system varietal zoning and agricultural statistics.

IN Ancient India Many plants were introduced into cultivation and spread from here to neighboring countries (sugar cane, cotton, etc.). But the ancient Hindus attracted special attention to those plants that had a strong physiological effect on the human body. It was noticed that eating some plants is accompanied by pleasant excitement (withered tea leaves), other plants turned out to be healing for the patient, and others, on the contrary, caused poisoning and death. Such plants were considered endowed with sacred power, and knowledge of the properties of various plants acquired the character of “secret knowledge of the priests” in Ancient India.

In one of the sacred books - the Vedas, this monument of Indian culture, dating back to the time of the transition from nomadic pastoral life to settled agriculture (more than 2 thousand years BC), about 760 are mentioned medicines, of which the majority are plant origin. The medical knowledge of the ancient Hindus had a significant influence on the development of this field of knowledge in neighboring countries. Hindu doctors were held in high esteem by the ancient Greeks and Arabs. According to Aristotle, Alexander the Great employed experienced Hindu doctors who were considered especially skilled in treating snake bites.

In addition to the poisonous and healing properties, the attention of the Hindus was also attracted by some biological features plants. The flowers of aquatic plants from the water lily family, which suddenly opened their dazzling white or soft pink corollas over the dark mirror of water, were considered in Ancient India as sacred symbols of the emergence of our sunny world from the “dark depths of world chaos.” Of all the plants of the water lily family, the most revered was the “sacred lotus”, which was an invariable attribute of almost every Hindu deity.

In ancient Assyria and Babylonia, attention to the plant world was no less. From Babylonian cuneiform texts dating back to 2000–1500. BC, we learn about the widespread use of medicinal herbs to treat a wide variety of diseases. In the writings of the era of the Assyrian king Teglathpiles I (1100 BC), oriental scholars deciphered the following confession of the king.

“I took with me and planted here, in the gardens of my country, cedars from the countries I conquered. During the reign of my predecessors they were not bred among us. I also brought with me many valuable garden plants that are not found in my country; I planted them in the gardens of Assyria.”

Among the seven wonders of the world, ancient writers often mention the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. As for the organizer of these gardens and the time of their cultivation, the historical data about them is rather unclear. The name of Queen Shammuramat is quite often found on Assyro-Babylonian monuments, but without any connection with the construction of the famous gardens, therefore some oriental historians are inclined to attribute the glory of the construction of the hanging gardens to King Nebuchadnezzar, who 600 years BC. erected many architectural structures in Babylon.

Greek writers who saw the Gardens of Babylon describe them as a peculiar stepped (terrace-like) form of plantings spread out on four sides of an artificial mound. The terraces were built of brick and enclosed with stone slabs that supported a thick layer of well-fertilized soil. Flowers, bushes and large trees planted in the ground were watered with water supplied upward by a special pump. In some places on the hill, the terraces were interrupted by colonnades, behind which cool caves, grottoes and arches entwined with greenery were hidden.

Among the ancient Persians and Medes, plant growing and gardening and decorative arts were also held in high esteem. Fruit orchards were planted near city houses, and the so-called gardens of Eden, or paradises, were built on mountain slopes in areas remote from settlements. “Gardens of Eden” corresponded to our parks - they housed small buildings for summer stays or overnight hunting accommodations.

Under the undoubted influence of cultures Ancient East and Ancient Egypt, the rudiments of botanical knowledge developed in Ancient Greece. This influence was primarily reflected in the study medicinal plants. The Greeks gradually freed themselves from the elements of sorcery inherent in the medicine of the peoples of the Ancient East. A special, fairly large group of people called rhizotomes (root cutters, or root diggers) was engaged in the collection and preparation of medicinal herbs here. The sale of finished medicines was in the hands of the so-called pharmacopolists.

An imported, “overseas” plant, which ancient writers called silphion, enjoyed special honor in ancient Greek medicine. This plant was obtained on the northern coast of Africa in the colony of Cyrene. The resin of this plant was considered healing and was worth its weight in gold. The image of the sylphion was even minted on the state coins of the provinces of Cyrene and Barca. Judging by these images, the ancients called one of the plants of the umbrella family silphion.

Local medicinal plants collected on the territory of Ancient Greece were also widely used. Hippocrates mentions over 200 plants used in ancient Greek medicine.

The agricultural practice of ancient Greek farmers also accumulated many valuable observations about the characteristics of individual plants.

Due to the lack of fertile lands, intensive forms of farming reached special development in Ancient Greece. Agriculture. With genuine admiration, Homer describes the details of living plantings in the gardens of Alcinous and Laertes, where nature and the art of gardening compete to create pictures of enchanting beauty. The best gardens of Greece were, without a doubt, located not in the metropolis, but on the islands of the archipelago, so it is natural that legends and myths connected the dream of better lands with some “happy islands” that were located outside the lands known at that time. The myth of Hercules speaks precisely of such happy islands, where the Hesperides, daughters of Atlas, live in luxurious gardens full of golden apples.

IN Ancient Rome The cultivation of plants was considered not only economically important, but also an honorable occupation. Pliny the Elder points to noble patrician families, whose ancestors became famous for growing a vegetable, as a result of which the name of the vegetable became their family name. So the surname Pizonov came from the name of peas, Fabiev - from beans, Lentulov - from lentils, Cicero - from a special variety of legume plant, the cultivation of which was common among the Romans. If we add to this that the Romans perfected the art of cutting grapes, borrowed from the Greeks and Egyptians, as well as the art of grafting fruit trees; if we remember that the Romans independently developed various ways fertilizing the soil, using ash, lime, and marl on your fields in addition to the usual manure fertilizer; that they knew the benefits of plowing the green parts of certain leguminous plants into the ground, then we must admit that they had considerable practical knowledge of plant cultivation.

The high level of this practical knowledge, however, did not correspond to the level of scientific and theoretical ideas about the structure and vital activity of the plant organism. In this area, ancient civilizations provided amazingly little knowledge. Some correct observations and guesses of ancient farmers about the remarkable aspects of some vital functions of the plant were drowned in a sea of fiction and religious mysticism.

The fact that man cultivated the land with the help of land animals is evidenced by wall paintings

Thus, the ancient observation of a primitive farmer about the amazing ability of a plant dying in the fall to be reborn in the spring in the form of young seedlings emerging from the seeds, in the interpretation of the ancient Egyptian priests, took the form of a myth about the god Osiris, who dies and is resurrected again some time after burial.

The interpretation of the phenomenon of heliotropism, noticed by the ancient Greeks in many plants, is also imbued with naive anthropomorphism and religious mysticism. We mean famous ancient greek myth about the gentle forest nymph Clytia, who fell in love with the great Helios (the deity of the Sun). The legend says that the arrogant titan, majestically following the sky on a fiery chariot, did not pay any attention to Clytia, who did not take her loving eyes off him. The merciful gods took pity on the suffering of the unfortunate woman and turned her body into a green blade of grass, decorated with a flower head. The ancients claimed that even in the form of a flower, Clytia continues to turn her head to the sun and follow its movement across the vault of heaven.

Making a correct observation of any manifestation of a plant’s vital activity, the ancient plant breeder found himself powerless to find out the real reasons for this phenomenon. The only way out for him was to liken the plant to a person, interpreting the plant as a “wonderful werewolf.” Of course, the most important aspects of the relationship between the body and environment could not be clarified even approximately by the methods of pre-scientific knowledge.

However, already within the framework of the unique economic conditions of the ancient Greek city-republics, the prerequisites began to be created for a different approach to understanding and interpreting natural phenomena.

Aristotle, like his predecessors - the philosophers of Ancient Greece, set out to understand and explain the world through strictly logical justification of concepts. Here are some of the methods of cognition with which Aristotle approached the scientific explanation of natural phenomena: explanation must always be preceded by observation; general theory must rely on knowledge of particulars; observation must be carried out free from any preconception; Before using the data of other people's observations, you need to subject them to strict criticism.

Aristotle

Aristotle made a grandiose attempt to philosophically embrace the most diverse areas of living and inanimate nature. He devoted a special work, “The Theory of Plants,” to the study of the plant world. Unfortunately, the full text of this work has not survived, and modern history Botany has only individual statements of the great scientist.

Aristotle recognized the existence of two kingdoms in the material world: the kingdom of inanimate nature and the kingdom of living, or animate, beings. He also included plants in the latter group, endowing them with a lower stage of soul development (the power of nutrition and growth), in comparison with the higher stages of development of the life principle in animals (the power of aspiration and feeling) and humans (the thinking soul). Despite the idealistic nature of Aristotle's ancient scheme, we must still note its superiority over a number of later scientific concepts, for example, over the scheme of Linnaeus, who divided natural objects into three independent kingdoms (mineral, animal and plant). Having a very subtle observer's instinct, Aristotle noticed a sharper line separating the world of organisms from the world of inanimate nature, as well as a certain degree of proximity between the two large sections of the organic world (plants and animals).

We find more detailed data about the world of plants in the works of Aristotle’s student Theophrastus (372–287 BC), who earned the title “father of botany” in the history of science with his 10-volume work “Natural History of Plants” and the 8-volume work “ On the causes of plants." In Natural History, Theophrastus mentions 450 plants and makes the first attempt at their scientific classification.

Theophrastus Paracelsus

Theophrastus divides all plants known in antiquity into 4 classes: trees, shrubs, subshrubs and herbs. Within these four large systematic divisions, he arbitrarily brings together individual groups of plants, describing them as wild and cultivated, evergreen and deciduous, land plants and water plants, etc.

Theophrastus's merit is also the establishment of basic morphological concepts, the formulation of a number of questions in the field of plant physiology and the description of some features of their geographical distribution. Theophrastus knew about the existence of two groups of plants: flowering and never flowering. He was aware of the differences in the internal structure of the trunk of ordinary trees and palms (as well as some other plants later called monocots), although he did not try to base his classification on these differences. Theophrastus admitted the possibility of the existence of two sexes in plants and guessed the role of leaves in plant nutrition.

It is impossible not to note the fact that all subsequent scientists of the Ancient world, one way or another connected with botany, such as Pliny, Dioscorides, Varro, Columella, did not rise above Theophrastus either in describing the forms of plants or in understanding their nature.

The works of Theophrastus laid the foundations of botany and were the first attempt to combine scattered observations and utilitarian information about plants into a single thoughtful and logically consistent system of knowledge.

It should be borne in mind that the ancient authors did not yet have such a powerful tool of knowledge as a scientific experiment. They did not have modern technology either. research work: their observations lacked methods for accurately determining quantitative relationships. Under these conditions, the level of scientific knowledge that was achieved by the founders of natural science should be considered very significant.

For us, the works of Theophrastus seem especially important, because they shed light on the sources of the first theoretical positions in the field of botany, on those initial premises on the basis of which the “father of botany” built his first scientific conclusions and generalizations.

The source material for Theophrastus was observations and practical knowledge about plants that farmers, gardeners, gardeners, winegrowers, rhizotomes and pharmacists had at that time. However, turning to this data, Theophrastus did not take anything for granted. He subjected every statement to severe criticism.

Speaking about rhizotomes, Theophrastus admits that “they were able to notice a lot accurately and correctly, but they exaggerated and charlatanically distorted a lot.” Thus, Theophrastus considered, for example, the custom of rhizotomes to be guided by the flight of birds or the position of the sun in the sky when searching for valuable medicinal plants as quackery. Theophrastus was no less critical of many incorrect statements made by agricultural practitioners.

It should be noted that the predecessor of Theophrastus in the field of using the observations and experience of collectors of medicinal herbs was the famous ancient physician Hippocrates, who mentioned in his works the possibility medical use about 200 plants.

Of course, the critical use of practice data was not a simple mechanical selection of a healthy grain of truth from a mass of fantastic and religious-mystical fabrications. The founders of plant science had to grasp the cause-and-effect relationship between individual phenomena; from individual observations they needed to derive general patterns.

“Blood connection” of botany with economic life and social relations persisted in the further development of human society. Let us turn to the consideration of individual examples from the history of botany that confirm this.

The brilliant successes of the first steps of plant science in ancient times were then suspended for several centuries due to the economic and political degradation of the ancient world.

The feudal system of the Middle Ages with its system of subsistence farming contributed little to the development of science, and the harsh oppression of Christian church dogma suppressed free thought and slowed down Scientific research nature. The slogan of the early Middle Ages became the saying of Tertulian (one of the fathers christian church): “After the Gospel, no study is needed.”

The medieval scholastic education system was intended to serve not the knowledge of the world, but the “exaltation of the glory of the Lord.” Grammar was studied in order to understand the church language; rhetoric was supposed to develop church eloquence, and astronomy was supposed to help establish dates church calendar. Biological sciences had no place in this sphere of vicious circle of worldview. Medicine also eked out a miserable existence. Illness was considered God's punishment for sins, and therefore church repentance and prayer were considered the only cure for all illnesses.

However, in the depths of the medieval feudal system there was a slow development of new forms of economic life, which determined the equally slow but steady development of the natural sciences. The gradual development of the mining industry, strengthened at the beginning of the 13th century. monetary circulation, the development of trade relations with the East, the growth of cities and the strengthening political role The burghers formed the features of a new ideology, which came into sharp conflict with the ideology of the old feudal system.

There is an interest in forgotten works great thinkers of Ancient Greece - Aristotle and Theophrastus. A reflection of these new trends among scientists of the late Middle Ages are the works of Albertus Magnus (1193–1280). He wrote 7 books about plants. Imitating Aristotle and Theophrastus, the author posed a number of questions about the life of a plant organism (about the presence of a “soul” in plants, about the reasons for the winter sleep of plants, about the process of their nutrition, etc.). Agreeing on most issues with the opinions of ancient authors, Albertus Magnus at the same time expressed a number of original considerations. So, for example, he considered mushrooms as organisms that occupy the lowest position in the ranks of living beings and represent an intermediate state between the beginnings of animal and plant life. At the same time, he admitted the possibility of the miraculous transformation of barley into wheat and wheat into barley, the possibility of the development of grapevines from oak branches stuck into the ground, etc.

In the XIV–XV centuries. the creations of ancient authors become the main source of knowledge about nature. German doctors and scientists sought in their homeland to find all those medicinal plants that Theophrastus, as well as the Roman writers Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides (1st century) mentioned in their writings. However, this was not easy, firstly, due to the large differences between the species composition of the flora of Central European countries and the region of Ancient Greece, and secondly, because the ancient authors paid very little attention to an accurate description of plant characteristics. Therefore, among scientists of the 14th–15th centuries. Heated debates often flared up: even scientific debates gathered on the question of which of the local plants should be considered the plant about which Theophrastus, Dioscorides or Pliny wrote.

The significant era beginning in the second half of the 15th century puts an end to these disputes and the scholastic direction in the study of the plant world. The growth of the trading power of cities, the invention of the compass and the development of navigation led to the equipping of distant sea expeditions (Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Magellan, etc.) and the discovery of new countries. Acquaintance with the plant riches of America, Africa, and India revealed an enormous variety of plant species, which, of course, the botanists of the Ancient World could neither know nor describe. It was necessary, in essence, to lay the foundations of a new botany.

Let us remember that the purpose of the long sea voyages undertaken by Columbus, Vasco da Gama and others was to find a way to India, to the country of spices (cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pepper, etc.). Therefore, the task of a new inventory of the riches of the plant world and the construction of a new botanical system became from the 16th century. a pressing scientific necessity, closely related to the economic needs of the era.

IN different countries In Europe, the activity of botanists revived, developing one after another new systems of the plant world. At the end of the 16th century. the most important figure among them was the Italian scientist Andrea Cesalpino (1519–1603). In his classic work, the main provisions of Aristotelian philosophy are intertwined with the trends of modern times, marked by major successes in mechanics and physics. On this dual theoretical basis he built his ideas about the nature of plants.

He tried to embrace the enormous variety of forms of the plant world that suddenly appeared in his era in the first harmonious and complete system of plant classification. It was an artificial system, built not on the principle of kinship of plant groups, but on the basis of philosophical considerations and arbitrarily taken characteristics. Nevertheless, it had a very strong influence on the development of the later, more advanced systems of Tournefort and Linnaeus.

Another example of the influence of economic factors on certain branches of science in the 16th–17th centuries. can be considered the development of instrumental optics for merchant shipping (spotting scopes and astronomical instruments for navigation), which led to the invention of the microscope. The advent of the microscope was associated with the beginning of the work of Robert Hooke, Marcello Malpighi and Nehemiah Grew on the microscopic anatomy of plants.

However, the activities of scientists of the 17th century. was subordinated to the economic tasks of that time. Bringing order to the ever-growing diversity of foreign plant forms and building a rational system of plant classification absorbs all their attention. In connection with this, and partly with the technical imperfection of the first microscopes, throughout the 18th century. region microscopic studies practically did not develop. Only after 200 years will the microscopic research method regain its citizenship rights in science.

The needs of mining and metallurgy in the 17th–18th centuries. influenced the development of chemistry. A number of discoveries in this field of knowledge were brilliantly completed by the research of A. Lavoisier (1743–1794), which laid the foundation for modern chemistry. This could not but influence the development of the field of botany, which studies plant nutrition. Classic works by Senebier (1742–1809) and N. Saussure (1767–1845) appeared, explaining the phenomenon of aerial nutrition of plants and shedding new light on the essence of the process of soil nutrition. For two or three decades, these works did not attract the attention of a wide circle of scientists and public figures.

The issue of plant nutrition, associated with increasing productivity, takes on new significance during the period of rapid growth of capitalist industry in the middle of the 19th century. The task of increasing yields seems at this time to be an indispensable condition for the further development of capitalist industry. Every year it becomes more and more difficult to feed the growing cadre of factory workers cut off from the land. Both chemists and botanists are beginning to study issues of increasing soil fertility. Saussure's works on the importance of salts in plant nutrition are brought out of oblivion, and the famous theory of mineral nutrition of plants, substantiated by J. Liebig (1803–1873), is born. J.B. Boussingault (1802–1887) corrected and supplemented this theory by pointing out the importance of nitrogenous fertilizers. J.B. Looz (1814–1900) and G. Gilbert (1817–1902) in England translated the achievements of the science of mineral nutrition of plants into the practice of English farms. Agriculture is acquiring an effective means of increasing yields.

However, the development of industry requires more and more raw materials and food products for the population working in factories. The sown areas of Europe, even with increased yields due to mineral fertilizers, turn out to be insufficient. Then Western Europe switches to imported bread delivered from distant overseas colonies. The importance of agriculture in Europe itself is falling, and after this, the brightest period in the development of the physiology of plant nutrition ends in the West.

The rapid growth of industry noted above in the mid-19th century. was also accompanied by significant developments in mechanical engineering. It has become possible to manufacture very precise optical systems and technical designs of microscopes. Microscopy, which had been stagnant for about 200 years, is receiving impetus for further development. The doctrine of the cell is being created. A new branch of natural sciences is being born - microbiology. At the same time, the field of microscopic study of the plant world and plant organism is also deepening immeasurably. The most intimate processes of plant life are being explored: fertilization, the development of lower plants that had been little studied until that time, the gap between clairvoyance and secrecygamy is being eliminated, and vegetable world appears as a single and continuous line of evolutionary development.

or Theophrastus; Old Greek Θεόφραστος, lat. Theophrastos Eresios

ancient Greek philosopher, natural scientist, music theorist; versatile scientist

371 - 287 BC e.

short biography

The famous ancient Greek scientist, naturalist, one of the creators of botany, philosopher - was a native of the city of Erez, where he was born in 371 BC. e. In his youth, having moved to Athens, he was a student of famous philosophers (in his city he also showed interest in philosophy, listening to Leucippus). At first he was a student at Plato's Academy, and after he died, he became a student at the Aristotelian Lyceum. He remained in this capacity until Aristotle left Athens forever.

Sources indicate that Theophrastus was an intelligent, versatile person, possessor of the best spiritual qualities - humanity, kindness, responsiveness. His biography was not marked by any unexpected events or special shocks. After his birth he was named Tirtham, but Aristotle, as legend says, gave the nickname Theophrastus, which meant “divine orator”, “possessor of divine speech”. It is difficult to determine how right the legend is, but it is known that Theophrastus was indeed an excellent orator and Aristotle’s favorite student, who became one of his most famous wards. It was to him that Aristotle left all his manuscripts and his accumulated library as an inheritance, and it was Theophrastus who headed the Peripatetic school when the mentor died. Ancient sources say that the number of Theophrastus’ students reached two thousand people, and his name resounded far beyond the borders of his country.

It is believed that Theophrastus was the author of 227 works. Most of them have not survived to our era, and the remaining ones bear the destructive imprint of time and repeated rewriting. Two major works on botany have survived to this day. The first, consisting of 9 books, is “Natural History of Plants,” which outlines the systematics, anatomy and morphology of plants (using modern terminology). The same factual material, but presented from the standpoint of plant physiology (theoretical and applied), formed the basis of the second essay - “On the Causes of Plants”, or “On Life Phenomena in Plants”, consisting of 6 books.

An objective assessment of Theophrastus’s botanical works is complicated by the incomplete preservation of his works, as well as the difficulty of distinguishing between the ideas of the philosopher and his outstanding mentor Aristotle. It is possible that Theophrastus preached his thoughts to a greater extent than he was an independent scientist. In the strict sense of the word, the works of Theophrastus cannot be called scientific; however, for his time, his works were the best collection of information about the plant world. In addition, they are a valuable monument to the culture of Ancient Greece as a whole. It is also known that Theophrastus wrote the “Textbook of Rhetoric”, as well as the book “Characters”, in which he analyzed Various types of people. All these publications have not survived to this day.

Biography from Wikipedia

Or Theophrastus, (ancient Greek Θεόφραστος, lat. Theophrastos Eresios; born about 370 BC, in Eres, Lesbos island - died between 288 BC and 285 BC, in Athens) - ancient Greek philosopher, natural scientist, music theorist.

Versatile scientist; Along with Aristotle, he is the founder of botany and plant geography. Thanks to the historical part of his teaching about nature, he acts as the founder of the history of philosophy (especially psychology and the theory of knowledge).

Born into the family of clothier Melantha in Lesbos. At birth his name was Tirtham. He was later nicknamed Theophrastus (“God-speaking”). He studied in Athens with Plato, and then with Aristotle and became his closest friend, and in 323 BC. e. - successor as head of the Peripatetic school (Lyceum). Among his students was the comedian Menander. Theophrastus was received by the Macedonian king Cassander, the founder of the Alexandria Museum, Demetrius of Phalerum, and his successor as head of the Lyceum, Strato. He lived to be 85 years old and was buried with honors in Athens.

Works

Frontispiece of the illustrated edition Historia Plantarum, Amsterdam, 1644

Works on botany

Theophrastus is called the "father of botany." The botanical works of Theophrastus can be considered as a collection of unified system knowledge of practitioners of agriculture, medicine and the work of scientists of the ancient world in this field. Theophrastus was the founder of botany as an independent science: along with describing the use of plants in agriculture and medicine, he considered theoretical issues. The influence of Theophrastus’s works on the subsequent development of botany for many centuries was enormous, since the scientists of the Ancient world did not rise above him either in understanding the nature of plants or in describing their forms. In accordance with the level of knowledge contemporary to him, certain provisions of Theophrastus were naive and unscientific. Scientists of that time did not yet have high research technology, and there were no scientific experiments. But with all this, the level of knowledge achieved by the “father of botany” was very significant.

He wrote two books about plants: “Historia plantarum” (Ancient Greek: Περὶ φυτῶν ἱστορίας, “History of Plants”) and “De causis plantarum” (Ancient Greek: Περὶ φυτῶν αἰτιῶν, “When ranks of plants"), in which they are given basics of classification and physiology of plants, described about 500 plant species, and which were subject to many comments and were often republished. Despite the fact that Theophrastus in his “botanical” works does not adhere to any special methods, he introduced ideas into the study of plants that were completely free from the prejudices of that time and assumed, like a true naturalist, that nature acts in accordance with its own plans, and not for a purpose. be useful to a person. He outlined with insight the most important problems of scientific plant physiology. How are plants different from animals? What organs do plants have? What is the activity of the root, stem, leaves, fruits? Why do plants get sick? What effect do heat and cold, humidity and dryness, soil and climate have on the plant world? Can a plant arise by itself (generate spontaneously)? Can one type of plant change into another? These were the questions that interested the mind of Theophrastus; for the most part these are the same questions that still interest naturalists today. Their production itself is a huge merit of the Greek botanist. As for the answers, at that time, in the absence of the necessary factual material, they could not be given with proper accuracy and scientificity.

Along with observations general"The History of Plants" contains recommendations for practical application plants. In particular, Theophrastus accurately describes the technology of growing a special type of reed and making canes from it for aulos.

Other notable works

The most famous is his work “Ethical Characters” (Ancient Greek: Ἠθικοὶ χαρακτῆρες; Russian translation “On the Properties of Human Morals”, 1772, or “Characteristics”, St. Petersburg, 1888), a collection of 30 sketches of human types, which depicts a flatterer , talker, braggart, proud, grumpy, distrustful, etc., and each is skillfully depicted with vivid situations in which this type manifests itself. So, when the collection of donations begins, the stingy one leaves the meeting without saying a word. Being the captain of the ship, he goes to bed on the helmsman's mattress, and on the Feast of the Muses (when it was customary to send a reward to the teacher) he leaves the children at home. They often talk about mutual influence Characters Theophrastus and the characters of the new Greek comedy. His influence on all modern literature is undoubted. It was by starting with translations of Theophrastus that the French moralist writer La Bruyère created his “Characters, or Manners of our Age” (1688). Originates from Theophrastus literary portrait, an integral part of any European novel.

A valuable fragment has been preserved from the two-volume treatise “On Music” (included by Porphyry in his commentary on Ptolemy’s “Harmonica”), in which the philosopher, on the one hand, polemicizes with the Pythagorean-Platonic idea of music as another - sounding - “incarnation” of numbers. On the other hand, he considers the thesis of harmonics (and perhaps Aristoxenus) to be of little significance, who considered the melody as a sequence of discrete quantities - intervals (gaps between heights). The nature of music, Theophrastus concludes, is not in intervallic movement and not in numbers, but in “the movement of the soul, which gets rid of evil through experience (ancient Greek διὰ τὰ πάθη). Without this movement, there would be no essence of music.”

Theophrastus also owns (which has not reached us) the essay “On the Syllable” (or “On the Style”; Περὶ λέξεως), which, according to M. L. Gasparov, in its significance for the entire ancient theory of oratory is almost higher than “ Rhetoric" by Aristotle. He is repeatedly mentioned by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Demetrius of Phalerus and others.

The classification was most likely based on ideas about the benefits of plants.

Thus, chronologically, taxonomy was apparently the first among botanical disciplines. But at this distant time it is, of course, impossible to talk about it as a science. The beginnings of natural sciences should be sought among peoples who had written languages.

Ancient Greece, the remarkable intellectual center of the ancient world, is usually considered the cradle of philosophy and natural sciences. But, of course, the culture of Hellas did not arise out of nowhere. It was strongly influenced by more ancient civilizations and inherited from them a rich store of knowledge about plants, especially agricultural, food, medicinal and ornamental plants.

The development of natural sciences as a whole began with the works of the greatest philosopher of antiquity, Aristotle (385-322 BC). The title of “father of botany” belongs to his student, friend and follower Theophrastus (Theophrastus) (370-285 BC). He was, apparently, the first to specifically observe plants - their structure, vital functions, distribution patterns, variability, and the effects of climate and soil on plants. Theophrastus tried in his works to summarize all the information available to him about plants and, having his own rich experience, expressed many original and correct judgments.

Theophrastus knew and described up to 500 plant species. In him one can see the beginnings of ideas about what later received the status of genera, species, and varieties. Many of the names that Theophrastus used subsequently became firmly established in botanical nomenclature. In a number of cases, its names directly reflect ideas about the similarity of plants and are distant prototypes of binary nomenclature.

Theophrastus also belongs to the first classification of the plant kingdom in Western civilization. He divides all plants into 4 main groups: trees, shrubs, subshrubs and herbs. Within their boundaries, subordinate groups are used: plants are distinguished between cultivated and wild, terrestrial and aquatic, evergreen and with falling leaves, flowering and non-flowering, marine and freshwater, etc. From a modern point of view, this system may seem naive, but taking into account historical retrospect, its creation should be considered the great merit of Theophrastus. The 4 groups of life forms he identified also appear in modern science, although not as a guiding feature in the classification. But the most important thing is that Theophrastus already used the hierarchical principle, i.e. the gradual unification of plants into groups of successively higher ranks, although, of course, there was no conscious idea of taxonomic categories at that time.

Hierarchy is the most important property of biological systems. Hierarchical groupings seem to reduce diversity and make the organic world accessible to observation and study.

Roman naturalist and writer Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD), died tragically during the eruption of Vesuvius. He is the author of a grandiose 39-volume encyclopedia - “Natural History” (“Historia naturalis”), in which a lot of attention is paid to plants and about 1000 species and forms are described or mentioned. Although Pliny's work is generally compilative in nature, it also contains many original observations. This is perhaps the first time Pliny has tried to understand synonymy, in particular, he compares Greek names with Latin ones. In regard to classification, he largely follows Theophrastus, but is less consistent and strict.

If we consider Theophrastus to be the founder of “general botany,” then applied, or more precisely, medical botany originates from the work of the ancient Roman physician and scientist, a Greek by birth, Dioscorides (1st century AD) - "Materia medica". Dioscorides described about 600 medicinal plants and, most importantly, provided the descriptions with illustrations, which made the identification very easy. For one and a half millennia, this work remained in Europe the main source of information about medicinal plants, and Dioscorides was considered an indisputable authority in this field.

Due to many objective reasons - feudal fragmentation, endless internecine strife and wars, the decline of urban culture and especially the heavy pressure of religion - the long period of the Middle Ages was unfavorable for the development of natural sciences. According to the English scientist J. Hutchinson, after Pliny, “botany had no history for more than 14 centuries.” Of course, this is not entirely true, the accumulation of empirical knowledge continued, but any natural scientific generalizations were impossible, and specific knowledge gained by experience was intertwined with mysticism, fantasy, adapted to the requirements of religion and did not become the general property of mankind. Fortunately, the surviving works of Theophrastus, Pliny, and Dioscorides were copied: it was believed that they contained all the necessary information about plants. Some monasteries with their collections of ancient manuscripts remained guardians of knowledge. It is no coincidence that the most significant botanical work of the entire Middle Ages - 7 books about plants - came from the pen of the Master of the Dominican Order, Albert von Bolstedt, known as Albert the Great (1193-1280). Following Aristotle and Theophrastus, he classified plants as animate beings, but with a primitive soul

Great geographical discoveries sharply expanded the understanding of the richness and diversity of the plant kingdom. Progress descriptive botany at this time it is also associated with three more circumstances. Firstly, in the 14th century. the first botanical gardens arose in Italy - initially “medical”, intended for the cultivation of medicinal plants; it became possible to repeatedly examine and reexamine living plants. Secondly, the beginning of the 16th century dates back to the use of herbarization as a method of documentation and long-term preservation of samples for repeated and, if necessary, repeated study. Thirdly, the spread in the 15th century. printing and the improvement of engraving techniques made possible the appearance of a special type of botanical works - the so-called herbal books with descriptions and images of plants.

The first herbalists O. Brunfels(1530-1536), I. Bok (1539), L. Fuchs (1543), K. Gesner (1544), R. Dodoneus (1554), P. Mattioli (1562), M. Lobelius (1576), J. Tabernemontanus (1588) did not contain any system, but usually the descriptions in them were arranged according to the external similarity of plants, so that different types clovers, for example, were nearby thanks to the trifoliate leaves and inflorescence heads, and among the umbelliferous ones one could find basil (multiple dissected leaves and sometimes corymbose inflorescences), valerian (also an umbrella-like corymbose inflorescence of small flowers), adoxa, yarrow, etc.

This era is often called the era of the fathers of botany - those who initiated the collection, description and depiction of plants. It is also known as the “descriptive period” in the history of taxonomy. At the turn of the XVI-XVII centuries. it is completed by the excellent works of C. Clusius (1525-1609) and especially the Swiss botanist C. Baugin (1560-1624), whose work “Pinax theatri botanici” (1623) was especially influential great importance for the subsequent development of taxonomy. Baugin carried out a grand synthesis, giving an overview of almost all the botanical literature that existed at that time. He analyzes about 6,000 plant “species” and critically reduces the huge number of accumulated synonyms. For the convenience of arranging the material, Baugin divides his work into 12 chapters (“books”), and each “book” into sections. This is not yet a classification of plants, but something already close to it. Baugin paves the way for subsequent classifiers, especially since a well-conscious hierarchical principle can also be traced in his constructions.

By the end of the 16th century, botany was so overwhelmed by the rapidly growing burden of facts that it could no longer continue to develop as a merely descriptive branch of knowledge. New approaches to viewing and assessing diversity were required. Both in practical and philosophical terms, the most important task was the development of a classification of plants that would allow one to navigate their diversity. In response to this need, the first systems of the plant kingdom appeared. They were, of course, artificial, and could not be otherwise. Botany was generally considered as “a part of the science of nature, with the help of which plants are known and retained in memory in the most skillful way and with the least effort” (Burgaw) - no other tasks were set before it. The systems were hierarchical to one degree or another, but the hierarchy was built intuitively, since the concept of taxonomic categories had not yet been developed and there was no clear idea of the ranks of taxa. Different botanists, according to their taste, completely arbitrarily chose various individual characteristics to group plants into groups. The significance of the signs was assessed subjectively. Therefore, there are systems in which the structure of the corolla is in the foreground, there are those built primarily on the characteristics of fruits and seeds, there are those where the structure of the calyx is used primarily, etc. Almost always these features of the flower and fruit are somehow combined with “life forms” in the spirit of Theophrastus. Later, Linnaeus called such taxonomists, respectively, corollists, fruitists, calicists, and those who proceeded from the external appearance of plants - physiognomists.

Period artificial systems discovered by the Italian botanist A. Cesalpino (1519-1603). His main work, “16 Books on Plants” (1583), sets out a fundamentally new system based on Aristotle’s deductive approach, i.e. on partitioning the set along the path from the general to the particular, and on knowledge of vast factual material from the field of plant morphology.

Theophrastus: a short biography

short biography

Theophrastus- a famous ancient Greek scientist, naturalist, one of the creators of botany, philosopher - was a native of the city of Erez, where he was born in 371 BC. e. In his youth, having moved to Athens, he was a student of famous philosophers (in his city he also showed interest in philosophy, listening to Leucippus). At first he was a student at Plato's Academy, and after he died, he became a student at the Aristotelian Lyceum. He remained in this capacity until Aristotle left Athens forever.

Biography from Wikipedia

Theophrastus, or Theophrastus

Works

Frontispiece of the illustrated edition Historia Plantarum, Amsterdam, 1644

Works on botany

Other notable works

Characters

Memory

worldofaphorism.ru

Theophrastus - short biography.

Theophrastus - a famous ancient Greek scientist, naturalist, one of the creators of botany, philosopher - was a native of the city of Erez, where he was born in 371 BC. e. In his youth, having moved to Athens, he was a student of famous philosophers (in his city he also showed interest in philosophy, listening to Leucippus). At first he was a student at Plato's Academy, and after he died, he became a student at the Aristotelian Lyceum. He remained in this capacity until Aristotle left Athens forever.

Sources indicate that Theophrastus was an intelligent, versatile person, possessor of the best spiritual qualities - humanity, kindness, responsiveness. His biography was not marked by any unexpected events or special shocks. After his birth he was named Tirtham, but Aristotle, as legend says, gave the nickname Theophrastus, which meant “divine orator”, “possessor of divine speech”. It is difficult to determine how true the legend is, but it is known that Theophrastus was indeed an excellent orator and Aristotle’s favorite student, who became one of his most famous wards. It was to him that Aristotle left all his manuscripts and his accumulated library as an inheritance, and it was Theophrastus who headed the Peripatetic school when the mentor died. Ancient sources say that the number of Theophrastus’ students reached two thousand people, and his name resounded far beyond the borders of his country.

An objective assessment of Theophrastus’s botanical works is complicated by the incomplete preservation of his works, as well as the difficulty of distinguishing between the ideas of the philosopher and his outstanding mentor Aristotle. It is possible that Theophrastus preached his thoughts to a greater extent than he was an independent scientist. In the strict sense of the word, the works of Theophrastus cannot be called scientific; however, for his time, his works were the best collection of information about the plant world. In addition, they are a valuable monument to the culture of Ancient Greece as a whole. It is also known that Theophrastus wrote the “Textbook of Rhetoric”, as well as the book “Characters”, in which he analyzed various types of people. All these publications have not survived to this day.

www.wisdoms.ru

Post about Theophrastus | Kratkoe.com

Theophrastus's report will briefly talk about the life of the ancient Greek philosopher, music theorist and natural scientist. Also from this message you will learn why Theophrastus is called the father of botany.

Message about Theophrastus

Theophrastus or Theophrastus (c. 370 BC - 288 BC or 285 BC) was a versatile scientist and philosopher. He is placed along with Aristotle, considering the ancient Greek naturalist to be the founder of geography and plant botany.

Theophrastus short biography

The future scientist Theophrastus was born in the city of Erez around 370 (371) BC. While still a young man, he moved to Athens, where he became a student of famous philosophers: first Leucippus, then a student at Plato's Academy, and a student at the Aristotelian Lyceum. Various sources indicate that the ancient Greek philosopher was given the name Tirtham at birth, but Aristotle gave him the nickname Theophrastus, which meant “possessor of divine speech,” “divine orator.” He was Aristotle's most beloved student and after his death he left all the manuscripts and accumulated library to Theophrastus. He also headed the Peripatetic school. The number of students was 2000 people, and the name of Theophrastus was known far beyond the borders of the country. During his life, he wrote 227 works, of which not many have survived to this day. The scientist lived for 85 years and was buried in Athens with honors.

Theophrastus interesting facts

Why is Theophrastus the father of botany?

Theophrastus is rightly called the “father of botany.” He is the founder of botany as an independent science. The works of Theophrastus are considered as an introduction to the system of medicine and agricultural practitioners. In addition to describing where plants can be used in medicine and agriculture, the philosopher considered theoretical issues. In his works “Natural History of Plants”, “On the Causes of Plants” or “On the Life Phenomena of Plants”, he outlined the basics of the classification and physiology of plants, and also described about 500 plant species.

The merits of Theophrastus are that he, albeit not entirely scientifically, outlined the main problems of plant scientific physiology. The scientist raised a number of questions that interested him:

What are the differences between plants and animals?
What organs do plants have?
What is the activity of leaves, roots, fruits, stems?
What effect do cold and heat, dryness and humidity, climate and soil have on the plant world?
Why do plants get sick?
Can plants arise spontaneously?
Can a plant change from one species to another?

In addition, Theophrastus accurately described the technology of growing reeds and making aulos canes from them.

Other merits of Theophrastus

In his works “Ethical Characters” and “On the Properties of Human Morals,” he described 30 types of people (flatterer, talker, boaster, proud, distrustful, grump), which he described with vivid situations of their manifestation.

The two-volume treatise “On Music” preserved a fragment in which the philosopher polemicizes with the Pythagorean-Platonic concept of music. Theophrastus viewed melody as a sequence of intervals. He believed that the nature of music lies in the movement of the soul, which through experience has gotten rid of evil. In the essay “On the Syllable” he outlined his theories of oratory.

We hope that the report on Theophrastus helped you prepare for the lesson and you learned a lot useful information about the life of the ancient Greek philosopher, his merits. And your short story You can leave information about Theophrastus using the comment form below.

kratkoe.com

Theophrastus Wikipedia

Theophrastus, or Theophrastus, (ancient Greek Θεόφραστος, lat. Theophrastos Eresios; born about 370 BC, in Eres, Lesbos island - died between 288 BC and 285 BC, in Athens) - ancient Greek philosopher, natural scientist, music theorist.

Biography

Works

Works on botany

Other notable works

The most famous is his work “Ethical Characters” (Ancient Greek: Ἠθικοὶ χαρακτῆρες; Russian translation “On the Properties of Human Morals”, 1772, or “Characteristics”, St. Petersburg, 1888), a collection of 30 sketches of human types, which depicts a flatterer , talker, braggart, proud, grumpy, distrustful, etc., and each is skillfully depicted with vivid situations in which this type manifests itself. So, when the collection of donations begins, the stingy one leaves the meeting without saying a word. Being the captain of the ship, he goes to bed on the helmsman's mattress, and on the Feast of the Muses (when it was customary to send a reward to the teacher) he leaves the children at home. They often talk about mutual influence Characters Theophrastus and the characters of the new Greek comedy. His influence on all modern literature is undoubted. It was by starting with translations of Theophrastus that the French moralist writer La Bruyère created his “Characters, or Morals of Our Age” (1688). Theophrastus is the origin of the literary portrait, an integral part of any European novel.

Memory

In 1973, the International Astronomical Union assigned the name Theophrastus to a crater on the visible side of the Moon.

Translators into Russian

Notes

Gasparov M. L.

Literature

Texts and translations

Greek texts:

Russians:

Theophrastus.
- reissue: Theophrastus.

« Characters»:

Theophrastus
Theophrastus.

Other writings:

Theophrastus
Theophrastus
Pseudo-Theophrastus

English:

Other publications:

French:

Théophraste
Théophraste

Research

Lebedev A.V. The problem of authenticity APXH
Verlinsky A. L.

Literature

Links

wikiredia.ru

Theophrastus - biography and family

Biography

Works on botany

He wrote two books about plants: “The History of Plants” (ancient Greek: Περὶ φυτῶν ἱστορίας, lat. Historia plantarum) and “Causes of Plants” (ancient Greek: Περὶ φυτῶν αἰτιῶν, lat. De causis plantarum), in which are given basics of classification and physiology of plants, described about 500 plant species, and which were subject to many comments and were often republished. Despite the fact that Theophrastus in his “botanical” works does not adhere to any special methods, he introduced ideas into the study of plants that were completely free from the prejudices of that time and assumed, like a true naturalist, that nature acts in accordance with its own plans, and not with a purpose. be useful to a person. With his characteristic insight, he outlined the most important problems of scientific plant physiology. How are plants different from animals? What organs do plants have? What is the activity of the root, stem, leaves, fruits? Why do plants get sick? What effect do heat and cold, humidity and dryness, soil and climate have on the plant world? Can a plant arise by itself (generate spontaneously)? Can one type of plant change into another? These were the questions that interested the inquisitive mind of Theophrastus; for the most part these are the same questions that still interest naturalists today. Their production itself is a great merit of the great Greek botanist. As for the answers, at that time, in the absence of the necessary factual material, they could not be given with proper accuracy and scientificity.

Along with general observations, “The History of Plants” contains recommendations for the practical use of plants. In particular, Theophrastus accurately describes the technology of growing a special type of reed and making canes from it for aulos.

Other notable works

The most famous is his work “Ethical Characters” (Ancient Greek: Ἠθικοὶ χαρακτῆρες; Russian translation “On the Properties of Human Morals”, 1772, or “Characteristics”, St. Petersburg, 1888), a collection of 30 sketches of human types, which depicts a flatterer , talker, braggart, proud, grumpy, distrustful, etc., and each is skillfully depicted with vivid situations in which this type manifests itself. So, when the collection of donations begins, the stingy one leaves the meeting without saying a word. Being the captain of the ship, he goes to bed on the helmsman's mattress, and on the Feast of the Muses (when it was customary to send a reward to the teacher) he leaves the children at home. They often talk about the mutual influence of the Characters of Theophrastus and the characters of the new Greek comedy. His influence on all modern literature is undoubted. It was by starting with translations of Theophrastus that the French moralist writer La Bruyère created his “Characters, or Morals of Our Age” (1688). Theophrastus is the origin of the literary portrait, an integral part of any European novel.

facecollection.ru

Theophrastus - biography and family

He studied in Athens with Plato, and then with Aristotle and became his closest friend, and in 323 BC. e. - successor as head of the Peripatetic school.

Works

Works on botany

Theophrastus is called the "father of botany." The botanical works of Theophrastus can be considered as a compilation of the knowledge of practitioners of agriculture, medicine and the work of scientists of the ancient world in this field into a unified system of knowledge. Theophrastus was the founder of botany as an independent science: along with describing the use of plants in agriculture and medicine, he considered theoretical issues. The influence of Theophrastus’s works on the subsequent development of botany for many centuries was enormous, since the scientists of the Ancient world did not rise above him either in understanding the nature of plants or in describing their forms. In accordance with the level of knowledge contemporary to him, certain provisions of Theophrastus were naive and unscientific. Scientists of that time did not yet have high research technology, and there were no scientific experiments. But with all this, the level of knowledge achieved by the “father of botany” was very significant.

He wrote two books about plants: “The History of Plants” (ancient Greek ???? ????? ????????, lat. Historia plantarum) and “Causes of Plants” (ancient Greek ???? ????? ??????, Latin De causis plantarum), which give the basics of classification and physiology of plants, describe about 500 plant species, and which were subject to many comments and were often republished. Despite the fact that Theophrastus in his “botanical” works does not adhere to any special methods, he introduced ideas into the study of plants that were completely free from the prejudices of that time and assumed, like a true naturalist, that nature acts in accordance with its own plans, and not with a purpose. be useful to a person. He outlined with insight the most important problems of scientific plant physiology. How are plants different from animals? What organs do plants have? What is the activity of the root, stem, leaves, fruits? Why do plants get sick? What effect do heat and cold, humidity and dryness, soil and climate have on the plant world? Can a plant arise by itself (generate spontaneously)? Can one type of plant change into another? These were the questions that interested the mind of Theophrastus; for the most part these are the same questions that still interest naturalists today. Their production itself is a huge merit of the Greek botanist. As for the answers, at that time, in the absence of the necessary factual material, they could not be given with proper accuracy and scientificity.

Other notable works

The most famous is his work “Ethical Characters” (Ancient Greek: ?????? ??????????; Russian translation “On the Properties of Human Morals”, 1772, or “Characteristics”, St. Petersburg. , 1888), a collection of 30 sketches of human types, which depict the flatterer, talker, braggart, proud, grumpy, distrustful, etc., each skillfully depicted by vivid situations in which this type manifests itself. So, when the collection of donations begins, the stingy one leaves the meeting without saying a word. Being the captain of the ship, he goes to bed on the helmsman's mattress, and on the Feast of the Muses (when it was customary to send a reward to the teacher) he leaves the children at home. They often talk about the mutual influence of the Characters of Theophrastus and the characters of the new Greek comedy. His influence on all modern literature is undoubted. It was by starting with translations of Theophrastus that the French moralist writer La Bruyère created his “Characters, or Morals of Our Age” (1688). Theophrastus is the origin of the literary portrait, an integral part of any European novel.

A valuable fragment has been preserved from the two-volume treatise “On Music” (included by Porphyry in his commentary on Ptolemy’s “Harmonica”), in which the philosopher, on the one hand, polemicizes with the Pythagorean-Platonic idea of music as another - sounding - “incarnation” of numbers. On the other hand, he considers the thesis of harmonics (and perhaps Aristoxenus) to be of little significance, who considered the melody as a sequence of discrete quantities - intervals (gaps between heights). The nature of music, Theophrastus concludes, is not in intervallic movement and not in numbers, but in “the movement of the soul, which gets rid of evil through experience (ancient Greek ??? ?? ????). Without this movement, there would be no essence of music.”

Theophrastus also owns (which has not reached us) the work “On the Syllable” (or “On the Style”; ???? ??????), which, according to M. L. Gasparov, is significant in its significance for the entire ancient theory oratory is almost higher than Aristotle's Rhetoric. He is repeatedly mentioned by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Demetrius of Phalerus and others.

Translators into Russian

Polenov, Alexey Yakovlevich
Sergeenko, Maria Efimovna
Stratanovsky, Georgy Andreevich

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Theophrastus - Wikipedia. What is Theophrastus

Biography

Works

Works on botany

Other notable works

The most famous is his work “Ethical Characters” (Ancient Greek: Ἠθικοὶ χαρακτῆρες; Russian translation “On the Properties of Human Morals”, 1772, or “Characteristics”, St. Petersburg, 1888), a collection of 30 sketches of human types, which depicts a flatterer , talker, braggart, proud, grumpy, distrustful, etc., and each is skillfully depicted with vivid situations in which this type manifests itself. So, when the collection of donations begins, the stingy one leaves the meeting without saying a word. Being the captain of the ship, he goes to bed on the helmsman's mattress, and on the Feast of the Muses (when it was customary to send a reward to the teacher) he leaves the children at home. They often talk about mutual influence Characters Theophrastus and the characters of the new Greek comedy. His influence on all modern literature is undoubted. It was by starting with translations of Theophrastus that the French moralist writer La Bruyère created his “Characters, or Morals of Our Age” (1688). Theophrastus is the origin of the literary portrait, an integral part of any European novel.

Memory

In 1973, the International Astronomical Union assigned the name Theophrastus to a crater on the visible side of the Moon.

Translators into Russian

Notes

Bazilevskaya N. A., Belokon I. P., Shcherbakova A. A. Short story botany / Rep. ed. prof. L. V. Kudryashov; TR. MOIP. T. XXXI. Dept. biol. Sec. botanists. - M.: Nauka, 1968. - P. 13-14. - 310 s.
Botany // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
Greek Musical Writings. Vol. 1: Musician and His Art, edited by Andrew Barker. Cambridge, 1984, pp. 186-189.
Εἰς τὰ ἁρμονικὰ Πτολεμαίου ὑπόμνημα, ed. I. Düring, Porphyrios. Kommentar zur Harmonielehre des Ptolemaios. Goteborg, 1932, S.65.
Gasparov M. L. Cicero and ancient rhetoric // Marcus Tullius Cicero. Three treatises on oratory = De Oratore Ad Quintum Fratrem Libri Tres / Trans. from lat. F. A. Petovsky, I. P. Strelnikova, M. L. Gasparov / Ed. M. L. Gasparova. - M.: Scientific Publishing Center "Ladomir", 1994. - P. 12. - 475 p.

Literature

Texts and translations

Greek texts:

Works (Theophrasti Eresii Opera quae supersunt omnia. Lipsiae, Greek text):

Russians:

Theophrastus. Research on plants / USSR Academy of Sciences; Per. from ancient Greek and note. M. E. Sergeenko; ed. acad. I. I. Tolstoy and corresponding member. USSR Academy of Sciences B.K. Shishkina; afterword - B.K. Shishkin; “Research on Plants” by Theophrastus - A. N. Krishtofovich; Theophrastus and his botanical works - M. E. Sergeenko. - [M.-L.]: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1951. - 589 p. - (Classics of science).
- reissue: Theophrastus. Research about plants. - Ryazan: Alexandria, 2005. - 560 p. - (Ancient Historical Library). - ISBN 5-94460-023-3.

« Characters»:

Theophrastus on the properties of human morals / Trans. from lat. A. Ya. Polekova. - St. Petersburg, 1772. - 112 p.
Theophrastus. Characteristics / Per. V. Alekseeva. - St. Petersburg, 1888. - 32 p.
Theophrastus. Characters / Transl. V. Smirina. // Menander. Comedy. Herod. Mimiamba. - M.: Artist. lit., 1964. - pp. 260-286. - (Library of Ancient Literature)
Theophrastus. Characters / Transl., art. and approx. G. A. Stratanovsky. Rep. ed. Ya. M. Borovsky. - L.: Nauka, 1974. - 123 p. - (Literary monuments).
- reprint: St. Petersburg: Nauka, 2007.

Other writings:

Theophrastus. About stones / Transl. from English B.V. Kulikova. - M.: SME, 2004. - 247 p. - (World of stones and minerals).
Theophrastus. About stones. / Transl., art. and comm. A. A. Rossius. // Messenger ancient history. 2005. № 3.
About flowers / Transl. V. P. Zubova. // Points-Puncta. - 7, 1-2, 2007. - P. 7-21.
Pseudo-Theophrastus. About the signs of rain, winds, bad weather and buckets // Sky, science, poetry... - M., 1992. - P. 88-100.
About the soul (fragments) / Transl. G. F. Tsereteli. // Tannery P. The first steps of Greek science - St. Petersburg, 1902.
About music (fragments) / Trans. E. V. Afonasina // ΣΧΟΛΗ 6.1 (2012)
On the first principles (Metaphysics) / Trans. E. V. Afonasina // ΣΧΟΛΗ 10.2 (2016)

English:

Publications in the Loeb classical library:
- Volume 1. No. 70. 1916. Research on plants, books 1-5.
- Volume 2. No. 79. 1916. Research on plants, books 6-9. About smells. About weather signs.
- Volumes III-V. No. 471, 474, 475. 1989-1990. On the causes of plants (books 1-6).

Other publications:

French:

In the “Collection Budé” series “Recherches sur les plantes” was published in 5 volumes. Also published in the “Collection Budé” series:
Théophraste. Caracteres. Texte établi et traduit par O. Navarre. 4e circulation 2003. 166 p.
Théophraste. Metaphysique. Texte édité, traduit et annoté par A. Laks et G. W. Most avec la collaboration de Ch. Larmore et E. Rudolph et pour la traduction arabe de M. Crubellier. 3rd edition 2002. XC, 119 p. ISBN 978-2-251-00422-8

Research

Lebedev A.V. The problem of authenticity APXH as a Milesian term (to the interpretation of the testimony of Theophrastus). // Materials for the historiography of ancient and medieval philosophy. M., 1990.
Verlinsky A. L. The first mentions of Jews in Greek literature: the Jewish religion in Hecataeus and Theophrastus. // Jews and Greeks: Dialogue through millennia. St. Petersburg, 1999. pp. 215-235.