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Herbarium G.F. Hoffmann (1761-1826)

  

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Herbarium G.F. Hoffmann (1761-1826) Advisor: Associate Professor of Lomonosov Moscow State University Sergey A. Balandin

One of the oldest collections of dried plants


In 1804, Georg Franz Hoffmann became the first person to be appointed head of both the Botany Department and the Botanical Garden of Moscow University. Upon Hoffmann's death, his herbarium became the property of the University. Since Hoffmann's death, Moscow University has carefully kept his herbarium in its special collections section for use by professional taxonomists. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Hoffmann realized the scientific importance of dried plant samples. In Germany, he started assembling his own herbarium, which he later brought to Moscow University. In Moscow, he exchanged specimens with other outstanding botanists of the time, both from Russia and abroad, thus enlarging his collection: By the end of his life, the collection comprised almost 9,000 species. In 1825, the scientific catalog of Hoffmann's herbarium was published, much facilitating the use of the herbarium for future users. In many cases, the catalog contains more information than was recorded on the labels of the herbarium specimens.

Perfect plant taxonomist
Georg Franz Hoffmann was born in Bavaria in 1761. He graduated from the University of Erlangen (Germany), where he was then engaged as Professor of Botany for four years. From 1792 to 1803, he was head of Goettingen University's Botany Department and director of the University's Botanical Garden. He was famous as a perfect florist and plant taxonomist, and wrote leading works in taxonomy and lychenology, as well as two editions of the then popular Deutschlands Flora (German Flora).

Outstanding services in research
From 1804 onward, Professor G. F. Hoffmann was head of both the Department of Botany and the Botanical Garden of Moscow University. He performed outstanding services in managing botanical research in Russia in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, especially in the training of professional staff in botany, both for teaching and for research. He was one of the founders of the Moscow Society for the Natural Explorers (MOIP), which is still active today. He reformed the Botanical Garden of Moscow University and published the first description of it, which included over 3,500 species and cultivars of plants that had been planted in the Garden. During his Moscow period, he became world-famous for his work on the Umbelliferae family. This work is regarded as an example of classical research, and has not lost its significance.