Spanish botanist, Presbyterian and director of the Madrid botanic gardens. José Cavanilles was born in Valencia and began his studies in the Jesuit college of San Pablo, before matriculating into the University of Valencia to study theology and philosophy in 1759. He later received a doctorate in theology from the University of Gandía (1766) and was entrusted with the education of the children of Teodomiro Caro de Briones (of the Council of Castile) and travelled with him to Oviedo where he was consecrated as a Presbyterian in 1772. After the death of Briones he taught for a while in the college of San Fulgencio de Murcia before being employed as a personal teacher to the Dukes of Infantado, with whom he travelled to Paris in 1777. Here Cavanilles began to exercise an interest in the natural sciences and especially botany, which he taught himself. Cavanilles would collect plants around the country when he travelled with the house of Infantado, making botanical observations which focused on grasses in particular, and he followed the teachings of the French botanist Antoine Laurent de Jussieu of the Jardin du Roi. Cavanilles wrote his first botanic work on the genus Sida L. and continued to publish many taxonomic works, especially on Linnaeus' class Monadelphia, which afforded him fame throughout Europe. In 1789 he was named member of the Scientific Society of Uppsala and the following year the Linnaean Society of London.
During his time in France Cavanilles maintained the intention of fulfilling the role of manager at the Botanic Gardens of Madrid, which the current director, Casimiro Goméz Ortiga, did not take particularly well. Ortiga tried to undermine Cavanilles through the creation of two anonymous publications which contradicted his work on Monadelphia. They were, however, unsuccessful and Cavanilles reputation was not tarnished but the controversies continued after he returned to Spain in 1790 in order to study his native flora. Between 1795 and 1797 Cavanilles published an extensive work on the natural history, geography, agriculture and population of Valencia, with an appendix covering all mentioned plants in Spanish, French and Valencian. His most important botanical work was the Icones et descriptiones plantarum (1791-1801) which contained his own illustrations (being a talented artist) and descriptions of plants collected and observed by himself and other naturalists of the time. When Luis Neé returned from the Malaspina expedition with his collections from around the world, Cavanilles published regular taxonomic works on exotic plants in the Anales de Historia Natural using this material. In 1801 he was finally named director of the botanic gardens and first professor of botany in Madrid, for his classes he created a Principios Elementales de Botánica, which defended the Linnaean system but also reduced Linnaeus' original 24 classes to 15. He continued to publish many works until his untimely death in 1804, when his favourite student Mariano Lagasca took over his research. Cavanilles collections and those of Neé on which he worked so extensively are housed in the Real Jardín Botánico in Madrid.
Sources:
Colmiero, M., 1858, La Botánica y Los Botánicos de la Península Hispano-Lusitana. Imprenta y Estereotipia de M. Rivadeneyra. Madrid.
González Bueno, A., 2004, "Antonio José Cavanilles (1745-1804)", In: Muñoz Garmendia, F. Ed. La Botánica Ilustrada: Antonio José Cavanilles (1745-1804), Jardines Botánicos y Expediciones Científicas. Real Jaraín Botánico, Madrid.
