Moisés Santiago Bertoni

Moisés Santiago Bertoni
Born Mosè Giacomo Bertoni
June 15, 1857
Lottigna, Switzerland
Died September 19, 1929
Nationality Swiss
Known for Writer, botanist
Notable work Nuovo Compendio di Geografía, La voce del Ticino

Mosè Giacomo Bertoni. known in Spanish as Moisés Santiago Bertoni (15 June 1857 – 19 September 1929), was a Swiss botanist of Italian descent. He emigrated to South America in 1884 and lived in Paraguay from 1887 until he died in 1929.

Bertoni work and researched in botany, meteorology, and anthropology. He discovered and classified many new species of plants and left a collection of more than 7000 vegetal species and about 6500 insects. One of the plants he studied in depth was ka'a he'ê (Stevia rebaudiana), a herb indigenous to Paraguay, which became important as a non-caloric sweetener, reputed to be 300 times sweeter than sugar. He also scientifically classified yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis).

He was born in the small village of Lottigna, in canton Ticino in the Italian-speaking region in Switzerland, on June 15, 1857, the son of Ambrose Bertoni, a lawyer, jurist, and official, and Josefina Torreani, a teacher from Milan.

He died on September 19, 1929, at the age of 72 years in the city of Foz do Iguazu (Brazil), of malaria, and was buried in Puerto Bertoni, Paraguay.

Childhood and youth

His primary and secondary studies were completed in the Lyceum, Lugano.

In 1874 he founded, in collaboration with his mother, the first meteorological observatory of his hometown, Lottigna. In 1875 he started his studies in law and Natural Sciences in the University of Geneva. In 1876 he enrolled in the University of Zurich, where he met biochemistry student Eugenia Rossetti, whom he married the following year.

Beginnings

He left Switzerland for Buenos Aires, Argentina on March 3, 1884 on the steamer Nord Americas with his wife, their children Reto Divicone, Arnoldo da Winkelried, Vera Zassoulich, Sofía Perovskaya (Helvecia) and Inés, his mother Josefina Torreani (who left behind her husband Ambrose and his youngest son, Brennan), and some 40 farmers.

On March 30 they landed in Buenos Aires, and were interviewed by the chairman of the Nation, General Julio Argentino Roca, who provided the means to travel to and colonize the province of Misiones. They arrived in the territory of Santa Ana and Bertoni began work in agriculture, botany, zoology, meteorology, and ethnography.

While working in Misiones he crossed the border into Paraguay, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Career

House of Moses Bertoni in Paraguay.

He created a community of agricultural production and scientific research. He had a Swiss colleague, Emil Hassler.

In Argentina the Bertonis' son Moisés Santiago was born; in Paraguay they had more children, Aurora Eugenia and Guillermo Tell, Walter Fürst, Werner Stauffacher and Aristóteles. He worked alone, without government support, or sources, means or instruments, in the physical and natural sciences, anthropology, making linguistic and ideological, philosophical observations and historical commentary.

In 1891 he founded on the banks of the Paraná river the 12,500 hectare (5 square miles) "William Tell Colony", today known as Puerto Bertoni, where Bertoni and his family were buried at the ends of their lives. They grew coffee, bananas and citrus to make a living and finance the scientific work, combining agricultural production and scientific research in the rural community.

Bertoni was invited by the Paraguayan president, General Juan Bautista Egusquiza (1845–1902), to form an Agricultural Institute in the capital Asunción.

He made meteorological studies for Argentine and Paraguayan governments, wrote scientific papers, and drove the leading publisher of scientific Paraguay.

In January 1988 the environmentalist "Moises Bertoni Foundation" was set up for environmental conservation, aiming to contribute to the protection and sustainable development of natural resources in Paraguay.

On September 19, 1929, at the age of 72 years, he died of malaria in the town of Foz do Iguazu in Brazil; his wife had died three weeks before in Encarnación in the south of Paraguay, unknown to him.

The following day his body was returned to Puerto Bertoni, where he was buried near his workplace and the graves of his mother, Nonna Peppino, and his son Linneo Carlos.

Distinctions

Research

Bertoni researched in the physical and natural sciences, anthropology, testing linguistic and ideological, philosophical observations and historical commentary.

He studied the frequency of rain, and for fifty years made daily records of humidity, wind and temperature. He was also interested in linguistics.

He did not become well-known because he worked alone, without government support, and with minimal resources, means and instruments.

Botanical collections

Inside the Scientific Monument Moises Bertoni

His botanical collections are conserved at the Sociedad Científica del Paraguay,[1] and were afterwards restored by the Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève (Switzerland).[2]

See also

Works

(Also published under the title "Agenda agricultural and mentor")

References

Wikispecies has information related to: Moisés Santiago Bertoni
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mosè Bertoni.

Notes

  1. ↑ "Herbario, Sociedad Científica del Paraguay". Sweetgum.nybg.org. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  2. ↑ http://www.ville-ge.ch/cjb/index_en.php
  3. ↑ IPNI.  Bertoni.
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