[Taxacom] Abbreviations/conventions in L. Agassiz' "Nomenclatoris Zoologici Index Universalis"

[Richard Petit]

Agassiz considered himself to be the supreme authority on names. He rarely 
encountered a name that he could not "improve". His endless emendations 
continue to cause problems. They should have been ruled out as being 
available en masse many years ago.

Also, Agassiz published unauthorized pirated German and French "editions" of 
Sowerby's "Mineral Conchology" in which he created new nomina.  Then he 
wrote Sowerby, stating that Sowerby should not be upset as his translations 
gave wider distribution to the work!

dick p.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Geoff Read" <gread at actrix.gen.nz>
To: <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2012 5:04 AM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Abbreviations/conventions in L. Agassiz' 
"Nomenclatoris Zoologici Index Universalis"


> No, I'm wrong to doubt and there aren't going to be multiple secondaries.
> On looking at more of the alternates they're indicating his own ideas for
> emendations as others have correctly said, and Neave correctly reported.
> Agassiz must have been one formidable Latin scholar to encounter.
>
> The Myiadestes complicated sequence of entries is a good example of the
> system.
>
> Amazing work.
>
> Geoff
>
>
> On Thu, July 12, 2012 7:58 pm, Geoff Read wrote:
>> Hi Tony,
>>
>> In the example I found - Scolelepis Blainville 1828 (Scr. Scolecolepis) -
>> Neave was seemingly correct to attribute the first appearance of the 2nd
>> alternate spelling to Agassiz's listing (at least via my reading of the
>> occurrences reported by BHL). This is somewhat of a surprise to me as its
>> appearance is usually dated a decade or so later and attributed to
>> Malmgren (1867).  I doubt Agassiz was creating a new spelling though, or
>> emending anything. From the context he was indicating  it as a secondary
>> spelling he had seen, & thus thought a misspelling, or at least the 
>> junior
>> synonym. "Scr." might be from "scripsit" - 'he [someone else] has written
>> it'.
>>
>> I wonder if there are multiple secondary names anywhere in Agassiz and 
>> how
>> Neave reported those.
>>
>> Geoff
>>
>> On Thu, July 12, 2012 1:15 pm, Tony.Rees at csiro.au wrote:
>>
>>> The reason for caring (at all) about these is that over 2,100 generic
>>> names in Neave are credited to Agassiz 1846, Nomen. Zool. Index Univ. as
>>> the authority, the vast majority as "emend. pro..." although from the
>>> above it would seem mostly that he was recording alternative spellings
>>> under "Scr." - or am I perhaps wrong here? In practical terms it does
>>> make
>>> a difference, since emendations (justified or unjustified) are
>>> considered
>>> available names and therefore enter homonymy, while simple errors (i.e.
>>> incorrect subsequent spellings not intended as new names) do not.
>
>
>
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