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

[Tony.Rees at csiro.au]

Thanks, Dick and all, for the responses, so Neave was correct in citing these alternatives as emendations with authorship of Agassiz...

For readers' information who may not also be aware of this, Neal Evenhuis also contacted me pointing out that the year of publication of Agassiz' "Nomenclatoris Zoologici Index Universalis" should indeed be cited as 1846, since the BMNH apparently received its copy on 29 December that year, even though the publisher's original information on the external cover (normally not bound) regarding the dates of publication of the individual parts said 1847 (as stated elsewhere) (refer Evenhuis, Litteratura Taxonomica Dipterorum (1758-1930), p. 50).

Regards - Tony

________________________________________
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Richard Petit [r.e.petit at att.net]
Sent: Thursday, 12 July 2012 11:12 PM
To: gread at actrix.gen.nz; taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Abbreviations/conventions in L. Agassiz' "Nomenclatoris Zoologici Index Universalis"

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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