Gaspard BauhinBorn 17 Jan 1560; died 5 Dec 1624 at age 64.Swiss physician, anatomist and botanist who introduced a scientific binomial system of classification to both anatomy and botany. In 1623 Gaspard Bauhin produced the Pinax Theatri Botanici. (Basel, 1623), the first attempt to summarize a confusing array of names. It was a monumental compilation that pulled together uncoordinated plant names and descriptions of 6000 species that had appeared in Theophrastus and Dioscorides, as well as in later herbals and other plant records. By accepting Bauhin's compilation, Linnaeus was able to avoid many of the complications of the ancient literature. |
