FRIEDRICH AUGUST [FRIGYES ÁGOST] HAZLINSZKY [HAZSLINSZKY] VON HAZSLIN

(6 January 1818 – 18 September 1896)

Friedrich August Hazslinszky (his native language was German and he learned Hungarian at high–school and used Frigyes as his first name when publishing and writing in Hungarian only) was one of the most prominent natural history scholars of the Hungarian Empire (not to be confused with modern Hungary - the Hungarian language does not have different terms for the two states) in the 19th century. His scientific interests covered geology, paleontology, botany, lichenology, bryology, algology and, first of all, mycology, his sciencia amabilis. Born 6 January 1818 in Kežmarok, died 18 September 1896 in Prešov. Educated at Kežmarok (philosophy and theology), Sárospatak (law), Debreczen (chemistry and physics) and Wien (physics and mathematics). From 1846 high–school teacher at the evangelic college in Prešov (Eperjes, in Hungarian).

His first paper on fungi was published in 1873, but he studied fungi from the very early years of his stay in Prešov and one of his first discomycete collections, Urnula craterium, was made during his student years in Kežmarok in 1837. His reputation as a top mycologist rose so rapidly that already in 1868 he and Carl Kalchbrenner were commissioned by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to travel to Vinkovci and evaluate the manuscript of Stephan Schulzer (published as Icones Selectae Hymenomycetum Hungariae by Kalchbrenner in 1873–1877). Hazslinszky published 55 papers and contributions covering almost all groups of fungi, including lichens, and described numerous new taxa. He recorded 1320 species from the environs of Prešov alone (Moesz, 1934). Posthumously, Mágoczy–Dietz compiled and published four additional papers based on his data, one of them on discomycetes (Mágocsy-Dietz, 1926). Hazslinszky has been recognized as a founder of both modern mycology and lichenology in the former Hungarian Empire (Verseghy, 1963). [Pavel Lizoň]

Lists. Publications. Taxa. Kirk & Ansell form of name: Hazsl.


Previous page