Mycology & Fungi

The Kingdom of Fungi from Clusius to Saccardo

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Methodical Synopsis of Fungi

Christiaan Hendrik Persoon, 1801

The first comprehensive classification of all known fungi. Persoon's system of dividing fungi by spore-bearing structures became the basis for all subsequent mycological taxonomy.

Illustrations

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This bookplate for the New York Botanical Garden features an allegorical emblem designed by R.W. Gibson. It depicts a scholar and a gardener flanking a central shield, symbolizing the union of scientific study and practical horticulture under the motto 'Pro Scientia Salute Populique' (For the health of science and the people). The plate also contains handwritten provenance notes indicating it was acquired from J.B. Ellis in 1896.

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The scientific study of fungi emerged as a distinct discipline in the sixteenth century, when Carolus Clusius published the first illustrated survey of mushrooms in his Rariorum Plantarum Historia (1601). Over the following three centuries, mycology evolved from a branch of botany into an independent science, driven by precise observation, microscopy, and the revolutionary taxonomic systems of Christiaan Hendrik Persoon and Elias Magnus Fries. This collection traces that development from Clusius through to Pier Andrea Saccardo's monumental Sylloge Fungorum, which attempted to catalogue every known fungal species.

The Latin mycological tradition is particularly well represented here. Persoon's Synopsis Methodica Fungorum (1801) established the first workable classification of fungi, organizing thousands of species by the structure of their spore-bearing surfaces. Fries refined and expanded this system across three volumes of Systema Mycologicum (1821–1832), a work so authoritative that its nomenclature became the legal starting point for fungal taxonomy. Giovanni Antonio Battarra's earlier Fungorum Agri Ariminensis Historia (1755) offers a charming regional flora of the mushrooms around Rimini, while Carlo Vittadini's Monographia Tuberacearum (1831) — a first translation into English — remains the foundational scientific monograph on truffles. The French tradition is represented by Bulliard's lavishly illustrated Histoire des Champignons de la France and Paulet's practical Traité des Champignons, which includes detailed guidance on edible and poisonous species.

Essential Reading

The foundational texts of this tradition

Mycological System

Elias Magnus Fries, 1821

The legal starting point for fungal nomenclature. Fries's three-volume system organized the kingdom of fungi with a rigor that held for over a century.

Rariorum Plantarum Historia (with Fungorum Historia)

Carolus Clusius, 1601

Contains the Fungorum Historia — the first illustrated survey of mushrooms, with hand-colored plates from direct observation in the forests around Vienna and Hungary.

Monograph of the Truffles

Carlo Vittadini, 1831First Translation

The foundational scientific monograph on truffles, with detailed anatomical descriptions and the first systematic attempt to classify the Tuberaceae by internal structure. A first translation into English.