Orazio Antinori - Publications and findings

Publications

Antinori O. (1864). Catalogo descrittivo di una collezione di uccelli fatta nell'interno dell'Affrica centrale nord dal maggio 1859 al luglio 1861. Milano: Daelli e C.

Antinori O. (1868). Reise vom Bahr-el-Ghazal zum Lande der Djur. In Mitteilungen aus Justus Perthes's Geographischer Anstalt, 8., p. 79-83.

Antinori O. (1868). Das Land der Niamniam und sudwestlische Wasserscheide des Nil. In Mitteilungen aus Justus Perthes's Geographischer Anstalt, 14., p. 412-26.

Antinori O., Salvatori T. (1873). Catalogo degli uccelli raccolti durante il viaggio tra i Bogos. In Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova. Genova, p. 366-525.

Antinori O. (1884). Nel centro dell'Africa. Roma: Perino.

Antinori O., Issel A., Beccari O. (1884). Un viaggio nel Mar Rosso. Roma: Perino.

Antinori O. (1887). Viaggio nei Bogos. In Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana, 12., p. 468-481, 511-550, 614-640, 668-694, 765-855.

 

Article by Orazio Antinori published in the Italian Geographic Society’s newsletter (BSGI):

O. Antinori, Viaggio di O. Antinori e C. Piaggia nell'Africa Centrale, in BSGI, 1868, pp. 91-165;

Id., Spedizione Italiana in Africa. Notizie, in BSGI, 1877, pp. 293-298;

Id., La spedizione italiana nell'Africa equatoriale, in BSGI, 1878, pp. 65-71;

Id., Le collezioni inviate alla Società dalla nostra spedizione africana, in BSGI, 1887, pp. 128-133;

Id., La spedizione italiana in Africa, in BSGI, 1880, pp. 118-122, 400-403, 448-463;

Id., La spedizione italiana in Africa, in BSGI, 1881, pp. 585-597;

Id., Memorie e relazioni: La spedizione italiana in Africa, in BSGI, 1882, pp. 523-531.

 

Charts derived and elaborated according to Orazio Antinori’s original cartographic surveys: 

Schizzo originale della Spedizione Italiana tra Zeila e lo Scioa, scala 1.3.000.000, (si tratta della Spedizione Orazio Antinori, Giovanni Chiarini e Sebastiano Martini nell'Africa Equatoriale);

Carta delle sorgenti occidentali del Fiume Bianco secondo i viaggi di Orazio Antinori e Carlo Piaggia, coordinati cogli itinerari di Speke e Grant, Heuglin, Baker e di altri viaggiatori, scala 1:6.250.000, edita da Stab. Geografico Giuseppe Civelli, Milano, Carlo Trzaska, incisore (p. 166), pubblicata in: Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana, fasc 1, 1868, pp. 91- 168;

Profili ideali del Bacino del Gazal secondo le osservazioni di O. Antinori, pubblicata in: Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana, fasc 1, 1868, pp. 91- 168;

Carta dell'Affrica col tracciato delle ultime esplorazioni di Cameron, Stanley e Antinori, in: L’Esploratore, n. 1, 1877-Affrica, Prem. Lit. degli Ingegneri, Milano;

Carta manoscritta degli itinerari di Antinori in Tunisia, scala 1:400.000, (ricavata dalla carta francese del <<Dépôt de la Guerre>> e corretta secondo le sue indicazioni);

Carta de Itinerario della spedizione in Africa della Società Geografica Italiana, in: Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana, vol. XII, 1875, pubblicata a seguito di p. 286;

Carta dello Scioa centrale, scala 1:1.200.000, pubblicata in: Cosmos, vol. 4, 1877.

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Findings

Geographical findings

Between 1876 and 1882, once settled first in Ankober and then at the Geographic Station in LétMarefià, Orazio Antinori set out on numerous expeditions to discover the most remote areas of Shéwa (Shoa) and the neighbouring regions (Fig. 20). During one these exploratory trips, he measured the great basin of Lake Ziway, the first European to do so, in the heart of the Main Rift Valley in South Central Ethiopia, which he accurately cartographed (Fig. 21-23). He also discovered several small lakes of volcanic origin in the area of Bishoftu (DebreZeyt), for example, Hora, Bishoftu and Chalalaka  (Fig. 24). Furthermore, from the summit of Mount Zuqualà, while observing the morphology of the vast valley below, he spotted what could have been another great lake basin unknown to Europeans at the time, located south east of Lake Ziway, but he was unable to get there to verify its actual existence.

  

A few years later this vast stretch of water was reached by other explorers, who confirmed its existence and gave it the name of Lake Langano on their charts (Fig. 25). During his long stay at the Geographic Station in LétMarefià, Antinori found new trails through the central highlands of Ethiopia, already known by the local people but not by the European travellers . One of these was a direct connection between the town of Ankober, at the time the capital of the Kingdom of Shéwa (Scioa), and the Jima River valley, a tributary of the Blue Nile, near the Debre Libanos Gorges (Fig. 26).

  

 

Zoological discoveries

During his various expeditions in regions of the Near and Middle East and North-East Africa, between 1855 and 1864, Antinori discovered new species and subspecies of birds.  The species and subspecies of birds determined by the Umbrian ornithologist-naturalist, in ascending order according to the year of classification, are as follows:

Apus affinis galilejensis (Antinori, 1855)

Lagonosticta rara (Antinori, 1864)

Eremomela canescens Antinori, 1864

Cisticola troglodytes (Antinori, 1864)

Antinori also collected numerous bird specimens and sent the remains to various Italian and European natural history museums (Fig. 27). From the study of these specimens, a few illustrious ornithologists of that period, including  Tommaso Salvadori (Porto San Giorgio 1835 - Turin 1923), were able to detect and establish new species, which include: Gyps africanus Salvadori, 1865; Buteo auguralis Salvadori, 1865; Podiceps cristatus infuscatus Salvadori, 1884; Caprimulgus fraenatus Salvadori, 1884.

During his long years of exploration activities and scientific research in the field, Antinori established important zoological collections, both with specimens collected directly during his expeditions and those obtained through exchanges with other important travelling naturalists and explorers of that period,  or from donations by illustrious personage in  the Italian and European scientific world of the nineteenth century (Fig. 28). As well as those in the University of Perugia’s Natural History Gallery, many of these collections are now housed in various prestigious Italian scientific museums, such as the Regional Museum of Natural Sciences in Turin, the Giacomo Doria Natural History Museum in Genoa, the University of Padua’s Zoological Museum, the University of Pavia’s Natural History Museum, “The Observatory” zoological section of the University of Florence’s Natural History Museum, and the Zoological Museum in Rome.

 

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