Giovanni Canestrini (26 December 1835 – 14 February 1900) was an Italiannaturalist andbiologist andtranslator who was a native ofRevò.
He initially studied inGorizia andMeran, then furthered his education innatural sciences at theUniversity of Vienna. From 1862 to 1869, he was a lecturer at theUniversity of Modena, and in 1869 became a professor ofzoology andcomparative anatomy at theUniversity of Padua.
In 1862 he founded theSocietà dei Naturalisti Modenesi (Modena Society of Naturalists), and in 1871, theSocietà Veneto-Trentina di Scienze Naturali (Trento-Venetian Society of Natural Sciences). He is credited with establishment of thebacteriology laboratory atPadua.
Canestrini made contributions in several biological disciplines, performing important research in the field ofacarology. He was an advocate ofDarwinism, and was responsible for translating Darwin's works. In 1864, he was the first to translate Darwin'sOn the Origin of Species into Italian.[1] Through these translations, Canestrini was a principal factor concerning the popularity of Darwinism in 19th century Italy. He wroteOrigine dell’uomo (The Origin of Man, 1866) which advocatedcommon ancestry and defended Darwin from criticisms ofGiovanni Giuseppe Bianconi and others, this work was published five years before Darwin'sThe Descent of Man.[2] However, although Canestrini was a supporter of many of Darwin's ideas, he rejected his theories ofpangenesis andsexual selection.[2]
During his career he was the author of almost 200 scientific publications.
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