Vig Károly: Zoological Research in Western Hungary. A history (Szombathely, 2003)

18 Historical survey ANDRÁS LOEW

38 (1666-1710), likewise chief medical officer of Sopron, was the first in Hungary to make meteorological observations, which he began in 1701 and recorded in Latin. He added short abstracts of these to his medical notes, which later appeared in full in the collections of THOMAS SYDENHAM.

39 The other records are probably lost. He seems to have passed on his meteorological instruments to JÁNOS ÁDÁM GENSEL. His son, KÁROLY FRIGYES LOEW (LOEVIUS, 1699-1741)

40 was also a Sopron physician, who began his botanical studies at Bazin (Pezinok) under JÁNOS TEOFIL WINDISCH (1689-1732) of Pozsony (Pressburg, now Bratislava). In 1717, he entered the medical faculty of the University of Jena, where he attended lectures by several professors who did valuable botanical work as well.

41 LOEW, struck by the backwardness of research into the Hungarian flora, sent a round robin in Latin to Hungarian botanists, physicians and apothecaries, inviting them to collaborate on a Flora Pannonica: 'Letter from FRIGYES KÁROLY LOEW, Hungarian nobleman and member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, to eminent botanists in all parts of the country, imparting his views on compiling a Pannonian flora and respectfully and cordially requesting each to take part in plant trading, i.e. exchanging rare plants and seeds.' This letter was published in 1739 in Sopron, Nuremberg and Leipzig (Figure 2.8).

42 Unfortunately, the botanists of the period were unprepared for writing such a work and the appeal went unheeded. The one response came from Sopron itself, the intellectual centre of the Western marches, from KRISTÓF JÁNOS DECCARD (DECKHARDT, 1686-1764), rector of the Evangelical (Lutheran) Lyceum in the town.

43 DECCARD became the main author of a vast work on the plants of the district, published as Flora Semproniensis in 1740. The two years (1739-40) that it took DECCARD to complete the work suggest it incorporates observations and information gathered in earlier years and decades. It consists of 560 numbered manuscript pages in a hard binding, of which the younger JÁNOS VILMOS DECCARD (1722-1778) had a copy made, augmented with further botanical and medical notes and 38 On his life, see SERPILIO, M.C. 1710. Loew, Dni Andreas. Regensburg; HEIMLER, К. 1941. Loew András. Soproni Szemle 5:138-9. 39 LOEW, DNI. D. ANDREAS: História Epidemica Hungáriáé, annorum 1688, 1697, 1699-1709, ab ejusdem Filio Dno Carolo Friderico Loew, per illustri Lucae Schroekio Academiae Nat. Curios, Praesidi... Ann. 1726. communicata'. In SYDENHAM, T. 1769. Constitutio Epidemica Semproniensis, 288-341. London. 40 WESZPRÉMI, I. 1787. Succinta medicorum Hungáriáé et Transsilvaniae biographia. Viennae [Vienna]; HEIMLER, К. 1941. Loew (Loevius) Károly Frigyes. Soproni Szemle 5:139-40. 41 CSAPODY, I. 1992. Szemelvények Loew Frigyes Károly és Deccard János Kristóf Soproni flórájából (Selections from the Sopron Flora of KFL and JKD). Líceumi füzetek (Lyceum Pamphlets) series 2. 49 pp. 42 In Appendix naturae curiosum (1739), 5, 145; Acta Eruditorum Lipsiae (1739), 665; Commercium Litterarium Norimbergae (1739), Hebd. 41. 43 LEITNER, J. 1941. Deccard Kristóf János. Soproni Szemle 5:136-8. This gives copious information about DECCARD'S life and work.