Exhibition "In the Forests of Borneo"
Timeline
Introduction | Timeline (you're here) | Titan arum
Extra content:
Photo of the anonymous painting of the sailing ship Royalist on the high seas. From the unpublished scrapbook of Margaret Brooke: “Album gifted by the Ranee of Sarawak, Margaret Lady Brooke, to Odoardo Beccari while he was writing Nelle Foreste di Borneo.” Natural History Museum of Florence. Botanical Collections.
1843: He was born in Florence on November 16th to Giuseppe and Antonietta Minucci.
1848: Apex of the Risorgimento uprisings and issuing of the Albertine Statute.
1853: Already orphaned of both parents, he entered the Royal College of Lucca, immediately showing an inclination for natural sciences, particularly for Botany.
1859: On November 24th, the English naturalist Charles Darwin published the essay On the Origin of Species.
1861: He began attending University in Pisa, where he would later be appointed assistant professor of Botany to Pietro Savi.
1864: He graduated in Natural Sciences at the University of Bologna, where he met Giacomo Doria, who would become a lifelong friend.
1865: On April 4th he left Southampton for his first trip to Borneo, where he would remain for nearly three years.
1869: He founded the “Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano” in Florence.
1870: On February 14th he set sail again for a second voyage, bound for Ethiopia.
1871: In November he embarked on the third, four-year-long trip to Southeast Asia and New Guinea.
1876: He founded the family winery in Radda in Chianti.
1877: He founded the journal “Malesia” and set off on his fourth and final journey: India, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
1878: After parting ways in Singapore with his travelling companion Luigi Maria D'Albertis, who continued his journey around the world, Odoardo reached Java on his way back and then made a long stop in Sumatra, where in August he discovered Amorphophallus titanum. On December 28th he returned to Florence and took over as director of the Botanical Museum and Gardens.
1879: Following the purchase of the Bay of Assab by the Rubattino shipping company, on behalf of the Italian Government, Beccari, together with Doria and Giuseppe Sapeto, set sail for Assab and explored Aden, Mocha and Cairo on their way back.
1882: He married Nella Goretti de Flamini; they had four sons: Nello, Dino, Baccio and Renzo. After returning home for good, he devoted himself to studying and processing the material he had collected on his travels, developing a particular specialisation in the study of palm trees on a global scale.
1883: With “The Tiger of Malaysia” began the publication of the famous “Sandokan Cycle”, for the setting of which Emilio Salgari is said to have been inspired by Beccari's accounts.
1920: He died on October 25th in Florence, at his residence in the Castello di Bisarno.