Christian Knaut

Christian Knaut (August 16, 1656 – April 11, 1716) was a German physician, botanist and librarian born in Halle an der Saale. His brother, Christoph Knaut (1638-1694) was also a physician and botanist.

He studied medicine at the University of Leipzig, where he had as instructors Gottfried Welsch, Paul Amman, Michael Ettmüller and Johannes Bohn. In 1682 he obtained his doctorate from the University of Jena with a dissertation titled De fermentatione in sanguine non existente. Afterwards he returned to Halle, were he served as a librarian and personal physician to Prince Emanuel Lebrecht of Anhalt-Köthen. As a librarian he was the author of a chronicle and description involving the counties of Ballenstädt and Aschersleben (1698).

As a botanist he published Compendium Botanicum sive Methodus plantarum genuina, in which he provided a classification system for flowering plants based on petal number and arrangement. Carolus Linnaeus named the plant genus Knautia in honor of Christian and Christoph Knaut.^[1]

The standard author abbreviation Knaut is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.^[2]

References

• This article is based on a translation of the equivalent article from the German Wikipedia.

1. ^ The Plant Lover's Companion: Plants, People & Places by Julia Brittain
2. ^ "Author Query". International Plant Names Index. http://www.ipni.org/ipni/authorsearchpage.do. 

Persondata
Name	Knaut, Christian
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	August 16, 1656
Place of birth
Date of death	April 11, 1716
Place of death