Pierre Lyonnet

Infobox Scientist
name = Pierre Lyonnet
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caption = Pierre Lyonnet
birth_date = July 22, 1708
birth_place = Maastricht
death_date = The Hague
death_place = 10 October, 1789
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field = naturalist.
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Pierre Lyonnet or Lyonet (Maastricht, 1708-07-22 - The Hague, 1789-10-10) was an artist and engraver who became a naturalist.

He was secretary and translator (he spoke more than eight languages) for the government of the Dutch Republic.

Initially he trained as a lawyer before choosing to specialize in the engraving of natural history and the work of dissection. He illustrated "Theology of the insects, or demonstration of the perfections of God in all that relates to the insects" (1742) of Friedrich Christian Lesser (1692-1754) and "Treatise on the polyps" (1744) of Abraham Trembley (1710-1784). He then decided to make his do own observations and to write his own monograph on the anatomy of the insects. His first work appeared in 1750 under the name of "Anatomical treatise of the caterpillar which corrodes the wood of Willow". He illustrated 4,041 different muscles thus. He lacked the anatomical knowledge of Jan Swammerdam (1637-1680) and of Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694) and his observations show it. His book was received with scepticism which affirmed that Lyonnet imagined the details which he drew with so much precision. It was to counter these criticisms, that he put in the second edition which appears in 1752, a drawing of its instruments and a description of its method. Lyonnet planned to study the chrysalis and the adult but, sixty years old, the tiredness of his eyes obliged him to stop his projects.

Illustrations from "Traité anatomique" (1750)

Literature

*"Cryptology and statecraft in the Dutch Republic - Karl de Leeuw" ISBN 9057760398
*"Pierre Lyonet - W.H. Seters" (1962)