Georg August Pritzel

Georg August Pritzel (2 September 1815, Carolath – 14 June 1874) was a German librarian and botanical writer.

He studied in Breslau, graduating with a dissertation titled Anemonarum revisio. In 1851 he began work as a Hülfsarbeiter at the royal library in Berlin, a post which eventually led to curator duties. From 1855 onwards, he served as archivist at the Prussian Academy of Sciences.

Principal works

• Pritzel, G. A. (1872). Thesaurus literaturae botanicae omnium gentium,inde a rerum botanicarum initiis ad nostra usque tempora, quindecim millia operum recensens. Lipsiae: F. A. Brockhaus.; first published in 1851, it contains literature from ancient times to his present. Research involved examination of 40,000 works in libraries at Vienna, Geneva, London, Paris and various German locations.
• Iconum Botanicarum index locupletissimus (1855-1866).
• Die deutschen Volksnamen der Pflanzen (1884); (The German common names of plants), 24,000 plant names given. Completed by botanist Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Jessen (1821–1889), after Pritzel's death in 1874.^[1]

The botanical genus Pritzelago from the family Brassicaceae was named after him by Otto Kuntze (1843-1907).^[2]

References

• biography @ Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie

1. [1] WorldCat Titles] Die deutschen Volksnamen der Pflanzen
2. Google Books CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names: Common Names, Scientific Names, Eponyms ... by Umberto Quattrocchi
3. International Plant Names Index.  Pritz.