| Issue Date | 05.01.2011 |
| ID | Michel: 664 Scott: Stanley Gibbons: Yvert: UPU: CZ002.11 Category: pP |
| Author | Graphic designer: Oldrich Kulhanek Engraver: Wolfgang Mauer |
| Stamps in set | 1 |
| Value | 43 CZK |
| Size (width x height) | Picture size: 26mm x 40mm |
| Layout | 1 stamps in Block (A1) |
| Products | FDC x1 |
| Paper | |
| Perforation | 12 x 12 |
| Print Technique | |
| Printed by | Post Printing House |
| Quantity | |
| Issuing Authority | Czech Post |
On January 3 2011, post authority of Czech Republic issued a block with stamp of famous Czech paleo-botanic Kaspar Maria von Sternberg.
Kaspar Maria von Sternberg
(born on January 6th, 1761 at Březina Castle) was one of the leading
scientists of the first half of the 19th century, with a special
interest in botany, geology and paleontology,
and is considered as one of the founders of paleobotany. He is the
author of an extensive and precious collection of minerals, fossils and
herbs that became the core collection of the National Museum in Prague,
founded by Kaspar Maria von Sternberg. Kaspar Maria was born the eighth
and last child (third son) of Johann von Sternberg and Anna Josefa
Krakovská of Kolovraty, into a not wealthy Czech aristocratic family of
Sternbergs. A philosophy graduate from the Prague University, he
studied theology in Rome and received lower ordination. Inspired by the
newly founded Regensburg Botanical Society (1790), he became a keen
naturalist, contributor to the Society's Botanisches Taschenbuch and
one of its ordinary members (1800). His first private botany teacher
was Charles Jeunet Duval. After his failure as a church diplomat to
Paris (1804-05), he gave up his career in the church and moved to
Regensburg to work as director of local scientific institutes. The
Regensburg Botanical Garden, set up by Sternberg, was destroyed during
a 1809 war campaign.During his French stay, Sternberg was introduced to Alexander von Humboldt and a group of elite French paleontologists and botanists. His book, A Survey of Saxifrages in Pictures (published in Latin) was based on materials collected during his scientific trips, especially to the Bavarian Alps. Shortly after the publication, he inherited the West Bohemian Radnice estate from his older brother and devoted scientist Joachim. He set up a botanical garden in Radnice and was a frequent visitor to the newly opened coal mines in the neighboorhood where he searched for primordial plant fossils. After his A Treatise on Botany in Bohemia (originally published in German and soon after also in Czech), he (together with Karel Bořivoj Presl and Augustin Corda) co-authored the 1820-38 An Attempt at Geographical and Botanical Description of Primordial Plants. He also became one of the key shareholders in Prague Railway Company (1825) authorised to build the Prague-Lány Horse-Drawn Railway (1827).
Kaspar Maria von Sternberg was elected President of the Society for the Establishment of the Czech National Museum in 1818, and bequeathed his library and paleontological collection to the museum. He died at Březnice Castle on December 20th, 1838 as the last male heir of the Leopoldine branch of the Sternberg family. [R1]
Illustration
of First
Day
Cover(FDC) shows a piece
of trunk of Lepidodendron .Lepidodendron — also known as the scale trees — is an extinct genus of primitive, vascular, tree-like plants related to the lycopsids (club mosses). They were part of the coal forest flora. They sometimes reached heights of over 30 metres, and the trunks were often over 1 m in diameter.
It was tree-like, branching at the top and with a trunk covered with leaf scars.
They thrived during the Carboniferous Period (about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya (million years ago) and were found until the Late Triassic, about 205 Ma) before going extinct.
Lepidodendron was named and described by Kaspar Maria von Sternberg. His description of Lepidodendron came from his deep studies of the fossils associated with coal mines in Bohemia. [R2]
| FDC | Used cover (back side of the cover with some extra stamps) |
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[R1] Czech Post
[R2] Wooster Geologists Wikipedia
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Latest update 20.02.2019
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