Nathanael Matthaeus von Wolf

Nathanael Matthaeus von Wolf, also written Nathanael Matthäus von Wolf or in Polish Nataniel Mateusz Wolf, was an ethnic German botanist, physician and astronomer who lived most of his life in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Born in Chojnice, then Konitz, in Royal Prussia in 1724, he studied medicine at the University of Erfurt and took his M.D. in 1748. He was personal physician to Prince-bishop Teodor Kazimierz Czartoryski of Poznan until 1768, opened a practice at Tczew and after 1772 moved to Danzig, where he spent most of his adult life. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1777, taught astronomy to the Corps of Cadets in Warsaw, supported the building of a planetarium, and left his scientific collections to the Danzig Research Society. His botanical works include the Genera Plantarum of 1776. He died in 1784.