Josef August Schultes

Life & Legacy

Josef (Joseph) August Schultes (15 April 1773 in Vienna – 21 April 1831 in Landshut) was an Austrian botanist and professor from Vienna. Together with Johann Jacob Roemer (1763–1819), he published the 16th edition of Linnaeus' Systema Vegetabilium. In 1821, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was the father of Julius Hermann Schultes (1804–1840).
In 1796, he received his doctorate at Vienna, where he was a student of Johann Peter Frank (1745–1821). Later on, he served as a professor of botany and natural history at the Theresianum in Vienna, followed by professorships at the Universities of Krakow (1806) and Innsbruck (1808). In 1809, he succeeded Franz von Paula Schrank (1747–1835) at the University of Landshut as a professor of natural history and botany. At Landshut, he also served as a medical director. Swedish botanist Carl Peter Thunberg commissioned Schultes to edit the first complete edition of his Flora Capensis, which was published in 1823.