Jose Celestino Bruno Mutis

José Celestino Bruno Mutis was a Spanish priest, botanist and mathematician who played a significant role in the Spanish American Enlightenment. He was one of the most important authors of the Spanish Universalist School of the 18th century, along with Juan Andrés and Antonio Eximeno. He is best known for leading the Royal Botanical Expedition of New Granada, which explored and documented the flora and fauna of present-day Colombia and Ecuador. Mutis was born in Cádiz, Spain, on April 6, 1732. He studied medicine, physics, chemistry and botany at the College of Surgery in Cádiz and the University of Seville. He graduated in medicine in 1755 and obtained his doctorate in 1757. He moved to Madrid, where he taught anatomy and continued his studies in botany, astronomy and mathematics. He became interested in the classificatory system of Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish naturalist, and established a correspondence with him. In 1760, Mutis traveled to America as the personal physician of the new viceroy of New Granada, Pedro Messía de la Cerda. He arrived in Santa Fe de Bogotá (now Bogotá) on February 24, 1761. There he devoted himself to his botanical studies, working on an herbal and investigating the cinchona tree, which produces quinine, a remedy for malaria. He wrote El Arcano de la Quina (The Secret of Quinine), a treatise on the medicinal properties and cultivation of cinchona. In 1763, Mutis proposed to the king of Spain that he sponsor an expedition to study the flora and fauna of New Granada. He had to wait 20 years for the authorization, but in 1783 the king approved his expedition (one of three royal botanical expeditions to the New World at that time). In the meantime, Mutis engaged in commercial and mineralogical projects, studied the social and economic conditions of the viceroyalty, and expanded his collection of plants and animals. He also became a priest in 1772. Mutis led the Royal Botanical Expedition of New Granada for 25 years, from 1783 to 1808. He explored some 8,000 km2 in various climates, using the Magdalena River as a route to the interior. He developed a meticulous methodology that included collecting specimens in the field along with detailed descriptions, including data on the habitat and utility of each species. He discovered and named hundreds of plants, many of them new to science. He also employed a team of draftsmen and artists who produced thousands of colored drawings and large plates of the flora and fauna. Mutis was not only a botanist but also a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, artist and educator. He founded several scientific institutions in New Granada, such as the Academy of Mathematics and Physics (1774), the Astronomical Observatory (1803) and the Botanical Garden (1801). He also modernized university education and scientific research in various fields. He translated and disseminated the works of Newton and other European scientists. He mentored a generation of Latin American botanists and naturalists who continued his work after his death. Mutis died in Bogotá on September 11, 1808, at age 76, from a stroke. His botanical work was not fully published during his lifetime or after his death. Much of his collection was lost or remained in archives for decades. He is recognized not only as a great scientist but also as a great promoter of science and knowledge in America and Spain. He was honored by Linnaeus, who named a genus of plants after him: Mutisia, belonging to the family of daisies (Asteraceae). His image was also used on the banknotes of 2,000 Pesetas in Spain from 1992 to 2002.