Pisani, Félix (1831-1920 )

Félix Pisani, French chemist, mineral dealer and author, was born 28 April 1831 in Constantinople, where his Venetian father was in the Russian diplomatic service. His mother was the daughter of Félix de Serres, Professor of Chemistry at Clermont-Ferrand University. In 1854 he enrolled in the private chemistry school of Charles Frederic Gerhardt (1816-1856) in Paris, which was later to come under his own direction. He first dealt in minerals from addresses on the the rue de Mézières and the rue de l'Ancienne Comédie; although which came first is unknown, it may have been the former address because he shared it for a time with the geologist/botanist Dr. E. Goubert before taking it over entirely for himself. The dates are uncertain, but he first began to sell mineral specimens to the British Museum in 1869. He also dealt periodically in fossils; in 1891, the Barcelona Geology Museum (then called the Martorell Museum) acquired its first significant paleontology collection from Pisani. M. Baron and other renowned French paleontologists, such as M. Cossmann, had classified most of this collection.

Pisani's laboratory was later moved to quarters on the rue de Furstenberg where, in addition to private teaching and consulting work, he continued his business dealing in minerals and other geological specimens. His laboratory became a favorite meeting place of local mineralogists until the establishment of the Mineralogical Society of France in 1878, of which Pisani was one of the founders. His own papers in chemical mineralogy date from 1854 to 1915, and he continued doing difficult, publishable analytical work into his late 80's. He published Traité Élémentaire de Minéralogie in 1875. "Pisanite" was named in his honor by Kenngott in 1860, but it was later discredited as Cu-rich melanterite. Pisani died in Paris at his home on the rue Furstenberg on 7 November 1920.