(Born: Constantinople, Turkey, 28 April 1831; Died: Rue de Furstenberg, France, 7 November 1920) French chemist, mineral dealer & writer.

Pisani's father was in the Russian diplomatic service. His mother was daughter of Félix de Serres, professor of chemistry at Clermont-Ferrand. In 1854, he entered into C.F. Gerhardt's private school of chemistry in Paris, which, when Gerhardt was appointed to Strasbourg in 1855, passed into the hands of Emil Kopp, and later to Pisani himself. Later, the laboratory was removed to Rue de Furstenberg, where in addition to teaching private classes in chemistry and various consulting work, Pisani carried on an active business dealing in minerals and geological specimens. As early as 1869, he sold specimens to the British Museum. His laboratory was a natural meeting place for Parisian mineralogists before the founding of the French Mineralogical Society in 1878. His principal work was in the chemical analysis of minerals. The species "Pisanite" was named after him in 1860.

Biographical references: Bulletin de la Société Chimique: 27 (1920), 892. • Cleevely, World Palæontological Collections, 1983: 233. • Mineralogical Magazine: ?? (19??), 254-5, portrait. • Poggendorff: 3, 1043-4. • Sarjeant, Geologists, 1980: 3, 1896.

1. French, 1875 [First edition].
Traité Élémentaire de Minéralogie... Précédé d'une Préface par M. Des Cloizeaux... Paris, G. Masson, 1875.

8°: [7], 407, [1] p., 184 woodcut illus.

Very scarce. An elementary textbook in mineralogy the standard topics are covered and include descriptions of the physical properties, chemical properties and mineral descriptions. The famous French mineralogist Des Cloizeaux has added a preface, and apparently the work had some popularity being issued in three ever larger editions to 1890.

Bibliographical references: NUC.

2. French, 1883 [2nd edition].
Traité Élémentaire | De | Minéralogie | Par | M.F. Pisani | [short rule] | Précédé D'Une Préface | Par M. Des Cloizeaux | De L'Institut | [short rule] | Deuxième Édition Revue Et Augmentée | Avec 192 figures dans le texte | Paris | G. Masson, Éditeur | Libraire De L'Académie De Médecine | 120, Boulevard Saint-Germain, en face de l'École de Médecine | [short rule] | M DCCC LXXXIII.

8°: 192 woodcut illus. Very scarce.

Bibliographical references: NUC.

3. French, 1890 [3rd edition].
Traité Élémentaire | De | Minéralogie | Par | M.F. Pisani | [short rule] | Précédé D'Une Préface | Par M. Des Cloizeaux | De L'Institut | [short rule] | Troisiéme Édition, Revue Et Augmentée | Avec 212 figures dans le texte | Paris | G. Masson, Éditeur | Libraire De L'Académie De Médecine | 120, Boulevard Saint-Germain, en face de l'École de Médecine | [short rule] | 1890.

8°: viii, 446 p., 212 illus. Very scarce.

Bibliographical references: NUC.

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