Abstract

MEDAN, Diego. The scientific letters of Lorenzo R. Parodi. Darwiniana, nueva serie [online]. 2016, vol.4, n.1, pp.31-44. ISSN 0011-6793.

The scientific correspondence of the Argentine botanist Lorenzo Raimundo Parodi (1895-1966) includes 5280 letters interchanged between 1916 and 1966 with 1257 correspondents from 50 countries. Parodi’s correspondence is comparatively rich in copies of his own letters, and therefore it offers both an insight into his personal views and a record of the ways in which he communicated with an extensive network of relationships. The article first describes the structure and formation dynamics of the documentary corpus, then analyzes in detail the thirty epistolary exchanges in which Parodi´s participation (as measured by the number of his own letters) was maximal. Also, a full index of the correspondence is added as an electronic supplement. In spite of Parodi’s various academic interests and of the considerable diversity of his partners, the correspondence unequivocally reflects that research on grasses was the axis that organized Parodi’s scientific life. The central position he occupied in Argentina’s botany during the first two thirds of the past century, along with his international reputation as agrostologist, makes his correspondence a repository of manuscripts by virtually every significant member of these two corporations that were active during Parodi´s life. This article makes a contribution to the scarce bibliography on epistolary exchanges of Argentine scientists, and is apparently the first edited correspondence of an Argentine botanist.

Keywords : Argentina; History of science; Lorenzo R. Parodi; Scientific correspondence.