Camillo Róndani

Camillo Róndani (21 November 1808 – 17 September 1879) was an Italian entomologist noted for his studies of Diptera.

When Camillo Róndani was born in Parma the city was part of the French Empire Napoleon having crowned himself King of Italy. The Róndani family were wealthy landowners and of "rich and of ancient origins" with ecclesiastical connections preliminary and Camillo's early education was in a seminary. He then passed into the public school system where, encouraged by Macedonio Melloni his physics and chemistry teacher in the preparatory course for the University of Parma, he did not attend the law lessons his family had insisted on. He attended mineralogy classes given by a Franciscan priest, Father Bagatta and was taught natural history, a complementary course to botany for Medicine and Pharmacy. The Reader of Botany to the Athenaeum Parmesan was Professori Giorgio Jan, assistant at the Imperial Museum in Vienna and holder of the chair of zoology in Parma University. From Jan Róndani received many gifts to his collection: Coleoptera and a herbarium. Through Jan Róndani gained access to the house of the Conte Stefano Sanvitale, where an entomological club had access to the insect collection of Pietro Rossi.

Róndani qualified as a lawyer in 1831. A plan to study zoology at the University of Paris, a condition of his proposed appointment as Professor of Natural Science in Parma came to nothing as Italy was thrown into political turmoil, the University urging its students to die for the unity of Italy, a resurgent demand of Giuseppe Garibaldi. Following the Ducal restoration after three years of provisional government not only was the chair of Zoology a distant dream, but the legal faculty had been removed to Piacenza in order to diminish the number of politically active students. Camillo and his brother Emilio, who had been imprisoned by the temporary government, turned to colonial commerce. Róndani studied the insects of the exotic products describing two of the beetles he found Cis jalapa from chillies and Brucus dolici from Santa Domingo coffee.

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