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Salvatore Portal was
born in Biancavilla on 16 October 1789 (1C).
His father was Don Antonino Portale,
a chemist too, and his mother was Donna Maria Sangiorgio. He studied
at the University of Catania where he took the medicine degree (4,
8). He was appointed Bishop Vicar of Biancavilla on 28 February 1852
(1B) (he was already vice-vicar from 17 August 1938) (1A).
He was very keen on natural sciences , particularly on botany. His
particular interest for this science led him to create a "Botanic
Garden" in his house, by cultivating more than 2080 local and
exotic plants. Getting some of them was often very expensive, considering
the high cost of transport of that time. This Garden is older than
the one of Catania ( its first stone
was placed on 31 July 1858 (6, 14), on the occasion of Queen Maria
Teresa's birthday, Ferdinando II's wife). In fact it already existed
from 1826 since, just in this year, Portal published, at the printing
house F. Longo, the Catalogue of the plants he cultivated in
the Garden. But it certainly existed the previous year, since in one
of his scientific report he wrote: "On 27 April 1825, carrying
in my Botanic Garden some plants, the seventy-year-old Giuseppe Biondi
Cammisa came, a country man … "(13).
The Botanic Garden mentioned by Francesco Tornabene in Quadro Storico
della Botanica in Sicilia (15), was among the first in Catania
and it was a place to go for all the people visiting Etna's neighbourhood.
That is apparent from Portal's biography published by the newspaper
La Favilla (8). It says: "Every educated foreign who went
to Catania to study its endless natural resources, visited the beautiful
garden created by the Abbot Salvatore Portal...". Portal himself
wrote: "Then I reflected on what advantages medicine could take
from it, especially from the almond husk and I kept on racking my
brains until I was honoured by the visit of a very important botany
professor from Parma, Giorgio Jan, and of his journey friend, the
Prince Dionigi Torre from Milan. They were travelling all over Sicily
rummaging about our flora. After three days…" (13). In 1828
the journal Giornale di Scienze Lettere ed Arti per la Sicilia,
after mentioning the famous botanists Gerardo Nocito from Sciacca,
Antonino La Motta from Palermo Castelli, Cupani and Matteo Di Pasquale
from Catania , wrote the following about our scholar : "Following
their example, the diligent naturalist Mr Salvatore Portal formed
with admirable commitment, a garden in Biancavilla, a town proceeding
from a Greek colony. In 1826 he described his plants publishing a
catalogue which title is Catalogus Plantarum Horti Botanici Salvatoris
Portal Albaevillae in Sicilia. Encouraged by deserved praises,
he has started enlarging the Garden to cultivate Etna's flora. Being
Biancavilla one of the most suitable place for this purpose, and thanks
to Portal's capacities and commitment we can hope he will fully succeed
in his enterprise in a short time, honouring not only his town but
the whole of Sicily too" (7).
The scientific journal Giornale della Botanica Insulare Italiana,
after mentioning the important scholars Salvatore Scuderi, Carmelo
Maravigna and the brothers Giuseppe and Ferdinando Casentini, said
: "It is to be mentioned that rich and educated citizens worked
with fervour to make up for the lack of a public garden, (talking
about the beautiful and educated Catania), by creating private gardens
to cultivate rare plants. Among these, Cassinese Pad. D. Emiliano
Guttadauro, who have cultivated a collection of selected plants in
his religious house for several years, and Salvatore Portal who introduced
a very interested range of rare plants in his garden in Biancavilla,
at the foothills of Etna" (7).
You can find references to the Botanic Garden of Biancavilla in books
of other authors (4, 8, 10, 11).
The Botanic Garden was very important for Biancavilla's street-plan.
Not only the street and the courtyard where it is placed took its
name, but also a large area of the town called in Sicilian dialect
"Supra l'Ortu", that is "over the Garden".
Portal's complete works does not concern just the Botanic Garden,
but he created also the Hortus Siccus Plantarum Sicularum,
a garden made up of Sicilian dried plants. Very probably, this collection
of dried herbs is an enlargement of the "Etna's Flora",
that he wanted to gather since 1826.
You can learn it from the preface of Catalogus Horti Botanici
(12), and also from a editorial note in the journal Giornale di
Scienze, Lettere ed Arti per la Sicilia, in 1936 (7). The herbarium
collects the Sicilian plants (there are not Etna's plants) and is
made up of 24 volumes, each of them gathers about 180 plants. This
work was not completed, probably for the sudden death of the author:
in fact not all the dried plants are in the nomenclature and on the
inside cover of every volume there is not a definitive date but just
: "Albavilla 18.." , that is "Biancavilla 18..".
He was a member of several scientific Academies, among these Accademia
Gioiena di Catania (12). He wrote a monograph for it , Sopra un Feto
Umano senza testa e senza collo (About a human foetus without
neck and head), that afterwards he published. He was also a founder
member of the French Academy "Societé Cuvierenne"
and an honorary member of the Linnean Academy
of Paris (8), and Deleschamp (the secretary of this Academy) defined
him as "the restorer of botany in Sicily" . In the same
period, for the admiration of his Flora, the king of Turin conferred
him the title of San Lazzaro Knight (4,
8).
Besides Catalogus Portal published : Sull'Alloro Comune, Cenni
sulla virtù medica delle mandorle, della Celidonia Maggiore
e del Crescione Acquatico, La Noce Comune, Giudizio sulla nuova teoria
delle febbri intermittenti, Memoria sullo stato dell'Agricoltura e
Pastorizia del territorio di Biancavilla, Progetto sul miglioramento
della cultura del riso irriguo. The last piece of work, about
rice cultivation, was so much appreciated that many companies of the
Reign requested it to apply its theories in their agriculture activity.
He
was very fond of art and wrote Relazione storica intorno alcuni
artisti da Catania (8) and set up an Archaeological Museum(3,4,5,8,10)
in his house, consisting of old coins, and a Picture-gallery (3,4,5,8,10).
Many of his books are listed by Narbone in Bibliografia Sicula
Sistematica (9).
Finally he particularly studied some plants getting several rewards
and gold medals. In 1821 thank to a study
on Sarracena an on Royena ambigua, presented by professors
Nocca and Spedalieri from Pavia's Academy,
he was awarded with a gold medal especially coined with his effigy
and with praising words for him.
The same occurred in 1824 when he sent to Vienna's
Academy some observations about Saldanella, Guettarda
crispiflora and Veitheima sarmentosa (8).
He also got some acknowledgments from London Royal Academy for his
study of Cuscuta, Rubia and Parkinsonia (8).
He got another medal from Harlem Science
Society (Holland) , for his answer to a query that the Academy
had put about the "metamorphosis of fresh water crabs" (8).
Professor Savi from Pisa, highly praised him for discovering Tritfolium
aetheum that he had found on Etna promising to add his name to
it. Among the several works he sent to doctors and scholars it is
to be to mentioned: the one about Solanum sodoamaeum, the one
about Elephantus pythleph, the one about Elshotzia and
Nerteria and how it is different from Gamozia and Gomphia
jabotapita, the one about "spontaneous hydrophobia"
and about "illness similar to spontaneous burning" (he sent
it to professor Spetaliari from Pavia's Academy), the one about Stratiotes
numphoides, the one about "Truffles". He also talked
of mineralogy in "Cotognite", in "Light Alabaster"
and in "Basalts of Scilà in Biancavilla's™"
(70).
Salvatore Portal used to help poor people by supplying plants, giving
advice and assisting students. He died of cholera
at 12 a.m. on 3 October 1854 in his holiday
house (in Biancavilla's countryside, at 800m from the sea level).
This terrible disease decimated Biancavilla's neighbourhood population
and his family too. In fact his brother
Carmelo (1D), head priest of Biancavilla Collegiate church, and
his sister in law Donna Rosa Motta Privitera , his brother Don
Ferdinando' s wife, died of the same disease the same day.
His remains lay in the church of SS. Rosario
(1D), next to the Botanic Garden.
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