Fr. Juan Ignacio Molina (Spanish pronunciation: [xwan iɣˈnasjo moˈlina]; (June 24, 1740 – September 12, 1829) was a Chilean-Spanish Jesuit priest, naturalist, historian, translator, geographer, botanist, ornithologist, and linguist. He is usually referred to as Abate Molina (Abbot Molina), and is also sometimes known by the Italian form of his name, Giovanni Ignazio Molina. Together with his contemporaries Erasmus Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, he was one of the proponents of the idea of the gradual evolution of species. The standard author abbreviation Molina is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
Biography
Early years Molina was born at Guaraculén, a big farm located near Villa Alegre, (General Captaincy of Chile), where he lived until he was 5 years old. In the current province of Linares, in the Maule Region of Chile. His parents were Agustín Molina and Francisca González Bruna. From an early age he was attracted to the nature of his environment, and in addition to his school work, he enjoyed observing nature on the family farm, which he visited periodically, alternating with his studies. This is how Molina described his interest in nature: "My character led me from my most tender years to observe nature and particularly animals, so while I lived in my country, Chile, I did all possible research. A set of known circumstances from around the world forced me to interrupt my observations (Suppression of the Society of Jesus)." The family moved to Talca when Juan Ignacio was only five years old. At the same time, the Jesuits settled in the block called "las Arboledas", in the newly created Villa de Talca, where they built their residence house. In the north corner they built in their early years a humble house with a "thatch and straw roof", the place was used to install a "School of first Letters", an obligation imposed on them by the decree of installation of June 10, 1748. The reputation for intellectual excellence in the Order led the leading families of the city to enroll their children there. In that humble place, Molina took his first steps into the knowledge of human letters. With his shrewd intelligence he became known as a talented child, learning fast with a good memory. Thus, at a young age, with the consent of his superiors, he began his work as a teacher in the school of first letters. As a result of his academic excellence – especially in Literature and Latin – he was accepted as a Jesuit at the age of fifteen. He had a novitiate in various locations of the Order, in Talca, Concepción and Santiago. He lived on the estate of Bucalemu in the area known today as El Convento in the El Yali wet land. In those calm and quiet conditions he revived the intellectual work that would later make him well known, Molina delved into the study of the classics and the natural sciences. His progress was very fast and within five years (he was 20 years old at the time) he already had a solid knowledge of Latin, Greek, French and Italian. That merit led him to be transferred in 1760 to the Jesuit residence in Santiago, where he worked as a librarian. In 1761, in a room at the Universidad Pontificia Colegio Máximo de San Miguel, Molina renounced his assets, setting aside 100 pesos from these that were reserved for the purchase of books.
Exile In 1768 he was forced to leave Chile due to the Suppression of the Society of Jesus. He settled in Italy where, thanks to his linguistic skills, he obtained the chair of Greek language at the University of Bologna. He soon achieved a good reputation as a historian and geographer, due to his Saggio Sulla Storia Naturale del chili (1778) and Saggio Sulla Storia Civile del Chili (1787). Finally he became a professor of Natural Sciences (1803), given his studies in that area. For example, he published (1782) the Saggio Sulla Storia Naturale del Cile, in which he described the natural history of Chile for the first time and introduced numerous species native to that country to science. Furthermore, in that work he is also the first to mention the Paramillos de Uspallata mines, of lead, silver and zinc. All of these works were translated, attracting considerable attention, into German, Spanish, French and English. In botany, it is regulatory and permissible to simply write "Molina" when a reference is made to any of his descriptions. He also reached the rank of member of the Royal Italian Institute of Sciences, Letters and Arts and the high dignity of the first American academic of the learned Academy of the Institute of Sciences. He became so renowned, that even Alexander von Humboldt visited him.
Published work In his preparatory work he was meticulous and hardworking, visiting libraries and taking notes on everything that might interest him. The preserved strips of paper written in his own hand, show his industriousness. He was appreciated by his students, who considered him mild in his dealings and for his kind character. Molina taught them Latin, rhetoric, geography, and history. In response, his students gave him snuff and coffee, two of the passions of the elderly priest, who lived in a modest house on the outskirts of Bologna. There was a considerable interest in "Less Observed Analogies of the Three Kingdoms of Nature" (1815) and On the "Propagation of Mankind in the Various Parts of the Earth" (1818). In the first he proposed a theory of gradual evolution. According to his proposition, the Creator organized nature not into three totally different kingdoms (animal, mineral, vegetable), but as a continuous chain of organization, without sudden steps or breaks, into «three species of life, that is, the formative, vegetative and sensitive life; so that the first, destined to minerals, participates to some degree in the second, typical of plants, and this, in the third, assigned to animals. Thus, for example, crystalline minerals precede the simplest plant forms. And complex plant organizations give way to animals. In the second mentioned work, Molina proposed the thesis that the observable physical differences in the human race are due to climatic and geographical factors.
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