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CHAPTER 38
Science and Environmental Protection
in Agricultural Development:
Dr. Raffaele Ciferri’s Contributions in
the Dominican Republic
1
By Raymundo González
Historical consultant of the Archivo General de la Nación and professor at the Salomé Ureña Higher Education Institute
•
his chapter presents an overview of the significant contributions to agricultural science and botany
made by Italian scientist Raffaele A. Ciferri while he was living and working in the Dominican Re-
public (1925–1932), as well as the impact of those contributions on the future of the natural sciences
in that nation.
Raffaele Ciferri was born in the Marche region of central Italy on May 30, 1897, in the city and province
of Fermo on the Adriatic coast; he died on February 12, 1964, in Pavia, capital of the eponymous prov-
ince. He earned a degree in agriculture followed by a doctorate in biological sciences at the University of
Bologna. He served as professor of agriculture and botany at a number of scientific institutions, including
a national forestry institute in Florence; a vineyard-keeping and winemaking (enology) school in Alba;
and the Botanical Institute and Cryptogamic Laboratory at the University of Pavia. From his early days as
a scientific agronomist and a mycological and phytopathologic biologist, Ciferri collaborated with other
European scholars to create an ample general bibliography on fungi. As a specialist in phytopathology, he
had already authored some forty original publications prior to his arrival in the Dominican Republic. One
of his mentors was Professor Romualdo González Fragoso (1862–1928) from Spain, known as the father of
Spanish mycology; Ciferri collaborated with him from Santo Domingo on a number of studies.
Ciferri began his broader studies of tropical field crops in Latin America—particularly in the Dominican
Republic in the Greater Antilles. He focused on the many problems and diseases of the plants under culti-
vation. This study immersed him in mycology, one of his specialties, and led to the discovery of numerous
species of fungi previously unknown to the biological sciences. He did not limit himself to mycology, how-
ever; his vision and curiosity embraced widely diverse fields within the natural sciences, and he developed
a very practical sense of how knowledge could be used in benefit of nature and of the human race.
Ciferri returned to Italy in 1932 as deputy director of the Italian Cryptogamic Laboratory in Rome;
he later became the national laboratory’s director. He continued his work in various research centers,
including the University of Florence, where he was also a professor, and the Center for African Colonial
Studies in Rome. For the latter, he carried out significant research that took him to Somalia. Today, Ciferri
is considered one of the cofounders of mycopathology and of applied mycology. In recognition, species he
discovered may bear the epithet
ciferii
. The author abbreviation “
Cif.
” appears after the botanical name
when a species is cited.