Jean-Baptiste Van Mons [SEP] place of birth
Jean-Baptiste Van Mons
Jean-Baptiste Van Mons (11 November 1765 Brussels — 6 September 1842 Leuven) was a Belgian physicist, chemist, botanist, horticulturist and pomologist, and professor of chemistry and agronomy at Louvain (1817-1830). Van Mons carried out the first recorded selective breeding of the European Pear through cycles of seed propagation.
He was the most prolific pear breeder known, producing no fewer than 40 superior varieties over a 60-year period, including Bosc and D'Anjou pears. Van Mons readily shared
1819. His first commission was to illustrate the Annales générales des Sciences physiques, printed by Weissenbruch under the scientific editorship of Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent, Auguste Drapiez and Jean-Baptiste Van Mons. In 1820 Jobard founded a sizable lithographic establishment, employing Jean Baptiste Madou.
The Société d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale in Paris launched an international competition for lithographers in 1828, aimed at rewarding those who had made the greatest progress in their art. Jobard was awarded the gold medal (“Le Courrier des Pays-Bas