Johann Heinrich von Heucher

Johann Heinrich von Heucher (Johann Heinrich Heucher before his ennoblement; 1 January 1677 – 23 February 1747) was a German physician and botanist.

Biography
Born in Vienna, his family moved to Wittenberg when he was twelve. He studied philosophy first, then medicine at the Universities of Wittenberg, Leipzig and Jena. Doctor of Medicine in 1700, he began to practice the medical profession; for a time he also taught philosophy at the University of Wittenberg. From 1709 he was professor of medicine in the same university (the chair gave close connection between medicine and medicinal herbs, also included the teaching of botany).

He participated in the founding of the Wittenberg Botanical Garden, the first catalog of which was published in 1711. He created collections of medical preparations.

He took care of the renovation of the anatomical theatre of the Saxon city.

In 1713 he became a personal physician to Augustus II the Strong, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, and moved to Dresden; the commitment of his life became the transformation of the naturalistic collections of the king's ancient Kunstkammer into a series of specialized collections, first transferred to the Regimentshaus and then to the palatial complex of the Zwinger (1728).

Until his death, which took place in Dresden in 1747, he was appointed General and Special Director of the Scientific Galleries; in this capacity, he also took care of the arrangement of the print cabinet, which was separated from the collections of paintings and also exhibited at the Zwinger.

In 1729 he was admitted to the Royal Society and was ennobled by the Emperor.

A year before his death, in 1746, he sold his private library of about 4,000 volumes - many valuable scientific texts - to the royal library. He wrote works of some importance in the fields of anatomy, botany and mineralogy.

Honours
Carl Linnaeus named the genus Heuchera of the family Saxifragaceae in his honor.