Hi Patty, there were effectively at least three Costa in European
malacology: O.G. Costa, A. Costa (son of the anterior) and E.M. da Costa.
(apart from I. da Costa and A. da Costa)

I copy the following text from Hans G. Hansson site
(http://www.tmbl.gu.se/libdb/taxon/personetymol/index.htm), where you can
find a lot of malacologists resumed biographies as well as many portraits:

Oronzio Gabriele Costa, 1787-1867, Italian malacologist and professor of
Zoology at the University of Napoli (Naples) [Costasiella], father of the
malacologist Achille Costa, 1823-98 {another picture}. They also worked on
e.g. crustacaens [Costa Neviani, 1928, Plagiobrissus costai (Gasco, 1876),
Eudistoma costai (Della Valle, 1877), Skogsbergia costai Kornicker, 1974,
Stiliger costai Pruvot-Fol, 1951, Stiliger costai Pruvot-Fol, 1951].

The word conchology is first appearing in the 1770-71 anonymously published
"Conchology, or the natural history of shells", which in reality was written
by the British naturalist of Portugese (and Jewish?) extraxtion Emanuel
Mendes Da Costa, 1717-91, during a prison sentence 1768-72, which he served
because of embezzlement. He had been a merchant, hobby conchologist and
"fossilist" with extensive collections. In 1763 he was employed as clerk by
the Royal Society and it was nearly £1.500 of this society's funds he had
purloined for own purposes. Was possibly the English shell collector Solomon
Israel Da Costa, 1827-1907, a relative or descendent of E. M. Da Costa?
Another Portuguese is Antonio Da Costa, (12 Oct.) 1806-79 (4 June), Barão de
Castelo de Paiva. He was born in Porto, interested in nature, especially
botany, entomology and malacology. He died in Madeira.

Hope it helps, best regards,

Alfonso Pina
Málaga, Spain
[log in to unmask]
www.eumed.net/malakos



----- Original Message -----
From: "Patty Jansen" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, August 25, 2002 6:14 AM
Subject: Costa's in European malacology


> Dear all,
>
> Can somebody please enlighten me about the Costa's in European malacology.
> Sometimes, the author is given as O.G. Costa , sometimes as da Costa. I
> don't think these are the same person, but am I right? And if so who were
they?
>
> regards
>
> Patty