Some 600 rare books of Spanish naturalist and speleologist Joaquim Mateu donated to Tunisia

Some 400 books on animal biology will be donated to the National Library of Entomology and other 200 books on prehistory will be given to the Tunisian Association of History and Archaeology, based in Dar al-Achouria in Tunis.

It  is the collection of the Spanish naturalist, entomologist and speleologist Joaquim Mateu (1921-2015) presented by his son Giuliano Mateu during an official ceremony held Thursday at the headquarters of the National Heritage Institute (INP).

Through this initiative “I honoured the will of my father who had been all his life fascinated by the desert and impressed by the south of Tunisia,” his son told media.

In April 1968, Joaquim Mateu escaped into the desert in southern Tunisia. The entomological observations and the material collected over the years allowed him to complete a doctoral thesis entitled “La biocénose des insectes xylophages des Acacia dans les régions sahariennes” that he defended on January 28, 1969 and which allowed him to obtain the PhD degree in natural sciences from the University of Paris with honours and congratulations from the judgment committee.

MNHN

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