CAMERARIUS

camerarius, rudolf jakob (1665-1721), german botanist and physician, was born at tubingen on the 12th of february 1665, and became professor of medicine and director of the botanical gardens at tubingen in 1687. he died at tubingen on the 11th of september 1721. he is chiefly known for his investigations on the reproductive organs of plants (_de sexu plantarum epistola_, 1694). camerino (anc. _camerinum_), a city and episcopal see (since 465, if not sooner; treia is now combined with it) of the marches, italy, in the province of macerata, 6 m. s. of the railway station of castelraimondo (to which there is an electric tramway) which is 24 m. w. of macerata; 2148 ft. above sea-level. pop. (1901) of town, 4005; of commune, 12,083. the cathedral is modern, the older building having fallen in 1799; the church of s. venanzio suffered similarly, but preserves a portal of the 15th century. the citadel, perhaps constructed from the plans of leonardo da vinci, dates from 1503. camerino occupies the site of the ancient camerinum, the inhabitants of which (_camertes umbri_) became allies of the romans in 310 b.c. (at the time of the attack on the etruscans in the ciminian forest). on the other hand, the [greek: kamertioi] referred to in the history of the year 295 b.c. are probably the inhabitants of clusium. later it appears as a dependent autonomous community with the _foedus aequum_ (mommsen, _rom. staatsrecht_, iii. 664). two cohorts of camertes fought with distinction under marius against the cimbri. it was much affected by the conspiracy of catiline, and is frequently mentioned in the civil wars; under the empire it was a _municipium_. it belonged to ancient umbria, but was on the borders of picenum. no ancient buildings are visible, the roman level lying as much as 30 ft. below the modern. see p. savini, _storia delta citta di camerino_ (2nd ed., camerino, 1895); m. mariani, _intorno agli antichi camerti umbri_ (camerino, 1900). (t. as.)