Bernardo Zapater

Bernardo Zapater y Marconell (19 August 1823 – 26 December 1907) was a Spanish Catholic priest, naturalist, and educator who was among the founder of the Sociedad Española de Historia Natural and Sociedad Aragonesa de Ciencias Naturales. Born in Albarracín in Aragón, he studied at seminaries in Teruel and Cuenca and at the Universidad Central and Academia de San Fernando in Madrid, attaining the degrees of Bachelor of Philosophy in 1852, Bachelor of Canon Law in 1853, and a Physical and Mathematical Sciences degree in 1860. He was ordained as a priest in 1858, serving as a seminary professor and as the chaplain for the Convent of Las Descalzas Reales and in Madrid.

While in Madrid, Zapater established the Colegio de San Vicente de Paúl, now a secondary school. He grew socially connected to the city's naturalists, particularly entomologists and botanists. He became involved in both those fields of study, as well as other academic fields. In 1874, he returned to Albarracín, continuing his scientific activity. His work collecting biological specimens remains a significant influence on the studies of botany and lepidopterology in the Teruel region.

Besides publishing several works on his own, Zapater collaborated with several other scientists to publish works across multiple disciplines. His associates included the German botanist Heinrich Moritz Willkomm and the sisters Blanca and Clotilde Catalán de Ocón. Zapater assisted in founding the Sociedad Española de Historia Natural, the oldest extant private scientific body in Spain, and the Sociedad Aragonesa de Ciencias Naturales. He died in Albarracín in 1907.

He continued at the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid and finished his ecclesiastical studies at the seminary in Cuenca. From the former, he studied the physical and mathematical sciences and completed a Bachelor of Philosophy there in 1852. At the latter, he received a Bachelor of Canon Law in June 1853. As the school's director, Zapater educated Madrid's aristocracy and garnered prestige for its role in preparing students for admittance to the Escuelas Especiales. His time in Madrid also allowed Zapater to interact with the city's naturalists at social settings and during their excursions. Among those he interacted with during this time were the entomologists , Ignacio Bolívar, and , as well as the malacologist and the botanists Miguel Colmeiro Penido and Benjamín Máximo Laguna y Villanueva. Zapater presented the Sociedad Aragonesa de Ciencias Naturales at its first session in February 1902 and was honored by the society as a founding member. He was elected president of the society in 1903.

Legacy Zapater's ringlet (Erebia zapateri) is a species of butterfly named for Zapater. In 1872, Pérez Arcas named a beetle species, Asida zapaterii, for Zapater. Pérez Arcas credited Zapater with collecting the specimen used to describe the species from Albarracin. In 1895, the Spanish botanist Carlos Pau y Español utilized a specimen collected by Zapater to describe a new species of columbine. Pau named Aquilegia zapateri for Zapater, and Zapater would make one of the few additional references to the largely obscure species. Zapater was not widely recognized during his lifetime. However, Pau considered Zapater to be among Spain's most important herbarium collectors.