Count Joseph Emanuel Canal de Malabaila (1745–1826) was a remarkable figure in Prague and at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries did a great deal to further the development of scientific research. The place where Canal’s ideas were brought to fruition was one of the oldest botanical gardens in Bohemia, the Canal Garden in Vinohrady, Prague.

The philanthropist Joseph Emanuel Canal de Malabaila moved to Prague in around 1770 and made it one of his priorities to promote the natural sciences. Count Canal took a keen interest in botany, and this pursuit reached its peak with the establishment of the famous Canal Garden in Vinohrady, Prague, in 1787. This vast area, extending from the former Koňská brána (The Horse Gate) by Wenceslas Square as far as what is now náměstí Jiřího z Poděbrad, contained a wide variety of fine examples of domestic and foreign flora, as well as fauna and architecture. Small buildings symbolically reflected Canal’s affinity for Freemasonry; in 1790 he instigated the establishment of the Prague lodge Wahrheit und Einigkeit zu drei gekrönten Säulen (Truth and Unity at the Three Crowned Pillars) and became its venerable master. Count Canal also made the Canal Garden a meeting place for Prague’s leading natural scientists and the venue for scientific talks, as well as for valuable scientific research into economic botany, i.e. the study of crops. Count Canal worked in the Canal Garden together with a number of other botanists, most closely with Ignaz Friedrich Tausch. He helped fund the publication of botanical works. In 1789 Joseph Emanuel Canal became a member and in 1793 the chairman of the Patriotic Economic Society. Besides his scientific research, he also did a great deal to promote the grand farm shows held in the Canal Garden, a tradition that continued after Canal’s death in 1826.

Keywords: botany; Canal Garden; economic botany; lecturing; botanical research