Nathanael Gottfried Leske

Nathanael Gottfried Leske (22 October 1751 in Muskau – 25 November 1786 in Marburg) was a German natural scientist and geologist from the Holy Roman Empire.

After his studies at Bergakademie of Freiberg in Saxony and the Franckeschen Stiftungen in Halle, Leske became a special professor of natural history at the University of Leipzig in 1775.

Throughout his life, Leske corresponded with his teacher and close friend of Abraham Gottlob Werner, famous geologist and mineralogist at Weimar.

He also edited the Leipziger Magazin zur Naturkunde, Mathematik und Oekonomie (1781-1789) [1] with Christlieb Benedict Funk and Carl Friedrich Hindenburg.

Leske possessed an extensive mineral and natural history collection called the Leskean Cabinet, which was arranged after his death by Dietrich Ludwig Gustav Karsten and later, in 1792, sold to the Dublin Society.