# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/nicolas-joseph-thiery-de-menonville
# Generated: 2026-08-15T10:44:51.105Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/nicolas-joseph-thiery-de-menonville"
name: "Nicolas-Joseph Thiéry de Menonville"
slug: "nicolas-joseph-thiery-de-menonville"
description: "Nicolas-Joseph Thiéry de Menonville, avocat at the Parlement of Paris, was a French botanist who volunteered to be sent to Mexico in 1776 to steal the cochineal insect valued for its scarlet dye. In his clandestine biopiracy, he worked without official papers and would have been ruthlessly treated had he been caught. He succeeded in naturalizing the insect and the prickly pear (Opuntia) \"nopal\" cactus on which it depended in the French colony of Saint-Domingue."
tagline: "French botanist (1739-1780)"
image: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Nicolas-Joseph_Thi%C3%A9ry_de_Menonville_Traite_de_la_culture_du_nopal_1787_title_page.jpg/330px-Nicolas-Joseph_Thi%C3%A9ry_de_Menonville_Traite_de_la_culture_du_nopal_1787_title_page.jpg"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "France"
  isoCode: "FR"
category:
  name: "Scientists"
  slug: "scientists"
profileType:
  name: "Scientist"
  slug: "scientist"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1739-06-18"
deathDate: "1780"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           35.76
  momentum:             0
  historical:           4.803168
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     30
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
sources:
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Joseph_Thi%C3%A9ry_de_M%C3%A9nonville"
    title: "Nicolas Joseph Thiéry de Ménonville"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas-Joseph_Thi%C3%A9ry_de_Menonville"
    title: "Nicolas-Joseph Thiéry de Menonville"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Joseph_Thi%C3%A9ry_de_M%C3%A9nonville"
    title: "Nicolas Joseph Thiéry de Ménonville"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Joseph_Thi%C3%A9ry_de_M%C3%A9nonville"
    title: "Nicolas Joseph Thiéry de Ménonville"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://species.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas-Joseph_Thi%C3%A9ry_de_Menonville"
    title: "Nicolas-Joseph Thiéry de Menonville"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q351465"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump