He studied botany at the
University of Vienna, obtaining his doctorate in 1907. From 1905 he served as an assistant at the botanical institute in Vienna. In 1925 he was appointed
curator to the Natural History Museum. In 1907 he published a world monograph of the
genus Taraxacum (dandelions). Even if
taxonomy of this genus has changed significantly. Handel-Mazzetti's book remains useful, especially because it is the only work of such scope until now. His earlier research involved scientific excursions to
Switzerland (1906),
Bosnia and Herzegovina (1909), followed by an expedition to
Mesopotamia and
Kurdistan (1910). On behalf of the
Austrian Academy of Sciences, he traveled to China in 1914, performing botanical research in the provinces of
Yunnan (1914, 1915, 1916),
Sichuan (1914),
Guizhou (1917), and
Hunan (1917, 1918). In China he also undertook
cartographic surveys. He returned to Vienna in 1919, and devoted his time and energy to the study of Chinese flora. Starting at that time he distributed more than 12,000 numbered
herbarium specimens under the title
Iter Sinense 1914–1918 sumptibus Academiae scientarum Vindobonensis susceptum which sometimes are treated as belonging to an
exsiccata-like series. He was the author of
Naturbilder aus Südwest-China : Erlebnisse und Eindrücke eines österreichischen Forschers während des Weltkrieges (1927), later translated into English as "A botanical pioneer in South West China : experiences and impressions of an Austrian botanist during the
First World War". There are streets named after Handel-Mazzetti in the Austrian towns of
Kremsmünster,
St. Pölten,
Schwanenstadt,
Steyr,
Wels and
Wieselburg as well as the cities of
Linz and
Vienna. ==References==