Prospero Alpini

Background

Prospero was born on November 23, 1553 at Marostica, a town near Vicenza. He was the oldest of the four children of Francesco Alpini, a physician, and Bartolomea Tarsia.

Education

Alpini studied medicine at the University of Padua, from which he received his degree on 28 August 1578. His master was Melchiore Guilandino (originally Melchior Wieland of Königsberg), the second director of the botanical garden at Padua, who acted as respondent in Alpini’s dialogue De plantis Aegypti.

Career

After receiving his medical degree from the University of Padua in 1578, for a short time Alpini practiced medicine in Camposampiero, near Padua. In 1580 he became physician to Giorgio Emo, the Venetian consul to Cairo, and in September of that year he accompanied Emo to Egypt. En route, he botanized on the island of Crete. After three years in Egypt, he returned to Venice. In 1594 the Venetian Senate elected him lettore dei semplici (“reader in simples”) at the University of Padua. He succeeded to the directorship of the botanical garden at Padua in 1603, assuming both the title and the duties of prefetto ed ostensore dei semplici (“prefect and demonstrator of simples”). Alpini is said to have died of a kidney infection contracted during his stay in Egypt. He is buried in the Church of St. Anthony, Padua.

Fifty-seven plants and trees are described in the De plantis Aegypti, and forty-nine are illustrated. Alpini’s medical training led him to approach the new flora in the traditional manner of attempting to correlate these plants with the names and descriptions found in classical sources. When this proved impossible, he described the plant under its local name. The descriptions are based upon specimens that Alpini personally examined, either cultivated in gardens or growing wild. This in itself provided a much-needed corrective to the fables and vague reports associated with Eastern plants.

Among the plants previously undescribed in a European botanical text were the coffee bush (Coffea arabica L.), banana (Musa sp.), and baobab (Adansonia digitata L.). Perhaps because of the dialogue form of the book, there is no discernible system. There is, however, a wide range of miscellaneous information based upon observation. Alpini observed that the fertilization of the date palm was a sexual process, described the phototropic movements of the leaves of the tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.), speculated that the tree cotton (Gossypium arboreum L.) was the byssos of the ancients, and noted the edibility of plants unknown in Europe, such as bammia or okra (Hibiscus esculentus L.). Evidently puzzled by the treelike banana plant, he accepted the story that it was the result of a sugar cane grafted onto the root of colocasia (Colocasia esculenta Schott.) and supplied a good description of the latter.

Another product of Alpini’s study of Egyptian plants is the De balsamo dialogus (1591). In the form of a dialogue involving the author, an Egyptian physician, and a Jew, the source of balsam (Commiphora spp.) is discussed and questions are raised concerning its identity, ancient names, and medical uses, and the possibility that the true balsam has become extinct. Closely related in form and method is the De rhapontico (1612). The source and therapeutic properties of rhubarb (Rheum sp.) are discussed with a show of classical scholarship controlled by a personal examination of specimens grown in the botanical garden under Alpini’s supervision.

Alpini’s interest in medicine was expressed in several books, of which the most important were De medicina Aegyptiorum (1591) and Depraesagienda vita (1601). The former, like his study of Egyptian plants, was based upon personal experience. Primarily an examination of contemporary Egyptian (i.e., Turkish) medicine, it ranks as one of the earliest studies of non-European medicine. Although he took a dim view of local customs, Alpini was sufficiently impressed by novel therapeutic practices to introduce the technique of moxa into European medicine. The De praesagienda vita is a detailed study of prognostics in which attention is devoted to the patient’s mental state and its bearing on health, as well as to the usual physical and diagnostic signs.

Mention should be made of the Rerum Aegyptiarum (Volume I of Historiae Aegypti naturalis), a pioneer and undeservedly neglected contribution to Egyptology. Edited after Alpini’s death by Bartolomeo Cellari, it contains a wealth of information on the natural history (including zoology and mineralogy), customs, and ancient monuments of Egypt.

On his return, he resided for some time at Genoa as physician to Andrea Doria, and in 1593 he was appointed professor of botany at Padua, where he died on 6 February 1617.

Achievements

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  Prospero Alpini was a physician and botanist who is credited with the introduction to Europe of coffee and bananas. Alpini’s major contributions are the outgrowth of his travels. From a scientific point of view, the De plantis Aegypti (1592) is his most important work. The pioneer study of Egyptian flora, it introduced exotic plants to the still-parochial European botanical circles. This work introduced a number of plant species previously unknown to European botanists. The new species included Abrus, Abelmoschus, Lablab, and Melochia, each of which are native to tropical areas and were cultivated with artificial irrigation in Egypt at the time. Another was the baobab tree (which he spelled bahobab). Moreover, some of Alpini’s original descriptions were included in the writings of Carl Linnaeus, who regarded him with sufficient esteem to name the genus Alpinia (Zingiberaceae) in his honor.
  
  The material for the De planiis exoticis, which was published posthumously, also derived from Alpini’s travels. Information on plants from other areas was later incorporated into the manuscript, which was edited by his son Alpino and completed in 1614. Data concerning some of these plants were obtained by examining specimens grown from seeds sent to Alpini. A total of 145 plants, each illustrated by a woodcut, formed a notable contribution to Mediterranean floristics. This is especially true of the flora of Crete, many of whose plants were described for the first time. The accuracy of Alpini’s descriptions was demonstrated by A. Baldacci and P. A. Saccardo, who identified seventy-one of the eighty-five Cretan plants on which he reported.
  
  His account of current Egyptian medical practice, De medicina Aegyptorum (1591; “On Egyptian Medicine”), was a valuable addition to medical history. Alpini’s study of Egyptian diseases culminated in his widely acclaimed De praesagienda vita et morte aegrotontium (1601; The Presages of Life and Death in Diseases).
  
  

Works

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  • De Medicina Methodica Libri Tredecim: In Quibus Medendi Ars Methodica Vocata Olim Maxime Celebris ... Denuo Restituitur, Atquo In Medicorum Commodum ... Degmaticam Conformatur...

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  • De Plantis Exoticis Libri Duo /prosperi Alpini ... ; Opus Completum, Editum Studio, Ac Opera Alpini Alpini

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  • Prosperi Alpini ... De Praesagienda Vita Et Morte Aegrotantium Libri Septem

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  • De Medicina Aegyptiorum

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  • De Medicina Aegyptiorum

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  • Prosperi Alpini ... De Plantis Aegypti Liber Auctus & Emendatus. Accedunt Tabellae Aeneae 77. Plantis Summo Artificio Incisis

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  • Historia Aegypti Naturalis Pars Prima

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Views

In Egypt Alpini spent three years, and from a practice in the management of Date Palms, which he observed in that country, he seems to have deduced the doctrine of the sexual difference of plants, which was adopted as the foundation of the Linnaean taxonomy system.

Quotations: Alpini said that "the female date-trees or palms do not bear fruit unless the branches of the male and female plants are mixed together; or, as is generally done, unless the dust found in the male sheath or male flowers is sprinkled over the female flowers".

Connections

Alpino, a son by his first wife, Guadagnina Guadagnini, later became the seventh prefect of the botanical garden at Padua.

Son:

Alpino

died 1637

ex wife:

Guadagnina Guadagnini

collaborator:

Onorio Belli

With Onorio Belli Alpini carefully studied the flora of Crete.

associate:

Carl Linnaeus

mentor:

Melchiore Guilandino

References

• Kurt Sprengels Geschichte Der Botanik, Erster Band (German Edition)
• Dictionary of Scientific Biography