Prospero Alpini (also known as Prosper Alpinus, Prospero Alpinio and Latinized as Prosperus Alpinus) (23 November 15536 February 1617) was a Venetian

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

. He travelled around Egypt and served as the fourth prefect in charge of the botanical garden of Padua. He wrote several botanical treatises which covered exotic plants of economic and medicinal value. His description of coffee and banana plants are considered the oldest in European literature. The ginger-family genus ''

Alpinia ''Alpinia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. Species are native to Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands, where they occur in tropical and subtropical climates.Carolus Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

Biography

Born at

Marostica Marostica (; ), is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Vicenza, Veneto, northern Italy. It is mostly famous for its live chess event and for the local cherry variety. History Between the 11th and 13th centuries, the locality was greatly ...

, a town near

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...

, the son of Francesco, a physician, Alpini served in his youth for a time in the

Milanese Milanese (endonym in traditional orthography , ) is the central variety of the Western dialect of the Lombard language spoken in Milan, the rest of its metropolitan city, and the northernmost part of the province of Pavia. Milanese, due to t ...

army, but in 1574 he went to study medicine at

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

. After taking his doctor's degree in 1578, he settled as a physician in Campo San Pietro, a small town in the Paduan territory. But his tastes were botanical and influenced by Melchiorre Guilandino, and to extend his knowledge of exotic plants he travelled to

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

in 1580 as physician to Giorgio Emo, the Venetian consul in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

. The position was obtained with help from Antonio Morosini. From 1587 to 1590 he worked in Venice, Bassano and then at Genoa as physician to

Giovanni Andrea Doria Giovanni Andrea Doria (1539 – 1606), also known as Gianandrea Doria, was an Italian admiral from Genoa, the Marquis of Tursi and Prince of Melfi. Biography Doria was born to a noble family of the Republic of Genoa. He was the son of Giann ...

. In

he spent three years, and from a practice in the management of datepalms, which he observed in that country, he learned of sexual difference in plants, which was later to become important in the foundation of the

Linnaean taxonomy Linnaean taxonomy can mean either of two related concepts: # The particular form of biological classification (taxonomy) set up by Carl Linnaeus, as set forth in his ''Systema Naturae'' (1735) and subsequent works. In the taxonomy of Linnaeus th ...

system. He says 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". On his return, he resided for some time at

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

as physician to

Andrea Doria Andrea Doria, Prince of Melfi (; ; 30 November 146625 November 1560) was an Italian statesman, ', and admiral, who played a key role in the Republic of Genoa during his lifetime. From 1528 until his death, Doria exercised a predominant influe ...

, and in 1593 he was appointed professor of botany at Padua. In 1603, following the death of Giacomo Antonio Cortuso (1513-1603), he was appointed prefect for the botanical garden at Padua. His knowledge of medicinal plants made him a much sought after physician consulted by others such as Fabrici of Acquapendente and Alessandro Massaria. Towards the end of his life he suffered from arthritis, skin inflammation and

receptive aphasia Wernicke's aphasia, also known as receptive aphasia, sensory aphasia, fluent aphasia, or posterior aphasia, is a type of aphasia in which individuals have difficulty understanding Written language, written and spoken language. Patients with Wern ...

. He died on 6 February 1617 and is buried in the Basilica of Saint Antonio. He was succeeded in the botanical chair by his son Alpino Alpini (died 1637). Prospero_Alpino

Books

Alpini's best-known botanical work is ''De Plantis Aegypti liber'' (Venice, 1592). This work introduced a number of plant species previously unknown to European botanists including '' Abrus, Abelmoschus,

Lablab ''Lablab purpureus'' is a species of bean in the family Fabaceae. It is native to sub-Saharan Africa and it is cultivated throughout the tropics for food.Melochia,'' each of which are native to tropical areas and were cultivated with artificial irrigation in Egypt at the time. Other species included ''Sesban'' '' Sesbania sesban'' and the

baobab ''Adansonia'' is a genus of medium-to-large deciduous trees known as baobabs ( or ). The eight species of ''Adansonia'' are native to Africa, Australia, and Madagascar but have also been introduced to other regions of the world, including Barb ...

tree (which he spelled ''bahobab''). Early adopters of Alpini's new botanical names included the botanists

Carolus Clusius Charles de l'Écluse, L'Escluse, or Carolus Clusius (19 February 1526 – 4 April 1609), seigneur de Watènes, was an Artois doctor and pioneering botanist, perhaps the most influential of all 16th-century scientific horticulturists. Life C ...

(died 1609),

Johann Bauhin Johann (or Jean) Bauhin (12 December 1541 – 26 October 1613) was a Swiss botanist, born in Basel. He was the son of physician Jean Bauhin and the brother of physician and botanist Gaspard Bauhin. Biography Bauhin studied botany at the Univ ...

(died 1613), Caspar Bauhin (died 1624) and Johann Veslingius (visited Egypt in the 1620s; died 1649). Prospero Alpini's ' was published in 1629 after his death. It has an expansion of the material in ' plus some other material. His ''De Plantis Aegypti liber'' is said to contain the first account of the

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

plant published in Europe although the German traveller

Leonhard Rauwolf Leonhard Rauwolf (also spelled Leonhart Rauwolff) (21 June 1535 – 15 September 1596) was a German physician, botanist, and traveller. His main notability arises from a trip he made through the Levant and Mesopotamia in 1573–75. The motive of t ...

tasted coffee at

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

in 1573 and described its effects in 1582. His book ''De balsamo dialogus'' (1581, 1592) was among the first books to specialize on a single group of plants. He wrote on the prognosis of diseases in his ''De praesagienda vita et morti aegrotanti'' (1601) which led Kurt Sprengel to consider him as a modern father of diagnostic science. Another work that took nearly a decade was the ''De medicina methodica libri tredecim'' (1611) which sought a revival of the

Methodic school The Methodic school (''Methodics'', ''Methodists'', or ''Methodici'', ) was a branch of medical thought in ancient Greece and Rome. It arose in reaction to both the Empiric school and the Dogmatic school (sometimes referred to as the Rationalist ...

of medicine. His works ''De plantis exoticis'' and the ''Rerum Aegyptiarum libri IV'' were published posthumously. The genus ''

Alpinia ''Alpinia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. Species are native to Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands, where they occur in tropical and subtropical climates.Zingiberaceae Zingiberaceae () or the ginger family is a family of flowering plants made up of about 50 genera with a total of about 1600 known species of aromatic perennial herbs with creeping horizontal or tuberous rhizomes distributed throughout tropical ...

(ginger family), was named after him by

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

Works

* ''De balsamo dialogus'', 1581, 1592. * ''De medicina Aegyptiorum'', 1591. * ''De plantis Aegypti'', Venice, 1592. * ''De praesagienda vita et morte aegrotantium'', 1601. * ''De medicina methodica'', 1611. *', 1629. *''Rerum Aegyptiarum libri IV'', 1735. * *

References

External links

* ''Prosperi Alpini De Balsamo dialogus'' . Franciscus de Franciscis, Venitiis 159
Digital edition
by the

University and State Library Düsseldorf The University and State Library Düsseldorf (, abbreviated ULB Düsseldorf) is a central service institution of Heinrich Heine University. Along with Bonn and Münster, it is also one of the three State Libraries of North Rhine-Westphalia. ...

* ''Prosperi Alpini De medicina Aegyptiorum : libri quatuor; in quibus Multa cum de vario mittendi Sanguinis Usu per Venas, Arterias, Cucurbitulas, ac Scarificationes nostris inusitatas, deq eInustionibus, & alijs chyrurgicis Operationibus, tum de quamplurimis Medicamentis apud Aegyptios frequentioribus, elucescunt'' . Franciscus de Franciscis, Venetiis 159
Digital edition
by the

* ''Prosperi Alpini De Plantis Aegypti liber : in quo non pauci, qui circa Herbarum Materiam irrepserunt, Errores, deprehenduntur, quorum Causa hactenus multa Medicamenta ad Usum Medicinae admodum expetenda, plerisque Medicorum, non sine Artis Iactura, oculta, atque obsoleta iacuerunt''. Franciscus de Franciscis, Venitiis 159
Digital edition
by the

''De Plantis Exoticis''
by Prosperi Alpini, year 1629, in Latin.
''De Plantis Aegypti liber''
by Prosperi Alpini with comments by

Johann Vesling Johann Vesling (; 1598 – 30 August 1649) was a German anatomist and botanist from Minden, Westphalia. He published a major illustrated work on human anatomy ''Syntagma Anatomicum'' (1641). Life and work Vesling was born in Minden, Westphal ...

, published year 1640, in Latin.
Online Galleries, History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries
High resolution images of works by and/or portraits of Prospero Alpini in .jpg and .tiff format. Includes some pages from the 1592 edition of ''De Plantis Aegypti liber''.
De praesagienda vita et morte aegrotantium libri septem (1754)
* ''De Plantis Aegypti'', by Prosperi Alpini
Latin transcription and English translation
with notes on the grammar and the orthography of the text, by Ian L. Plamondon, published 2016
Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Arizona State University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Alpini, Prospero 1553 births 1617 deaths People from Marostica Botanists active in Egypt 16th-century Italian botanists 16th-century Italian physicians 17th-century Italian botanists