Alpini, Prospero

(b. Marostica, Italy, 23 November 1553; d. Padua, Italy, 23 November 1616)

botany.

Alpini was among the first of the Italian physician-botanists of the sixteenth century to examine plants outside the context of their therapeutic uses. Although he shared his contemporaries’ reverence for the past, he helped to advance the frontiers of botanical science by taking advantage of knowledge gained through his travels.

The oldest of the four children of Francesco Alpini, a physician, and Bartolomea Tarsia, 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 Kânigsberg), the second director of the botanical garden at Padua, who acted as respondent in Alpini’s dialogue De plantis Aegypti. 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“). Alpino, a son by his first wife, Guadagnina Guadagnini, later became the seventh prefect of the botanical garden. 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.

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. Obviously incomplete, this small book later was used by such systematists as F. Hasselquist and P. Forskål as a basis for their more complete studies. Moreover, some of Alpini’s original descriptions were included in the writings of Linnaeus, who regarded him with sufficient esteem to name the genus Alpinia (Zingiberaceae) in his honor.

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.

The material for the De plantis exoticis, which was published posthumously, also derived from Alpini’s travels. With Onorio Belli he carefully studied the flora of Crete. 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.

Alpini’s interest in medicine was expressed in several books, of which the most important were De medicina Aegyptiorum (1591) and De Praesgienda 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 diem 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 1 of Historiate Aegypti naturalis), a pioneer and undeservedly neglected contribution to Egyptology. Edition 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.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works. Principal editions of Alpini’s works include. De balsmo dialohhus (Venice, 1591; Padua, 1639), also in Medicina Aegyptiorum (Leider, 1719) and in Blasius Ugolino, Thesauro antiquitatum sacrarum (Venice, 1750), also translated by Antoine Colin as “Historie du baulume…, version françoise…” in Garcia d’Orta, Historie des drogues, espisceries, et de certains medicamens simples (Lyons, 1619); De medicina Aegyptiorum libri quatuor (Venice, 1591; Paris, 1646), also published as Medicina Aegyptiorum. Accedunt huic editioni ejusdem auctoris libri de balsamo et rhapontico (Leiden, 1719; 1745); De plabtis Aegyptiliber… Accessit etiam liber de balsamo, alias editus (Venice. 1592), later edited by Johannes Vesling (Padua, 1638; 1640); De Praesagienda vita et morte argrotantium libri septem (Venice–Frankfurt. 1601: leiden. 1733: Hamburg. 1734), later edited by H, Boerhaave (Leiden 1710; Venice, 1735; 1751; Bassano, 1774) and by J.B. James as The Presages of Life and Death in Disease, 2 Vols. (London. 1828): De Medicina Methodica libiri tredecim (Padua, 1611: Leiden, 1719); De rhapontico—disputatio in gymnasio Patavino habita (Padua, 1612), also in DE Plantis Aegypti liber (Padua, 1640) and Medicina Aegyptiorunm (Leiden, 1719): “Trattato della teriaca egittia,” in Ippolito Ceccarelli, Anti dotario romano latino e volgare tradotto… A. Manni. ed. (Rome. 1619); De Plantis exoticis libri duo (Venice, 1627; 1629); Historiate Aegypti naturalis, 2 Vols. (Leiden, 1735), Vol. I. Rerun Aegyptiarum libri quattuor...;Vol. II. De platis Aegypti liber auctus et emendatus, cum observationsibus et notis Johannis Veslingü; and De longitudine etbrevitate morborum, Libri duo, introduction, translation, and note by Giuseppe Ongaro (Marostica, 1966).

II. Secondary Literature. Works dealing with Alpini and his contributions to botany are A. Baldacci and P.A. Saccardo. “Onorio Belli e Prospero Alpino e la flora dell’isola di Creta,” in Malpighia, 14 (1900), 140–163; Augusto Béguinot, “Prospero Alpini,” in Aldo Mieli, ed., Gli scienziati italiani–dall’ inizio del medio evo ai nostri giorni, I. pt. I (Rome. 1921).” 84–90: Pietro Capparoni, “Proisper Alpini (1553–1616),” in Bulletin de la Société Française d’Histoire de la Médecine, 23 (1929), 108–115, and Profili bio–bibliografici di medici e naturalisti celebri italiani dal sec. XV al sec. XVIII (Rome, 1932), pp. 20–23; G. Fasoli and C. Cappelletti, “Propero Alpino (1553–1616). 597–613; Ludwig Keimer. “Quelques dètails oubliés ou inconnus sur la vie et les publications de certains voyageurs européens venus en Égypte pendant les derniers siècles,” in Bulletin de l’Institut d’Egvpte, 31 (1949), 121–175; Giuseppe Ongaro. “Contributi alla biogratia di Prospero Alpini.” in Acta medicae historiae Palavina. 8–9 (1961–1963), 79–168–the most complete study to date, based on Alpini’s unpublished manuscripts at Padua: John Ray, A Collection of Curious Travels and Voyages, 2 vols. (London, 1693). II. 92–98; P.A. Saccardo, “Contribuzioni alla storie della botainca italiana,” in Malpighia, 8 (1894), 476–539; and Kurt Sprengel, Geschichte der Botanik, 2 vols. (Altenburg-Leipzig, 1817–1818), 1,356–359.

Jerry Stannard