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Andrea Cesalpino
Andrea Cesalpino (Latinized as Andreas Cæsalpinus) (1524/1525 – 23 February 1603) was a Florentine physician, philosopher and botanist.
In his works he classified plants according to their fruits and seeds, rather than alphabetically or by medicinal properties. In 1555, he succeeded Luca Ghini as director of the botanical garden in Pisa. The botanist Pietro Castelli was one of his students. Cesalpino also did limited work in the field of plant and animal physiology. In medicine, he envisioned a "chemical circulation" consisting of repeated evaporation and condensation of blood, and for this reason historians have conceived him as a forerunner of William Harvey (1578–1657), who theorized the "physical circulation" of blood in 1628.
Cesalpino was born in Arezzo, Tuscany. As it is reported by Giuseppe Lais and Ugo Viviani with a series of important documents, and recently confirmed in a scholarly volume devoted to Cesalpino, he was likely born in the Autumn of 1524 in the outskirt of Arezzo.
For his studies at the University of Pisa his instructor in medicine was R. Colombo (d. 1559), and in botany the celebrated Luca Ghini. After completing his course he taught philosophy, medicine, and botany for many years at the same university, besides making botanical explorations in various parts of Italy. At this time the first botanical gardens in Europe were laid out; the earliest at Padua, in 1546; the next at Pisa in 1547 by Ghini, who was its first director. Ghini was succeeded by Cesalpino, who had charge of the Pisan garden 1554–1558. When far advanced in years Cesalpino accepted a call to Rome as professor of medicine at University of Rome La Sapienza and physician to Pope Clement VIII. It is not positively certain whether he also became the chief superintendent of the Roman botanical garden which had been laid out about 1566 by one of his most celebrated pupils, Michele Mercati. For the 1600 Jubilee, Cesalpino wrote a text on the history of the Church, entitled Historiae ecclesiasticae compendum usque ad Annum Jubilei MDC, kept as a manuscript at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in Rome (Vat. Lat. 35600), evidence of his orthodoxy.
All of Cesalpino's writings show the man of genius and the profound thinker. His style, it is true, is often heavy, yet in spite of the scholastic form in which his works are cast, passages of great beauty often occur. Modern botanists and physiologists who are not acquainted with the writings of Aristotle find Cesalpino's books obscure; their failure to comprehend them has frequently misled them in their judgment of his achievement.
No comprehensive summing up of the results of Cesalpino's investigations, founded on a critical study of all his works has appeared, neither has there been a complete edition of his writings. Seven of these are positively known, and most of the seven have been printed several times, although none have appeared since the 17th century. In the following list the date of publication given is that of the first edition.
His most important philosophical work is Quaestionum peripateticarum libri V (1571). Cesalpino proves himself in this to be one of the most eminent and original students of Aristotle in the 16th century. His writings, however, show traces of the influence of Averroes, hence he is an Averroistic Aristotelian; apparently he was also inclined to pantheism, consequently he was included, later, in the Spinozists before Spinoza. A Protestant opponent of Aristotelian views, Nicolaus Taurellus wrote several times against Cesalpino. The work of Taurellus entitled Alpes cæsae, etc. (1597), is entirely devoted to combating the opinions of Cesalpino, as the play on the name Cæsalpinus shows. Nearly one hundred years later Cesalpino's views were again attacked by Samuel Parker, in a work entitled Disputationes de Deo et providentia divina (1678).
Cesalpino repeatedly asserted the steadfastness of his Catholic principles and his readiness to acknowledge the falsity of any philosophical opinions expounded by him as Aristotelian doctrine, which should be contrary to revelation.
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Andrea Cesalpino
Andrea Cesalpino (Latinized as Andreas Cæsalpinus) (1524/1525 – 23 February 1603) was a Florentine physician, philosopher and botanist.
In his works he classified plants according to their fruits and seeds, rather than alphabetically or by medicinal properties. In 1555, he succeeded Luca Ghini as director of the botanical garden in Pisa. The botanist Pietro Castelli was one of his students. Cesalpino also did limited work in the field of plant and animal physiology. In medicine, he envisioned a "chemical circulation" consisting of repeated evaporation and condensation of blood, and for this reason historians have conceived him as a forerunner of William Harvey (1578–1657), who theorized the "physical circulation" of blood in 1628.
Cesalpino was born in Arezzo, Tuscany. As it is reported by Giuseppe Lais and Ugo Viviani with a series of important documents, and recently confirmed in a scholarly volume devoted to Cesalpino, he was likely born in the Autumn of 1524 in the outskirt of Arezzo.
For his studies at the University of Pisa his instructor in medicine was R. Colombo (d. 1559), and in botany the celebrated Luca Ghini. After completing his course he taught philosophy, medicine, and botany for many years at the same university, besides making botanical explorations in various parts of Italy. At this time the first botanical gardens in Europe were laid out; the earliest at Padua, in 1546; the next at Pisa in 1547 by Ghini, who was its first director. Ghini was succeeded by Cesalpino, who had charge of the Pisan garden 1554–1558. When far advanced in years Cesalpino accepted a call to Rome as professor of medicine at University of Rome La Sapienza and physician to Pope Clement VIII. It is not positively certain whether he also became the chief superintendent of the Roman botanical garden which had been laid out about 1566 by one of his most celebrated pupils, Michele Mercati. For the 1600 Jubilee, Cesalpino wrote a text on the history of the Church, entitled Historiae ecclesiasticae compendum usque ad Annum Jubilei MDC, kept as a manuscript at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in Rome (Vat. Lat. 35600), evidence of his orthodoxy.
All of Cesalpino's writings show the man of genius and the profound thinker. His style, it is true, is often heavy, yet in spite of the scholastic form in which his works are cast, passages of great beauty often occur. Modern botanists and physiologists who are not acquainted with the writings of Aristotle find Cesalpino's books obscure; their failure to comprehend them has frequently misled them in their judgment of his achievement.
No comprehensive summing up of the results of Cesalpino's investigations, founded on a critical study of all his works has appeared, neither has there been a complete edition of his writings. Seven of these are positively known, and most of the seven have been printed several times, although none have appeared since the 17th century. In the following list the date of publication given is that of the first edition.
His most important philosophical work is Quaestionum peripateticarum libri V (1571). Cesalpino proves himself in this to be one of the most eminent and original students of Aristotle in the 16th century. His writings, however, show traces of the influence of Averroes, hence he is an Averroistic Aristotelian; apparently he was also inclined to pantheism, consequently he was included, later, in the Spinozists before Spinoza. A Protestant opponent of Aristotelian views, Nicolaus Taurellus wrote several times against Cesalpino. The work of Taurellus entitled Alpes cæsae, etc. (1597), is entirely devoted to combating the opinions of Cesalpino, as the play on the name Cæsalpinus shows. Nearly one hundred years later Cesalpino's views were again attacked by Samuel Parker, in a work entitled Disputationes de Deo et providentia divina (1678).
Cesalpino repeatedly asserted the steadfastness of his Catholic principles and his readiness to acknowledge the falsity of any philosophical opinions expounded by him as Aristotelian doctrine, which should be contrary to revelation.