Mediterranean Botany. Making Cross-Cultural Knowledge about Materia Medica in the Sixteenth Century (2023)
Di Gennaro Splendore, Barbara (Author)
Walter de Gruyter
Pages: 53-70
Publication date: 2023
Language: English
In 1591, physician Prospero Alpini (1553–1617) published "The Dialogue on Balsam" ("De balsamo dialogus"), a treatise on a medicinal plant called balsam. At the time, many believed this exceptionally expensive commodity was extinct. The dialogue was uniquely set in Egypt between three characters: Abdella and Abdachim, respectively characterized as “Egyptian physician” and “Jew”, and Prosper Alpinus, the “Italian”. In the text, the three physicians describe the plant, explain how to recognize its precious resin, and argue that balsam originally came from Syria and Arabia, where it was still harvested, and was not native to Egypt. A graduate of the School of Medicine in Padua, Alpini served as physician to the newly appointed Venetian consul in Cairo between 1580 and 1583. Back in Venice, in 1591 and 1592, Alpini also published "The Medicine of the Egyptians" and "The Plants of Egypt." These works were the first scientific works about Egypt published in Europe and remained influential for centuries.
...MoreBook Fabrizio Baldassarri (2023) Plants in 16th and 17th Century: Botany between Medicine and Science.
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