A recent acquisiton of note is a 1640 edition of De Plantis Aegypti Liber by Italian physician and botanist Prospero Alpini (1553-1617). Born near Venice, Alpinišs ambition was to be a soldier, but he was persuaded to study medicine, his father's profession. In 1581, Alpini accompanied the Venetian consul, Giorgio Emo, to Egypt as a medical advisor. Alpini remained in Egypt three years, and spent much of his time studying Egyptian flora and exploring the Pyramids.
De Plantis Aegypti Liber contains 73 beautiful full-page woodcuts of plants, including the coffee plant and the date palm (see illustration). Alpini's description of coffee was the first to appear in a European botanical text. Tamarind, balsam plants and the India rubber tree are among the other plants he described. When Alpini returned to Italy in 1584, he was made Europešs first Professor of Botany at the University of Padua, where he cultivated many Egyptian plants in the University Garden. Alpini's beautiful herbal was on display in the Historical Collections room in March.
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