Luigi Anguillara, actually Luigi Squalermo, (born c. 1512 in

Anguillara Sabazia Anguillara Sabazia is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio, central Italy, around northwest of Rome. It nestles on a small cape on the coast of Lake Bracciano; its medieval center and its beach make it a popular destinati ...

, died September 1570 in

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

) was an Italian

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

Life

Little is known about Anguillara's early life. From 1539, he is attested at the private botanical gardens of

Luca Ghini Luca Ghini (Casalfiumanese, 1490 – Bologna, 4 May 1556) was an Italian physician and botanist, notable as the creator of the first recorded herbarium, as well as the first botanical garden in Europe. Biography Ghini was born in Casalfiumanese, ...

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

and in 1544 in

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...

. In 1546, he was the first director of the

Botanical Gardens A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

. There he remained until 1561, when an argument with the botanists

Ulisse Aldrovandi Ulisse Aldrovandi (11 September 1522 – 4 May 1605) was an Italian naturalist, the moving force behind Bologna's botanical garden, one of the first in Europe. Carl Linnaeus and the comte de Buffon reckoned him the father of natural history st ...

(Director of the Orto Botanico di Bologna) and

Pietro Andrea Mattioli Pietro Andrea Gregorio Mattioli (; 12 March 1501 – ) was a doctor and naturalist born in Siena. Biography He received his MD at the University of Padua in 1523, and subsequently practiced the profession in Siena, Rome, Trento and Gorizia ...

led him to depart for

, where he served as Botanist of the

Duke of Ferrara Emperor Frederick III conferred Borso d'Este, Lord of Ferrara, with the Duchy of Modena and Reggio in 1452, while Pope Paul II formally elevated him in 1471 as Duke of Ferrara, over which the family had in fact long presided. This latter territ ...

and continued his travels. Anguillara ranged widely over

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, and

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

and developed a very detailed knowledge of Mediterranean plants as a result. He may also have taught medicine in Ferrara and he probably died there from the plague. Anguillara is known for his sole work, ''Semplici'', which was written between 1549 and 1560. It describes 1,540 plants, their medicinal properties, and where they are found. The descriptions are clear enough that historians are able to identify most of the plants described by him. He also provides bibliographic notes and alternative names. The work drew on the ''

De Materia Medica (Latin name for the Greek work , , both meaning "On Medical Material") is a pharmacopoeia of medicinal plants and the medicines that can be obtained from them. The five-volume work was written between 50 and 70 CE by Pedanius Dioscorides, a ...

'' of

Pedanius Dioscorides Pedanius Dioscorides ( grc-gre, Πεδάνιος Διοσκουρίδης, ; 40–90 AD), “the father of pharmacognosy”, was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of ''De materia medica'' (, On Medical Material) —a 5-vol ...

and other ancient authors and is divided into fourteen chapters, each dedicated to a contemporary Italian doctor. The book was frequently cited by botanists in the 17th century. Robert Brown named the genus of

Liliales Liliales is an order of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group and Angiosperm Phylogeny Web system, within the lilioid monocots. This order of necessity includes the family Liliaceae. The APG III system (2009) place ...

Anguillaria after him in 1810.

Writings

* ''Semplici dell' eccellente ... liquali in piu pareri a diversi nobili huomini scritti appaiono, et nuovamente da m. Giovanni Marinello mandati in luce'', Venice 1561 (Latin translation with commentary by Gaspard Bauhin, Basel 1593
Digitalisat Bayerische Staatsbibliothek

Bibliography

* Jerry Stannard, "Anguillara, Luigi," in

Dictionary of Scientific Biography The ''Dictionary of Scientific Biography'' is a scholarly reference work that was published from 1970 through 1980 by publisher Charles Scribner's Sons, with main editor the science historian Charles Gillispie, from Princeton University. It consi ...

* Ettore De Toni, "Luigi Anguillara e Pietro Antonio Michiel," ''Annali di botanica'', 8 (1910), 617–685 * Ludovic Legré, ''La botanique en provence au XVIe siècle: Louis Anguillara, Pierre Belon, Charles de l’Escluse, Antoine Constantin'', Marseille, 1901 {{DEFAULTSORT:Anguillara, Luigi 16th-century Italian botanists Republic of Venice scientists 16th-century Venetian people 1512 births 1570 deaths