Andrea Cesalpino

Andrea Cesalpino (about 1524 to 1603) was a Florentine physician, philosopher and botanist, probably born near Arezzo in Tuscany. He studied at the University of Pisa under Realdo Colombo for medicine and Luca Ghini for botany, taught philosophy, medicine and botany there, and in 1555 succeeded Ghini as director of the Pisa botanical garden. Late in life he became professor of medicine at the Sapienza in Rome and physician to Pope Clement VIII. In his botanical works he classified plants by their fruits and seeds rather than alphabetically or by medicinal use, an early step toward a natural system. He also did limited work on plant and animal physiology, and his idea of a chemical circulation of blood has led historians to see him as a forerunner of William Harvey. His chief philosophical work is Quaestionum peripateticarum libri V of 1571.