Simon Paulli

Simon Paulli, who lived from 1603 to 1680, was a Danish physician and naturalist, born at Rostock. He was schooled at Rostock, Leiden, Paris and Copenhagen, took his medical degree at Wittenberg and practised in Rostock and Lübeck before becoming professor of anatomy, surgery and botany at the University of Copenhagen, and first court physician to Frederick III of Denmark. With the king support he established the anatomical theatre at Copenhagen, the Domus Anatomica. His botanical work includes the Latin Quadripartitum botanicum on medicinal plants, first printed at Rostock in 1639, and the Flora Danica of 1648, a Danish herbal. In 1661 he published a treatise against tobacco and tea that was later translated into English. The genus Paullinia, in the soapberry family, is named after him.