Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.16222

    Plant flowers

    Date
    1674
    Creator
    Marcello Malpighi (1628 - 1694, Italian) , Physician
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Manuscript page number
    p120r
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 318mm
    width (page): 230mm
    Subject
    Description
    Sectional studies of the flowers of seven plant species viewed under magnification, including:

    Figure 119 [upper left]: Daisy, Bellis perennis, referred to by Malpighi as Belli.
    Figure 120 [centre left]: Mallow plant, Malva, referred to as Aborescente.
    Figure 121 [lower left]: Daisy, Bellis perennis, and cornflower, Centaurea cyanus, referred to as Belli and Cyano odoroso.
    Figure 122 [centre]: Chrysanthemum, referred to as Chamaemelo.
    Figure 123 [upper right]: Artichoke, Cinara, referred to as the same.
    Figure 124 [lower left]: Cloves, Syzygium aromaticum, referred to as Caryophillo.
    Figure 125 [lower right]: Unidentified species referred to as Been albo.

    Each drawn on an individual slip of paper and arranged on the page for printing. Inscribed: ‘Tab. XXII’ in top right-hand corner.

    Page 120 from MS/103/1, later published as Tab. XXII in Marcello Malpighi's Anatome plantarum (1675).

    Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694), Italian biologist and physician, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1669.
    Object history
    Marcello Malpighi’s research on the anatomy of plants was encouraged and supported by the Royal Society, as evidenced by correspondence between him and the then-Secretary, Henry Oldenburg FRS (1619-1677) in the 1660s and 1670s [MS/103/1].

    An abstracted version of his work in this area was first read at a Society meeting on 7 December 1671 [JBO/4, pp.216-217]. The full manuscript of Anatome Plantarum, together with the frontispiece artwork and these plates, was received and read on 28 January 1674/75 [MS/103/1-2].

    It was ordered for printing by the Society’s printer John Martin in June 1675 [CMO/1/221]. The published work consists of the text of Anatome Plantarum and De ovo incubato as an appendix, and 61 plates illustrating each [54 and 7 respectively].
    Related fellows
    Marcello Malpighi (1628 - 1694, Italian) , Physician
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > Italy
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