Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.16240

    Plant seeds

    Date
    1674
    Creator
    Marcello Malpighi (1628 - 1694, Italian) , Physician
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Manuscript page number
    p138r
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 320mm
    width (page): 220mm
    Subject
    Content object
    nature
       > plant
    Description
    Sectional studies of seeds of various plant species in different stages of development, viewed under magnification. Including:

    Figure 241 and 242 [upper row]: Pulses and legumes Fabaceae, referred to by Malpighi as Fabae.
    Figure 243 [lower row]: Seed of wheat, Triticucm, referred to as Tritico.

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

    Page 138 from MS/103/1, later published as Tab. XL 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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