Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.21372

    Plant flowers

    Date
    1675
    Creator
    Unknown, Engraver
    After
    Marcello Malpighi (1628 - 1694, Italian) , Biologist
    Object type
    Library reference
    54269
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 362 mm
    width (page): 231mm
    height (plate): 310mm
    width (plate): 217mm
    Subject
    Description
    Sectional studies of the flowers of various plant species viewed under magnification, including:

    Figure 157 [upper left]: Amarinth, Amaranthus, referred to by Malpighi as Amaranthi.
    Figure 158 [upper right]: Oleander, Nerium oleander, referred to as Oleandro.
    Figure 159 [centre left]: Honey flower, Melianthus , referred to as Melainthii.
    Figure 160 [centre right]: Rose, Rosa, referred to as the same.
    Figure 161 and 165 [centre and lower right]: Peony, Paeonia, referred to as the same.
    Figure 162 [centre left]: Unknown species referred to as Corona imperiali.
    Figure 163 [lower left]: Gladiolus, referred to as Gladiolo.
    Figure 164 [lower right]: Tulip, Tulipa, referred to as the same.
    Figure 166 [lower]: Red lily, Lilium philadelphicum [?], referred to as Lilii rubric.

    Inscribed: ‘TAB XXVIII’ in the top right-hand corner.

    Table 28 from Marcello Malpighi's Anatome plantarum; cui subjungitur Appendix […] (1675).

    Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694), Italian biologist and physician, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1669.
    Object history
    Anatome Plantarum was a much-anticipated work and, along with Nehemiah Grew FRS (1641-1712), earned Malpighi acclaim as founder of the microscopic study of plant anatomy.

    His research was encouraged and supervised 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, De ovo incubato, and 61 plates illustrating each [54 and 7 respectively]. A second part was sent by Malpighi to the Society in 1678 and published in 1679 as Anatomes plantarum pars altera [54271].
    Associated place
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          > Italy
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