Giovanni Battista Ferrari
Giovanni Battista Ferrari
Italian, 1583–1655
Giovanni Battista Ferrari
1583 - 1655
Giovanni Battista Ferrari was born into a prosperous Sienese family in 1583 and entered the Jesuit Order in Rome in 1602. His subsequent career included a Professorship of Hebrew and Rhetoric at the Jesuit College in Rome, a position as horticultural advisor to the papal family, and the authorship of a number of important books. He also became a close associate of the scholar Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1657) who was an advisor to the Barberini family. Through this connection, Ferrari joined an important circle of men of science in Rome, and was appointed to manage the new garden at the Barberini Palace which was unique as a showplace for the newest and rarest plants from the distant regions of Asia, Africa, and America. The cultivation of new specimens led Ferrari to the subject of botanical nomenclature, and he became a leading 17th century source for nomenclatural definition. Ferrari’s first book was a Syriac Lexicon, and he also published a series of Orations—treatises on Rhetoric which emphasized good Latin usage. His last publication was a book on Sienese saints.
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Mexican, born Dominican Republic, 1977
