Genus Imperata
Pictures from Observations
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For Ferrante Imperato (1550–1625), Italian apothecary and author of Dell’historia Naturale, an illustrated catalogue divided into 28 books relating to mining, alchemy, animals and vegetable specimens collected in southern Italy. He also formed a museum (‘museo’) in Naples of natural history specimens, one of Europe’s first, which was continued by his son Francesco Imperato who assisted him by writing up his observations. Ferrante Imperato was among the first naturalists to identify the processes through which fossils formed. He corresponded with many of the leading Italian scholars of the day, including botanists. He had a small garden, but botanical historians discount his interest in plants as ‘curiosa’