Genus Matthiola

For Pietro Andrea Gregorio Mattioli (1501–1577), Italian physician and botanist. He qualified as an MD from the University of Padua in 1523 and became personal physician to Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor in Vienna, and to Ferdinand I, Archduke of Austria. He published many works and described over 100 plants, and his Di Pedacio Dioscoride Anazarbeo Libri Cinque (1544) is a celebrated translation of the herbal of Dioscorides, complete with a commentary in which Mattioli aimed to identify the plant species described by Dioscorides. He also described species not of medical value, marking a transition to the study of plants for non-medical interest. It is thought that Mattioli was the first physician to describe a case of feline allergy.