MALPIGHI, MARCELLO

born March 10, 1628, Crevalcore, near Bologna, Papal States died Nov. 30, 1694, Rome Italian physician and biologist who, in developing experimental methods to study living things, founded the science of microscopic anatomy. After Malpighi's researches, microscopic anatomy became a prerequisite for advances in the fields of physiology, embryology, and practical medicine. Additional reading The definitive study of Malpighi is Howard Adelmann, Marcello Malpighi and the Evolution of Embryology, 5 vol. (1966). It contains a complete biography of Malpighi, translations from the Latin of Malpighi's chief works with Latin on facing pages, colour reproductions of Malpighi's illustrations, and detailed essays on structure based on embryologists of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries with extensive translations from French, German, and Latin. Ettore Toffoletto, Discorso sul Malpighi (1965), provides a critical analysis (in Italian) of Malpighi both as a man and as a scientist.