Andrea Cesalpino had succeeded his teacher, Luca Ghini, as professor of medicine and director of the botanical gardens at the University of Pisa.

He publishes in 1583 what is considered the first textbook of botany, De plantis libri XVI.

The brief first book presents the principles of botany using the models of Aristotle and Theophrastus; the remaining fifteen books describe and classify more than fifteen hundred plants.

Seeking a philosophical and theoretical approach to plant classification based on unified and coherent principles rather than on alphabetical sequence or medicinal properties, he helps establish botany as an independent science.

While his classification system anticipates Linnaeus' system of binomial nomenclature, Cesalpino retains the false classic divisions of woody and herbaceous plants and the belief that plants are not sexual.

His work will profoundly influence later botanists.

Duke Cosimo of Florence issues a charter in 1551 to attract Sephardic Jewish merchants from the Balkans to Pisa; ...