| Honorific Prefix: | Reverend |
| Birth Date: | 1 May 1584 |
| Birth Place: | Siena, Grand Duchy of Tuscany |
| Death Place: | Siena, Grand Duchy of Tuscany |
| Nationality: | Italian |
| Occupation: | Jesuit priest, orientalist, university teacher, botanist |
| Discipline: | Syriacist, Ancient Near Eastern Linguist, Botanist |
| Notable Students: | Isaac Sciadrensis |
Giovanni Baptista (also Battista) Ferrari (1 May 1584 in Siena - 1 February 1655 in Siena), was an Italian Jesuit, orientalist, university teacher and botanist. Linguistically highly gifted and an able scientist, at 21 years of age Ferrari knew a good deal of Hebrew and spoke and wrote excellent Greek and Latin. He became a professor of Hebrew and Rhetoric at the Jesuit College in Rome and in 1622 edited a Syriac-Latin dictionary (Nomenclator Syriacus).[1]
Giovanni Baptista Ferrari was born to an affluent Sienese family and entered the Jesuit Order in Rome at the age of 19 in April 1602. After studying metaphysics, logic and natural philosophy with Giuseppe Agostini (and after the usual four years of theology), he was sent to the Maronite college in Rome in 1615/16 – where he learnt Syriac. The early progress reports at the Collegio Romano are complimentary about his literary and Hebraic talents, but rather critical of what appears to have been his somewhat frail state of health and melancholy character.
By the schoolyear of 1619-20 he was teaching Arabic and Hebrew at the Roman College. His first published work was a Syriac Dictionary, or Nomenclator, which he published in 1622 (but with an approval from Mutio Vitelleschi and Francesco Donati of 1619). The chief object of the author is to explain the Syriac words in the Bible, in which he was assisted by some learned Maronites. Although pretty innovative for its time, Ferrari's Nomenclator was not a very successful effort, and has not enjoyed much esteem in the subsequent literature (Bochart was especially cutting in his judgment). It is, however, interesting for its introduction, with its long list of profuse acknowledgements to various members of the Maronite college, especially Petrus Metoscita, and for its brief insight into the working procedures and resources of a Syriac scholar of those days.
His Orationes, first printed in Lyons in 1625, and several times reprinted,[2] including two London editions in the 1650s and 1660s, are especially remarkable for four very noteworthy orations on the subject of Hebrew language and Hebrew literary style. In the oration on Hebraicae linguae suavitas Ferrari asserts the stylistic capabilities of Hebrew, and defends it against charges that it was limited and coarse; in the chapters Hebraicae Musae sive de Disciplinarum omnium Hebraica origine and Hebraicae litteraturae securitas, sive De arguto dicendi genere usurpando he justifies the difficulties of learning the language, and puts forward the case for studying it.[3]
His knowledge of the ancient authors, Greek and Latin, was extensive as was his command of the Semitic languages. Indeed, Ferrari was a member of the Papal Commission charged with translating the Bible into Arabic.
He was honoured in 1759, when botanist Philip Miller published Ferraria, which is a genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Iridaceae and native to tropical and southern Africa.[4]
Ferrari's interests were not limited to Oriental languages. He devoted himself till 1632 to the study and cultivation of ornamental plants, and published De Florum Cultura,[5] which was illustrated with copperplates by, amongst others, Anna Maria Vaiani, possibly the first female copper-engraver. The first book deals with the design and maintenance of the garden and garden equipment. The second book provides descriptions of the different flowers, while the third book deals with the culture of these flowers. The fourth book, continues with a treatise on the use and beauty of the flower species, including their different varieties and mutations.
Through his acquaintance with Cassiano dal Pozzo, secretary of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, he was appointed to manage the new garden at the Barberini Palace. The plants featured in Ferrari's research came from Cardinal Francesco Barberini's private botanical garden, the Horti Barberini, a garden which was under the care of Ferrari.
Ferrari dedicated the Latin edition of De Florum Cultura to Cardinal Francesco Barberini. Ludovico Aureli translated the book into Italian and dedicated this edition, which is entitled Flora, overo Cultura di Fiori (1638) or simply Flora, to Barberini's sister-in-law, Anna Colonna.[6] Ferrari became Horticultural Advisor to the Papal family.[1] Ferrari was also closely associated with the Lincei, and in Book 1, chapter 2 of his Flora, he expressly thanks Federico Cesi for his “erudite additions” (“erudite aggiunte”) and the Accademia for incurring “liberal expenses” (“liberale spesa”) in connection with this book.
Another work is the Hesperides sive de Malorum Aureorum Cultura et Usu Libri Quatuor, first published in 1646. Ferrari's close relationship with Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1657), a noted scholar and student of citrus, led to the creation of this work. The first volume of this work is devoted to citrus and its many varieties and variations.
The plates were produced by the best artists of the time, such as Johann Friedrich Greuter, Cornelis Bloemaert and Nicolas Joseph Foucault. Plates were also prepared by the renowned painters and draughtsmen of Roman Baroque, such as Pietro da Cortona, Andrea Sacchi, Nicolas Poussin, Pietro Paolo Ubaldini, F. Perier, Francesco Albani, Filippo Gagliardi, Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, Guido Reni, Domenico Zampieri and H. Rinaldi. The plates show life-sized whole fruit, including sections. Other plates show Hercules, mythological scenes, garden buildings, Orangeries, garden tools, etc.. He published this at a time growing interest in and structural sophistication of seventeenth-century orangeries, constructed needed to protected citrus trees from the cold of Northern Europe or heat of Italian summers.[7]
Both works are important as they display accurate representations.
Ferrari was the first scientist to provide a complete description of the limes, lemons and pomegranates. He also described medical preparations, the details on citron and prescribed limes, lemons and pomegranates as medicinal plants against scurvy.