Cesalpino studied under Realdo Colombo and Luca Ghini in Pisa, where he received his degree in 1551. In 1555 he succeeded Ghini as "director' of the Botanical Garden of Pisa and as lecturer of medicine. Cesalpino was Chair or Medicine from 1569 to 1592, when he moved to Rome where he was appointed personal doctor of Clement VIII and professor at the Sapienza. His most important works include the Quaestionum medicarum (1593), De metallicis (1596) and De plantis (1603).