Matteo di San Giuseppe

Missionary. Did botanical research in Arabia, Africa and India; catalogued the flora of Lebanon under his Dutch botanist superior Pieter Van Goal, brother of the linguist Jacob Van Goal. Studied the flora of Mozambique (1655) and composed Viridarium Orientale. In Malabar (1657) assisted bishop Joseph Sebastiani. did botanical studies at Bandar Abbas (1666), Isfahan (1667) expanding his Viridarium Orientale parts of his which were published in Giacomo Zanoni’s Botanical History in 1675. He returned to Malabar in 1668-69 to support van Rheede, who allowed him in 1673 to build three churches in return for his assistance in compiling Hortus Malabaricus.