Melchior Wieland

He sold herbs and later travelled through Asia into Egypt with letters of introduction from Senator Marino Cavalli of Padua.

His ship was captured by Algerian pirates at Cagliari and employed as a galley slave.

He was returned to Genoa with his ransom paid by his friend Gabriele Falloppio and then moved to Venice.

He is known mostly from his letters to Falloppio, Ulisse Aldrovandi, and had a bitter feud with Pietro Andrea Mattioli.

Wieland bequeathed his books to the library at San Marco[1] and is buried at the Basilica of St Anthony at Padua beside his friend Gabriele Fallopio.