Castore Durante

Castore Durante, also called Castor Durante da Gualdo (Gualdo Tadino, 1529 – Viterbo, 1590) was a physician, botanist and poet of the Italian Renaissance. His father was the jurist Giovan Diletto Durante. He had five siblings, including a brother named Pollùce (Pollux). He graduated in medicine at Perugia in 1567 and practiced as a doctor in Gualdo Tadino. He later taught at the "Archiginnasio della Sapienza" (now called the Sapienza University of Rome) and, on the recommendation of Cardinal Girolamo Rusticucci, was appointed chief physician at the court of Pope Sixtus V. He died at Viterbo in 1590 and was buried in the church of the Franciscan monastery.