Taddeo Alderotti

Life & Legacy

Taddeo Alderotti (Latin: Thaddaeus Alderottus, French : Thaddée de Florence), born in Florence between 1206 and 1215, died in 1295, was an Italian doctor and professor of medicine at the University of Bologna, who made important contributions to the renaissance of learned medicine in Europe during the High Middle Ages. He was among the first to organize a medical lecture at the university.
One of his works describes a method for concentrating ethanol involving repeated fractional distillation through a water-cooled still, by which an ethanol purity of 90% could be obtained.
Dante seems to reference him in Paradiso (XII, 82–85), indicating he pursued learning not for spiritual reasons but worldly ambition, contrasting him with St. Dominic.