The paper unveils the multifaceted activity of Marcello Malpighi, a pioneer in histology, embryology, anatomy, botany, and even mineralogy (he wrote an article about the origin of metals). The application of a microscope that magnifies up to 180 times allowed the scientist to make a number of anatomical and histological discoveries: his name was given to the layer of the epidermis in the vertebrates, as well as glomeruli, splenic bodies, and tubules in the insects. Malpighi discovered blood corpuscles, the alveolar structure of the lungs and the communication between arteries and veins through capillaries, which could not be proven by William Harvey who had discovered the circulation of blood. Malpighi along with Jan Swammerdam is considered the founder of the anatomy of invertebrate animals, the foundation of which he laid in his anatomical model of the silkworm. The second famous work of Malpighi was devoted to the fine structure of plants, in which the scientist first pointed out that different parts of plants consist of microscopic sacks (utriculi, saccili) and tubes (vessels). Of great importance were Malpighi’s works on the development of the chicken inside the egg; these describe in detail the stage of embryo development from egg laying to birth. In 1660, the scientist first described the alveolar structure of the lungs (in a frog) and blood cells (in a hedgehog). Being engaged in botany, Malpighi depicted pneumatic tubes (1662) and vessels (1671) in the plants and published his fundamental work «Anatome Plantarium» (Anatomy of Plants) in two volumes (1675—1679). The family of dicotyledonous apopetalous plants is named after Malpighi. His most important merit is the discovery of capillary blood circulation (the object of the study was the frog bladder), which complemented W. Harvey’s theory of blood circulation. In addition, Malpighi described in detail the structure of the kidneys, in which he found glomeruli that were later called Malpighian bodies.