Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 28

DIOSCORIDES PEDANIUS, OF ANAZARBOS (fl. ca. 50 A.D.) [De materia medica]. Di Pedacio Dioscordie Anazarbeo libri cinque della historia, & materia medicinale. Per Nicolo de Bascarini 1544 [28] 442 [1] pp. 28.9 cm.

Dioscorides, a Greek citizen of Cilicia, accompanied the Roman armies as physician through many countries. While on his journeys he collected information on plants which he compiled into De materia medica which was considered authoritative on both botany and medicine for nearly sixteen hundred years. Although Dioscorides' materia medica was known, used, and had an impact on therapeutics before the sixteenth century, it did not become a dominant and authoritative source until the Renaissance. Its ascendancy was largely due to a decline of the Salernitan school, a return to classical sources from the Arabic influence, the overall inadequacy of existing herbals, and the wider availability of translations and commentaries. Mattioli's (see No. 238) translations of Dioscorides swiftly became the most popular and well received of those available at the time. His reputation, vernacular translation, and erudite and extensive commentary, were the chief factors in the rapid and wide acceptance of his translations. Notable also were his acceptance of the work of classical writers as authoritative, and the addition of illustrations to later editions. The present Italian edition is the first of nearly fifty known editions in five languages edited by Mattioli. Although the first few editions, as this one, were not illustrated, by 1555 the Italian editions contained illustrations as did the first Latin edition of 1554.

See Related Record(s): 238

Cited references: Durling 1160; Wellcome 4129

Gift of John Martin, M.D.