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about the PRINTED BOOKS ...................
The first printed herbals appearing in the fifteenth century relied on ancient authors for texts. The accessibility and standardisation of these works perpetuated the influence of these venerable authors. Three herbal incunabulae (books printed before 1500) have a particularly interesting derivation. The Herbarius of 1484, the Gart der Gesundheit of 1485, and the Ortus Sanitatus of 1491, all printed in Mainz, were compiled from works by Matthaeus Sylvaticus, Serapio, Avicenna, Platearius, Dioscorides, Galen, and others. Dioscorides was mentioned sixteen times in the Herbarius, 242 times in the Gart, and 570 times in the Ortus. The first printed book of Dioscorides De Materia Medica is a rare and obscure Latin translation of the Dioscoridis Vulgaris printed at Colle, near Siena, Tuscany, by Johannem Allemanum de Medemblik in 1478. In 1499 Aldus Manutius printed the first Greek version in Venice. Latin editions were numerous, particularly the excellent translation by the Frenchman Jean de la Ruelle, Latin being the new language of scholarship.
In the following century the most voluminous and useful books of botany were supplemented commentaries on Dioscorides, including the works of Fuchs, Anguillara, Mattioli, Maranta, Cesalpino, Dodoens, Fabio Colonna, and the Bauhins. In several the annotations and comments exceed the Dioscoridean text and have much new botany. Nonetheless it seems that a considerable part of all new botanical matter published in the sixteenth and part of the seventeenth centuries consisted largely of annotations on the texts of Dioscorides.
Numerous herbals published from 1473 onwards were directly or indirectly based on Dioscoridean manuscripts. From 1478 there were many Latin editions. A Greek version was published at Venice in 1499, and reprinted in 1518, 1523 and 1529. Between 1555 and 1752 there were at least twelve Spanish editions; and as many in Italian from 1542. French editions appeared from 1553; and German editions from 1546. Some copies of the work appear decadent, with a loss of faithfulness to the earlier text; certain later editions exhibit the freshness and accuracy of the Codex Vindobonensis, notably the illustrated volume by Mattioli in 1544.
Pier Andrea Mattioli (1500 to 1577), a renowned botanist and physician, translated De Materia Medica into vernacular Italian as Di Pedacio Dioscoride Anazarbeo libri cinque, Venice 1544. An illustrated edition in Latin followed: Commentarii in sex libros Pedacii Dioscoridis de medica materia, Venice 1554. In this imposing plant encyclopaedia Mattioli identified Dioscorides plants and added 562 woodcut illustrations. Mattioli experimented on prisoners to determine the lethal thresholds of various poisonous plants, ensuring the medical popularity of his books. Besides the Italian editions the work appeared in Latin, Bohemian, French, and German. Mattioli wrote other books but his commentaries on Dioscorides (said to run to forty editions) are considered his most important work, leading to his appointment to the Imperial Court as physician to Archduke Ferdinand I, and later to the Emperor Maximilian II. Mattioli, obsessed with Dioscorides, set out to be the supreme authority on his idol, tolerating neither rivals nor corrections. He wielded immense influence throughout Europe. Any physician or naturalist daring to disagree with him was abused. Both Amatus Lusitanus and Luigi Anguillara lost their posts, the former being hounded by the Inquisition. Konrad Gesner, Marant and Wieland were rebuked. Over the years Mattioli's commentaries overwhelmed De Materia Medica: for example on acorus (Iris pseudacorus) Dioscorides wrote seven lines, and Mattioli 140 lines. Forty years later a physician at Nuremberg, Johann Camerarius II (1534 to 1598), re-edited and enlarged Mattioli's work as De plantis epitome ..., Frankfurt 1586, replacing the illustrations with superior woodcuts.
In the time of Queen Elizabeth I the pharmacopoeia rested on the unquestioned authority of the ancient physician Dioscorides. Even in the middle of the seventeenth century, John Goodyer (1592 to 1644) thought it worthwhile to make the first English translation of the whole work. This translation, written out in Goodyer's small and careful handwriting, filled four and a half thousand pages, taking three years to complete. John Sibthorp (1758 to 1796) used Goodyer's English Codex for his Flora Graeca (1806-1840); and Gunther's edition of Goodyer's translation was printed in 1934, and reprinted in 1959 and 1968. This is the only English edition, apart from the present version in contemporary English by Tess Anne Osbaldeston. In the late eighteenth century John Sibthorp came to Vienna with John Hawkins to study the Codex Vindobonensis. He met the talented Austrian artist Ferdinand Bauer through the von Jacquins, and together they made a Grand Tour of the Levant including Crete, through the Aegean to Smyrna (Izmur), Constantinople, inland to Belgrade, as well as Cyprus and Greece to find Dioscorides' medicinal plants. Their efforts resulted in the magnificent Flora Graeca, uncompleted for fifty two years, and then only with the help of Sir John Edward Smith, Robert Brown, John Lindley and the Sowerbys. Thus eighteen hundred years after compiling De Materia Medica, Dioscorides' medical work led to the publication of one of England's most sumptuous works on botany, "perhaps one of the most magnificent floras ever produced", according to Martyn Rix in The Art of the Plant World.
A fairly comprehensive list of printed versions of De Materia Medica is given in this new version, together with works based on, or derived from it.
In the following century the most voluminous and useful books of botany were supplemented commentaries on Dioscorides, including the works of Fuchs, Anguillara, Mattioli, Maranta, Cesalpino, Dodoens, Fabio Colonna, and the Bauhins. In several the annotations and comments exceed the Dioscoridean text and have much new botany. Nonetheless it seems that a considerable part of all new botanical matter published in the sixteenth and part of the seventeenth centuries consisted largely of annotations on the texts of Dioscorides.
Numerous herbals published from 1473 onwards were directly or indirectly based on Dioscoridean manuscripts. From 1478 there were many Latin editions. A Greek version was published at Venice in 1499, and reprinted in 1518, 1523 and 1529. Between 1555 and 1752 there were at least twelve Spanish editions; and as many in Italian from 1542. French editions appeared from 1553; and German editions from 1546. Some copies of the work appear decadent, with a loss of faithfulness to the earlier text; certain later editions exhibit the freshness and accuracy of the Codex Vindobonensis, notably the illustrated volume by Mattioli in 1544.
Pier Andrea Mattioli (1500 to 1577), a renowned botanist and physician, translated De Materia Medica into vernacular Italian as Di Pedacio Dioscoride Anazarbeo libri cinque, Venice 1544. An illustrated edition in Latin followed: Commentarii in sex libros Pedacii Dioscoridis de medica materia, Venice 1554. In this imposing plant encyclopaedia Mattioli identified Dioscorides plants and added 562 woodcut illustrations. Mattioli experimented on prisoners to determine the lethal thresholds of various poisonous plants, ensuring the medical popularity of his books. Besides the Italian editions the work appeared in Latin, Bohemian, French, and German. Mattioli wrote other books but his commentaries on Dioscorides (said to run to forty editions) are considered his most important work, leading to his appointment to the Imperial Court as physician to Archduke Ferdinand I, and later to the Emperor Maximilian II. Mattioli, obsessed with Dioscorides, set out to be the supreme authority on his idol, tolerating neither rivals nor corrections. He wielded immense influence throughout Europe. Any physician or naturalist daring to disagree with him was abused. Both Amatus Lusitanus and Luigi Anguillara lost their posts, the former being hounded by the Inquisition. Konrad Gesner, Marant and Wieland were rebuked. Over the years Mattioli's commentaries overwhelmed De Materia Medica: for example on acorus (Iris pseudacorus) Dioscorides wrote seven lines, and Mattioli 140 lines. Forty years later a physician at Nuremberg, Johann Camerarius II (1534 to 1598), re-edited and enlarged Mattioli's work as De plantis epitome ..., Frankfurt 1586, replacing the illustrations with superior woodcuts.
In the time of Queen Elizabeth I the pharmacopoeia rested on the unquestioned authority of the ancient physician Dioscorides. Even in the middle of the seventeenth century, John Goodyer (1592 to 1644) thought it worthwhile to make the first English translation of the whole work. This translation, written out in Goodyer's small and careful handwriting, filled four and a half thousand pages, taking three years to complete. John Sibthorp (1758 to 1796) used Goodyer's English Codex for his Flora Graeca (1806-1840); and Gunther's edition of Goodyer's translation was printed in 1934, and reprinted in 1959 and 1968. This is the only English edition, apart from the present version in contemporary English by Tess Anne Osbaldeston. In the late eighteenth century John Sibthorp came to Vienna with John Hawkins to study the Codex Vindobonensis. He met the talented Austrian artist Ferdinand Bauer through the von Jacquins, and together they made a Grand Tour of the Levant including Crete, through the Aegean to Smyrna (Izmur), Constantinople, inland to Belgrade, as well as Cyprus and Greece to find Dioscorides' medicinal plants. Their efforts resulted in the magnificent Flora Graeca, uncompleted for fifty two years, and then only with the help of Sir John Edward Smith, Robert Brown, John Lindley and the Sowerbys. Thus eighteen hundred years after compiling De Materia Medica, Dioscorides' medical work led to the publication of one of England's most sumptuous works on botany, "perhaps one of the most magnificent floras ever produced", according to Martyn Rix in The Art of the Plant World.
A fairly comprehensive list of printed versions of De Materia Medica is given in this new version, together with works based on, or derived from it.
DIOSCORIDES DE MATERIA MEDICA - five books in one volume: New Modern English Translation. A few of the printed books are still available. See HOW TO ORDER page.
The translator holds copyright on the text but all illustrations are copyright-free.