MATTIOLI Pietro Andrea I discorsi nelli sei libri di Pedacio Dioscoride Anazarbeo della materia medicinale.

Nissen, BBI, 1304 ; Pritzel, 5988 ; Durling, 3026 (bound with Del Modo de Distillare). See Duveen, 395 (for only Del Modo di Distillare, éd. 1604) ; Neville, II, 155 ; Hoover, 566 (for the Latin edition 1565, with ‘De ratione distillandi’).

A fine edition in Italian of Mattioli’s commentaries on the six books of Dioscorides.

Regularly enlarged and reprinted, there have been numerous editions from the first Italian edition in 1555 to the early eighteenth century.

This 1587 edition is illustrated with more than 1020 woodcuts, most of which show plants, but also crustaceans, fish, oviparous animals, quadrupeds and arachnids. Among the plants are aromatic herbs, truffles and grains grown by farmers.

Among the exotic animals are images of chameleons, elephants, hippopotamuses and seahorses, to name but a few. The last illustration shows a rabid dog.

‘Mattioli’s original purpose, says commentator Bruno Zanobio, was relatively modest; “it was to provide doctors and apothecaries with a practical treatise… that would enable them to identify the medicinal plants mentioned by Dioscorides”, the founder of the Greek materia medica’ (Hoover).

This Italian edition contains the preface dated 1 April 1578, mentioned by Neville for his copy of the 1604 edition. “The first [Latin] edition (1554) was revised and improved by Mattioli until his death in 1577. The preface is dated 1 April 1568… At the end… is a six-leaf appendix depicting six different types of furnace and distillation apparatus for waters and oils from plants. This appendix, with separate title-page, was also issued separately”.

For “De Modo di Distillere Duveen notes: “This part of Matthiolus famous commentary on the works of Dioscorides deals exclusively with distillation and chemistry. It has six spendid woodcuts showing giant furnaces”.

Very good and complete copy.