Humanist botany: the case of Dioscorides

The rise of Renaissance humanism led to renewed interest in the work of the Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides (fl. 50-70 AD). This teachings had carefully been preserved in Greek and Arab sources such as the beautifully illuminated 6th-century Vienna manuscript (image 1), and the Latin world had inherited knowledge of Dioscorides through such transmission. Yet interest in his study of medical simples blossomed in the aftermath of the first publication of Dioscorides' De materia medica in 1499 in Venice, at the Aldine printing press, one of the most important publishers in 16th century Europe (image 2). No less than 78 editions of this work appeared in the sixteenth century. His popularity reached new heights with the publication in 1544 of the monumental commentaries on Dioscorides by Siennese physician Pietro Andrea Mattioli's (1500-1577), a major contributor to the rise of the study of botany across Europe (image 3).