MATTIOLI, Pietro Andrea

COMMENTARII SECUNDO AUCTI, IN LIBROS SEX PEDACII DIOSCORIDIS ANAZARBEI DE MEDICA MATERIA [with APOLOGIA ADVERSUS AMATHUM LUSITANUM]

Venice: Officina Valgrisiana, 1559. Third Edition in Latin. Hardcover. Folio in sixes (8-1/2" x 12-1/2") in modern leather; [98] (of [100]), 776; 46, [2] pages, including last leaf with printer's device on verso; lacks index leaf b1. Profusely illustrated with more than 700 woodcuts, about 10% of which are not botanical in nature and include various animals and sea life as well as such scenes as a beekeeper, a couple shearing sheep, a man catching snakes, etc. Old partly scored inscriptions on title page, occasionally heavy marginal soiling and stains, scattered early underscoring, clean tear in 2G6, crude marginal restoration on last two leaves. Scratch to front cover. Very Good example of this important and well-illustrated early herbal. Item #018984

Mattioli's commentary on the 1st-century A.D. materia medica of Dioscorides was first published in Italian in 1544 (without illustrations) and in Latin translation in 1554 (with fewer woodcuts than in this edition). Appended to this edition is his attack on Amatus Lusitanus (i. e., João Rodrigues), the Marrano physician and commentator on Dioscorides. Nissen BBI 1305.

Price: $4,500.00