SILVATICO, Matteo.

Liber pandectarum medicine: omnia medicine simplicia continens: quem ex omnibus antiquorum libris aggregavit eximius artium.

      [Colophon] Vincentie [Vicenza:] Impressum p[er] Hermanum Lichtenstein [n.d., c. 1478–1480]. - Folio, 319 unnumbered leaves (of 322, lacking two blank leaves and the register leaf, supplied in a convincing facsimile). Text in double columns, Gothic letter, 56 lines, capital spaces with guide letters. Some very minor foxing, last two leaves a bit stained, last few leaves with several small wormholes and wear to corners, pale stain in upper corners, larger stain in last few gatherings (mostly very faint), but generally in very good condition. Full maroon morocco, sides panelled in blind, a fine modern binding. Inscription of an early Neapolitan owner at foot of A1, with short single-line marks against many paragraphs and the occasional word in the margins. Fourth printing. A dictionary of simples and their medicinal use, arranged in alphabetical order and giving the names of plants in Greek, Arabic, and Latin. "Matthaeus Silvaticus, Italian lexicographer, botanist and physician (d. c.1342) kept a botanical garden in Salerno which is the earliest garden of its kind known to us, if conventional herb gardens are not taken into account. In that garden he cultivated not only domestic but also foreign plants, such as Arum colocasia; he sowed it in seeds which he had obtained in Greece. He seems to have traveled extensively, and to have observed plants in many localities and collected information on them. He compiled a large materia medica entitled Pandectae The work, begun c.1297, was completed about 1317 and dedicated to King Robert (in 1337?). It is a reference book on diseases and their remedies in the form of a dictionary of simples The names are followed by descriptions of the simples and their properties according to the ‘authorities’. In some instances he adds his own observations. Many erroneous statements are due to his ignorance of the true names of the plants he dealt with. The Pandectae is much larger than the Synonyma of Simon of Genoa, but generally inferior, except from the purely botanical point of view. His descriptions of plants are more elaborate than Simon’s and he could occasionally refer to his experience as a traveler and a gardener These genuine botanical observations redeem the Pandectae from Haller’s severe judgement, ‘Auctor barbari opus chaoticum’. His main sources were the Synonyma medicinae of Simon of Genoa and the Agregatus in medicinus simplicibus of Serapion the Younger " (Sarton, III, pt. 1, p. 816). Despite the Pandectae’s shortcomings, partly due the the author’s ignorance of the Arabic language, it was very successful, running to ten incunable editions and several others in the sixteenth century. It was also one of the first books on the subject to appear in print. The first two editions, both dated 1474, are now extremely rare. Klebs 919.4. BMC VIII, 1038. Goff S513. Wellcome I, 5971. Meyer, Geschichte der Botanik, IV, pp. 167–177. See Stillwell III, 522 and IV, 697. As in the British Library copy, the table of contents and register is bound at the end.