Dioscorides, Pedanius & Ermolao Barbaro

[Greek Title] De Medica Materia Libri V. De Letalibus Venenis Eorum'que precautione & curatione. De cane rabido...Eiusdem Marcelli Vergilii in hosce Dioscorides libris comme(n)tarii... [with] In Dioscoridem Corollarioru[m] libri quinque

      Johannes Soter, Cologne:: Johannes Soter,, 1529- 1530.. First Edition of Barbaro's commentary.. 18th c. vellum, spine slightly wormed, ink shelf number on spine, front joint cracked; occ. browning, first work has blank lower corner of approximately the first 30 leaves restored (no text affected), old signaturesOEx libris Jo. Franc(iscus) Viligian?O and private ownerOs stamp on t.p., scattered early marginalia (some trimmed), second work has light dampstaining in upper right margin with slight paper corrosion along top edge toward end, marginal restoration on last few leaves (no text affected, one headline obscured). . Folio. 2 parts in 1 vol.. PrinterOs marks on t.p.s, fine historiated & decorated initials. Dioscorides was a Greek physician who lived in the first century of the Christian era. He became a military surgeon under the Roman Emperor Nero and was a contemporary of Pliny. He wrote De Materia Medica (about 77 A.D.) which gave medicinal properties and some botanical information for about 600 plants. For about 1500 years, it was the supreme authority due to the practical nature of its contents, and it has been called the "most successful botanical textbook ever written." Dioscorides was believed to have had his medical training in Alexandria. He traveled widely and made observations on plants from the standpoint of their medical uses. He described roots, stems, leaves and sometimes flowers... For centuries no drug plant was considered genuine unless it could be identified by the descriptions given by Dioscorides. "#11;Ermolao Barbaro (1454N1493), Italian humanist scholar, was born at Venice on the 21st of May 1454. At an early age he was sent to Rome, where he studied under Pomponius Laetus. He completed his education at the university of Padua, where he was appointed professor of philosophy in 1477. "Ermolao Barbaro was a humanist of the first generation: not only did he translate several Greek texts into Latin imitating CiceroOs prose, but also, before translating a text, he gathered as many manuscripts as possible to check the text, avoiding the mistakes provoked by manual copying. At the same time, Barbaro commented on the classical texts of the Naturalis Historia by Pliny and the De Materia Medica by Dioscorides. Like his contemporaries, he compared the two works and noticed that they present similar data." #11;Marcello Vergilio "There was extraordinary charm in this man's winning expression and cultivated speech and, when he was lecturing to his young pupils from the platform or speaking to a group of listeners, he displayed a wide learning remarkable from its very variety. Moreover, he served the state as Chancellor, an office which Aretino and Poggio had held before him, and, when he had the leisure, he was accustomed to devote it to a third occupation. For at the urgent request of the Medici he had undertaken to translate all Dioscorides and he hoped to win from this task no mean glory, since from early youth he had toiled with most painstaking industry at the very difficult subject of botany. "#11; VD 16 D 1998 & B 349. Adams D655. Hoffmann I,600. Durling/NLM 1134 & 470. Wellcome I 1778. OCLC: 6440912+.See: Simon Gastronomia 52.