Dioscoride

Pedanius Dioscoride (in Greek old Διοσκορίδης Dioskoridês ), born towards 40 after J. - C. with Anazarbe in Cilicie (in current the Turkey) and died towards 90 after J. - C., is a Greek Médecin whose work was the primary source of knowledge as regards medicinal plants during the Antiquité. It was used until the 16th century.

We know little thing on the life of Dioscoride. The only information source is the foreword of Of materia medica (Περὶ Ὕλης Ἰατρικῆς Peri Hulês Iatrikês , “on the medicinal plants”) which it writes towards 60 after J. - C. which gives rise to think that he was army medical officer under the reigns of Claude I {{er}} and of Néron. The displacements made abroad during its career enable him to gather many information.

Of materia medica is, undoubtedly, the work of botany, which had the greatest influence in the history of this discipline. It describes the medical use of 1.600 products, the three fifths are plants, the remainder of the animals and minerals. It gives the popular name of each species, and briefly describes them, it indicates their virtues and how to collect them. It tries to give, when it can it, their geographical distribution. Thereafter, other authors or doctors added to his work of the synonyms of the Greek names of plants in the principal languages of the Mediterranean basin.

Work is before a whole medical work and Dioscoride is interested only little in botany as such (it refers only seldom to work of Théophraste however known of its contemporaries). He prefers the observation direct with the repetition of hearsay and critical the works of his predecessors except however for Crateuas.

The book of Dioscoride forever ceased circulating in Europe and in the Moslem world . The oldest illustrated copy of this treaty was discovered with Istanbul in 1560 (it is probable that the illustrations come from the Rhizotomikon of Crateuas). This copy (in which the order of the chapters is not any more the order that Dioscoride had given them, but the alphabetical order) date of the 6th century (probably 512 or 513). It is preserved today at Vienna.

It left five books on the medical Matière , with which one often associated, in the old editions, the treaty of the simple remedies, whose authenticity is still disputed. The best editions of this work quoted at the 19th century are for the Dictionnaire Bouillet:

those of the Alde, Venice, 1499 and 1518
of Marcellus Vergilius, Cologne, 1529, Greek-Latin
of Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel with Leipzig, 1828, 2 volumes in-8.

The best edition is currently that of max Wellamnn (Berlin, 1906-1914).

The work was commented on by Pierandrea Mattioli, Venice, 1554.

Among the many translations carried out in Europe, let us quote those of Jean Ruel which appears in 1516 and of Martin Mathée, Lyon, 1559.

Among the modern translations:

good Spanish translation in 1998 (due to Manuela Garcia Valdes).
Dioscorides. Of materia medica. - five books in one volume: With new English translation by T.A.Osbaldeston. Introductory notes by R.P.Wood. First Edition, 2000. Published by IBIDIS Near, Johannesburg, South Africa.

External bonds

Greek and Latin text, edition of Leipzig 1829, on the site of the BIUM (inter-University Library of Medicine, Paris).

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