Pietro Andrea Gregorio MattioliBorn 23 Mar 1500; died 1577 .Italian physician and botanist who translated Dioscoride's famous 1st-century herbal, Materia Medica into Italian as Di Pedacio Dioscoride Anazarbeo libri cinque (1544), adding commentary to clarify and expand it with his own research observations. He gave very detailed descriptions of each genus of plant, illustrated with many delicately detailed woodcuts by Giorgio Liberale. As a textbook for pharmacology used during the next two centuries, with translations in many languages, it influenced the development of modern botany. Mattioli collected and studied hundreds of plants for their medicinal value, many of them new to science. He also wrote on medical subjects including the origin and treatment of syphilis.« |
