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Dioscorides and De Materia Medica - Pomegranate
Identifier
018073
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Tess Anne Osbaldeston
Pier Andrea Mattioli (1500 to 1577), a renowned botanist and physician, translated De Materia Medica into vernacular Italian as Di Pedacio Dioscoride Anazarbeo libri cinque … , Venice 1544. An illustrated edition in Latin followed: Commentarii in sex libros Pedacii Dioscoridis de medica materia, Venice 1554.
In this imposing plant encyclopaedia Mattioli identified Dioscorides’ plants and added 562 woodcut illustrations. Mattioli experimented on prisoners to determine the lethal thresholds of various poisonous plants, ensuring the medical popularity of his books. Mattioli, obsessed with Dioscorides, set out to be the supreme authority on his idol, tolerating neither rivals nor corrections. He wielded immense influence throughout Europe.
Over the years Mattioli's commentaries overwhelmed De Materia Medica — for example on acorus (Iris pseudacorus) Dioscorides wrote seven lines, and Mattioli 140 lines.
A description of the experience
From DIOSCORIDES - DE MATERIA MEDICA BEING AN HERBAL WITH MANY OTHER MEDICINAL MATERIALS WRITTEN IN GREEK IN THE FIRST CENTURY OF THE COMMON ERA A NEW INDEXED VERSION IN MODERN ENGLISH BY Tess Anne Osbaldeston and RPA Wood - Introduction
A decoction of pomegranate root bark is prescribed to expel tapeworm.
Illustration of pomegranates- Mattioli
