MATTIOLI, PIETRO ANDREA (1501-1577)
New Kreuterbuch. Translated by George Handsch.
Folio (350 x 230 mm), HANDSOME BLINDSTAMPED PIGSKING BINDING OVER WOODEN BOARDS (skillfully rebacked, with spine, catches and flyleaves renewed) . Title printed in red and black with woodcut double device of Melantrich and Valgrisi, repeated on final leaf 4D6v, woodcut Melantrich device on 4D5v, woodcut portrait of Mattioli on 2/2r and 810 woodcut illustrations [Nissen count] by Georgio Liberale and Wolfgang Meyerpeck, woodcut initials. (Some variable light browning, the lower edge a bit frayed), altogether a clean good copy. Ff. (38), 575, (1). Double ex-libris. FIRST EDITION IN GERMAN OF MATTIOLI'S COMMENTARII, and the 'first appearance of the fine series of large woodcuts made by Giorgio Liberale and Wolfgang Meyerpeck ... The woodcuts are an important advance over the fairly mediocre ones used in Mattioli's earlier works' (Hunt). Mattioli's first Italian translation from the Greek was published in Venice in 1544, and its 'original purpose was relatively modest: it was to provide doctors and apothecaries with a practical treatise in Italian with a commentary that would enable them to identify the medicinal plants mentioned by Dioscorides' (DSB IX, p.179). Further, expanded editions followed in 1548, 1550 and 1552, and the success of these editions led Mattioli to translate the work into Latin in 1554. This translation was enriched by synonyms in various languages, and accompanied by numerous illustrations valuable for the identification of Dioscorides' simples [which] rendered the work accessible to scholars throughout Europe. From then Mattioli's name was linked with that of Dioscorides' (DSB). BM(NH) III, 1268; Cleveland Collections 89; Hunt 91; Nissen BBI 1310.
Prague: Georg Melantrich for himself and Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1563
€ 22.000,00
