With fine hand-colouring throughout

MATTIOLI, Pietro Andrea.

Les commentaires sur les six livres de Simples de Pedacius Dioscoride Anazarbeen. Traduit de Latin en Francais . . Seconde impression, revue & augmentee de nouveau.

Lyon: Widow of Gabriel Cotier, 1566.

2nd Edition. Hardcover. Folio - over 12 - 15" tall. Good. Item #002401

Folio (337 x 220 mm). [62] (of [64]), 538, [24] (of [26]) pp. Signatures: ?6 (-?1) *-***6 ****8 a-z6 A-Aa6 (-Aa6), lacking the title-leaf and final blank Aa6, but with blank Y6. With woodcut illustrations in text throughout, all with contemporary hand-coloration. 18th century half calf, spine with 6 raised bands and one (of two) morocco label lettered in gilt (heavy wear to extremities, spine rubbed and partly cracked at upper joint, corners bumped, little worming to leather, upper spine repaired with cellotape). Text lightly browned throughout, all pages ruled in ink, frequent small ink smudges, closed tears (partly with old paper repairs) to few leaves, first leaf of preliminaries and final 5 leaves of index with old paper backing in blank areas (affecting just a few letters of text). Provenance: Ink inscription on Y6v in French dated 1745; Monsieur Brassot, maitre chirugien (ink inscription dated Oct. 5, 1763 on Z6v). Despite the missing title-page still a very good copy of a rare edition. ----

Nissen BBI 1312; NLM/Durling 3016; Baudrier IV, 77; French Vern. Books 37146; Pritzel 5991 (1572 ed.); not in BM STC and Adams. A reprint of the French translation by Antoine du Pinet first published in 1561. The more than 650 woodcuts mainly of plants and animals are reproductions reduced in size after the Venice edition of 1565. Although Mattioli wrote on a range of subjects, and published translations of non-medical works, he is most celebrated for his work on botany and medicine, and of these works his best known are his translations of, and commentaries on, Dioscorides' De medica material. 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, provided with a special commentary, and accompanied by numerous illustrations valuable for the identification of Dioscorides simples [which] rendered the work accessible to scholars throughout Europe." (DSB IX, p.179). From that time, many editions followed in other vernacular languages with the first French translation in 1561.

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