Dioscorides: Difference between revisions
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{{Infobox person | {{Infobox person | ||
| name = Pedanius Dioscorides | | name = Pedanius Dioscorides | ||
| image = | | image = Dioscorides Vienna (detail) (cropped).jpg | ||
| alt = | | alt = | ||
| caption = Dioscorides receives a [[mandrake (plant)|mandrake]] root, an illumination from the 6th century ({{c.|512}}) Greek [[Juliana Anicia Codex]] | | caption = Dioscorides receives a [[mandrake (plant)|mandrake]] root, an illumination from the 6th century ({{c.|512}}) Greek [[Juliana Anicia Codex]] (detail) | ||
| birth_name = | | birth_name = | ||
| birth_date = {{Circa|40 AD}}<ref>{{cite encyclopedia| encyclopedia= [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]| date= September 27, 2013| title= Pedanius Dioscorides| url= https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pedanius-Dioscorides| via= britannica.com| access-date= July 4, 2020}}</ref> | | birth_date = {{Circa|40 AD}}<ref>{{cite encyclopedia| encyclopedia= [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]| date= September 27, 2013| title= Pedanius Dioscorides| url= https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pedanius-Dioscorides| via= britannica.com| access-date= July 4, 2020}}</ref> | ||
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==Life== | ==Life== | ||
A native of [[Anazarbus]], [[Cilicia]], [[Asia Minor]], Dioscorides likely studied medicine nearby at the school in [[Tarsus, Mersin|Tarsus]], which had a pharmacological emphasis, and he dedicated his medical books to Laecanius Arius, a medical practitioner there.{{efn|The dedication, translated by Scarborough and Nutton,<ref>Scarborough and Nutton, 1982</ref> began "At your insistence I have assembled my material into five books, and I dedicate my compendium to you in fulfilment of a debt of gratitude for your sentiments towards me".<ref name=Stobart/>}}<ref name=Stobart>{{cite book |last=Stobart |first=Anne |title=Critical Approaches to the History of Western Herbal Medicine: From Classical Antiquity to the Early Modern Period |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7SseAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA193 |year=2014 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1-4411-8418-4 |page=193}}</ref><ref name=Wallace>{{cite book | title=Principles and methods of toxicology | editor-first=Andrew Wallace | editor-last=Hayes | page=13 | author1=Borzelleca, Joseph F. | author2=Lane, Richard W. | contribution=The Art, the Science, and the Seduction of Toxicology: an Evolutionary Development | edition=5th | year=2008 | publisher=Taylor & Francis}}</ref> Though he writes he lived a "soldier's life" or "soldier-like life", his pharmacopeia refers almost solely to plants found in the Greek-speaking eastern Mediterranean, making it likely that he served in campaigns, or travelled in a civilian capacity, less widely | A native of [[Anazarbus]], [[Cilicia]], [[Asia Minor]], Dioscorides likely studied medicine nearby at the school in [[Tarsus, Mersin|Tarsus]], which had a pharmacological emphasis, and he dedicated his medical books to Laecanius Arius, a medical practitioner there.{{efn|The dedication, translated by Scarborough and Nutton,<ref>Scarborough and Nutton, 1982</ref> began "At your insistence I have assembled my material into five books, and I dedicate my compendium to you in fulfilment of a debt of gratitude for your sentiments towards me".<ref name=Stobart/>}}<ref name=Stobart>{{cite book |last=Stobart |first=Anne |title=Critical Approaches to the History of Western Herbal Medicine: From Classical Antiquity to the Early Modern Period |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7SseAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA193 |year=2014 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1-4411-8418-4 |page=193}}</ref><ref name=Wallace>{{cite book | title=Principles and methods of toxicology | editor-first=Andrew Wallace | editor-last=Hayes | page=13 | author1=Borzelleca, Joseph F. | author2=Lane, Richard W. | contribution=The Art, the Science, and the Seduction of Toxicology: an Evolutionary Development | edition=5th | year=2008 | publisher=Taylor & Francis}}</ref> Though he writes he lived a "soldier's life" or "soldier-like life", his pharmacopeia refers almost solely to plants found in the Greek-speaking eastern Mediterranean, making it likely that he served in campaigns, or travelled in a civilian capacity, less widely than supposed.<ref>Nutton, Vivian. Ancient medicine. Routledge, 2012. p. 178</ref><ref name="Stobart" /> The name Pedanius is Roman, suggesting that an aristocrat of that name sponsored him to become a Roman citizen.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Western Herbal Tradition: 2000 Years of Medicinal Plant Knowledge |author1=Tobyn, Graeme |author2=Denham, Alison |author3=Whitelegg, Midge |edition=illustrated |publisher=Singing Dragon |year=2016 |isbn=9780857012593 |page=4}}</ref> | ||
==''De materia medica''== | ==''De materia medica''== | ||
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{{Lang|la|De materia medica}} is the prime historical source of information about the medicines used by the Greeks, Romans, and other cultures of antiquity. The work also records the [[Dacian language|Dacian]],<ref>{{cite book | last = Nutton |first=Vivian | title = Ancient Medicine | publisher = Routledge | year = 2004}}. Page 177.</ref> [[Thracian language|Thracian]],<ref>{{cite book | last = Murray |first=J. | title = The Academy | publisher = Alexander and Shephrard | year = 1884}}. Page 68.</ref> Roman, [[ancient Egyptian]] and North African (Carthaginian) names for some plants, which otherwise would have been lost. The work presents about 600 plants in all,<ref name=Krebs>{{cite book | last1 = Krebs |first1=Robert E. |first2=Carolyn A. |last2=Krebs | title = Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the Ancient World | publisher = Greenwood Publishing Group | year = 2003|ref=CITEREFKrebs2003}}. Pages 75–76.</ref> although the descriptions are sometimes obscurely phrased, leading to comments such as: "Numerous individuals from the Middle Ages on have struggled with the identity of the recondite kinds",<ref>Isely, Duane (1994). One hundred and one botanists. Iowa State University Press.</ref> while some of the botanical identifications of Dioscorides' plants remain merely guesses. | {{Lang|la|De materia medica}} is the prime historical source of information about the medicines used by the Greeks, Romans, and other cultures of antiquity. The work also records the [[Dacian language|Dacian]],<ref>{{cite book | last = Nutton |first=Vivian | title = Ancient Medicine | publisher = Routledge | year = 2004}}. Page 177.</ref> [[Thracian language|Thracian]],<ref>{{cite book | last = Murray |first=J. | title = The Academy | publisher = Alexander and Shephrard | year = 1884}}. Page 68.</ref> Roman, [[ancient Egyptian]] and North African (Carthaginian) names for some plants, which otherwise would have been lost. The work presents about 600 plants in all,<ref name=Krebs>{{cite book | last1 = Krebs |first1=Robert E. |first2=Carolyn A. |last2=Krebs | title = Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the Ancient World | publisher = Greenwood Publishing Group | year = 2003|ref=CITEREFKrebs2003}}. Pages 75–76.</ref> although the descriptions are sometimes obscurely phrased, leading to comments such as: "Numerous individuals from the Middle Ages on have struggled with the identity of the recondite kinds",<ref>Isely, Duane (1994). One hundred and one botanists. Iowa State University Press.</ref> while some of the botanical identifications of Dioscorides' plants remain merely guesses. | ||
[[John Goodyer]] translated the work into English in 1655, and bequeathed it to [[Magdalen College, Oxford]]; it was published by the Oxford University Press in 1934.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Greek Herbal of Dioscorides |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/133231a0 |journal=Nature |pages=231–233 |language=en |doi=10.1038/133231a0 |date=February 1934|volume=133 |issue=3355 |bibcode=1934Natur.133..231. }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The John Goodyer Collection of Botanical Books |url=https://www.magd.ox.ac.uk/blog/the-john-goodyer-collection-of-botanical-books/ |website=Magdalen College}}</ref> | [[John Goodyer]] translated the work into English in 1655, and bequeathed it to [[Magdalen College, Oxford]]; it was published by the Oxford University Press in 1934.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Greek Herbal of Dioscorides |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/133231a0 |journal=Nature |pages=231–233 |language=en |doi=10.1038/133231a0 |date=February 1934|volume=133 |issue=3355 |bibcode=1934Natur.133..231. |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The John Goodyer Collection of Botanical Books |url=https://www.magd.ox.ac.uk/blog/the-john-goodyer-collection-of-botanical-books/ |website=Magdalen College}}</ref> | ||
== Legacy == | == Legacy == | ||
[[File:Dioscorea communis RF.jpg|thumb|The genus ''Dioscorea'' includes different species of [[Dioscorea alata|yam]].]] | |||
[[File:Dioscorea communis RF.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|The genus ''[[Dioscorea]]'' includes different species of [[Dioscorea alata|yam]].]] | |||
{{Lang|la|De materia medica}} formed the core of the European pharmacopeia through the 19th century, suggesting that "the timelessness of Dioscorides' work resulted from an empirical tradition based on trial and error; that it worked for generation after generation despite social and cultural changes and changes in medical theory".<ref name="Vos 2010" /> | {{Lang|la|De materia medica}} formed the core of the European pharmacopeia through the 19th century, suggesting that "the timelessness of Dioscorides' work resulted from an empirical tradition based on trial and error; that it worked for generation after generation despite social and cultural changes and changes in medical theory".<ref name="Vos 2010" /> | ||
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==Gallery== | ==Gallery== | ||
<gallery> | |||
<gallery class=center mode=nolines widths=180 heights=180> | |||
File:Uc2.ark 13960 t8rb76g72-seq 449 (cropped Dioscorides).jpg|Portrait of an old man; perhaps the physician Dioscorides, whose name is cut in front of it. Antique paste | File:Uc2.ark 13960 t8rb76g72-seq 449 (cropped Dioscorides).jpg|Portrait of an old man; perhaps the physician Dioscorides, whose name is cut in front of it. Antique paste | ||
File:Dioscorides01.jpg|Later representation of Dioscorides | File:Dioscorides01.jpg|Later representation of Dioscorides | ||
File:Portrait of Dioscorides from De Materia Medica cropped.jpg| | File:Portrait of Dioscorides from De Materia Medica cropped.jpg|In a 1240 Arabic edition of {{Lang|la|De materia medica}} | ||
File:Dioscorides De Materia Medica Spain 12th 13th century.jpg|{{Lang|la|De materia medica}} in [[Arabic]], [[Spain]], 12th–13th century | File:Dioscorides De Materia Medica Spain 12th 13th century.jpg|{{Lang|la|De materia medica}} in [[Arabic]], [[Spain]], 12th–13th century | ||
File:Arabic herbal medicine guidebook.jpeg|Cumin and dill from an Arabic [[Herbalism#Middle Ages|book of simples]] (c. 1334) after Dioscorides ([[British Museum]]) | File:Arabic herbal medicine guidebook.jpeg|Cumin and dill from an Arabic [[Herbalism#Middle Ages|book of simples]] (c. 1334) after Dioscorides ([[British Museum]]) | ||
Latest revision as of 07:47, 13 October 2025
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Pedanius Dioscorides (Template:Langx, Script error: No such module "Lang".; Template:C. 40–90 AD), "the father of pharmacognosy", was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of Script error: No such module "Lang". (in the original Template:Langx, Template:Transliteration, both meaning "On Medical Material") , a 5-volume Greek encyclopedic pharmacopeia on herbal medicine and related medicinal substances, that was widely read for more than 1,500 years. For almost two millennia Dioscorides was regarded as the most prominent writer on plants and plant drugs.[1][2]
Life
A native of Anazarbus, Cilicia, Asia Minor, Dioscorides likely studied medicine nearby at the school in Tarsus, which had a pharmacological emphasis, and he dedicated his medical books to Laecanius Arius, a medical practitioner there.Template:Efn[3][4] Though he writes he lived a "soldier's life" or "soldier-like life", his pharmacopeia refers almost solely to plants found in the Greek-speaking eastern Mediterranean, making it likely that he served in campaigns, or travelled in a civilian capacity, less widely than supposed.[5][3] The name Pedanius is Roman, suggesting that an aristocrat of that name sponsored him to become a Roman citizen.[6]
De materia medica
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Between 50 and 70 AD[7] Dioscorides wrote a five-volume book in his native Greek, Script error: No such module "Lang". (Perì hylēs íatrikēs), known in Western Europe more often by its Latin title Script error: No such module "Lang". ("On Medical Material"), which became the precursor to all modern pharmacopeias.[8]
In contrast to many classical authors, Dioscorides' works were not "rediscovered" in the Renaissance, because his book had never left circulation; indeed, with regard to Western materia medica through the early modern period, Dioscorides' text eclipsed the Hippocratic corpus.[9]
In the medieval period, Script error: No such module "Lang". was circulated in Greek, as well as Latin and Arabic translation.[10]
While being reproduced in manuscript form through the centuries, it was often supplemented with commentary and minor additions from Arabic and Indian sources. Ibn al-Baitar's commentary on Dioscorides' Script error: No such module "Lang"., entitled Script error: No such module "Lang".: Script error: No such module "Lang"., has been used by scholars to identify many of the flora mentioned by Dioscorides.[11]
A number of illustrated manuscripts of Script error: No such module "Lang". survive. The most famous of these is the lavishly illustrated Vienna Dioscurides, produced in Constantinople in 512/513 AD. Densely illustrated Arabic copies survive from the 12th and 13th centuries, while Greek manuscripts survive today in the monasteries of Mount Athos.[12]
Script error: No such module "Lang". is the prime historical source of information about the medicines used by the Greeks, Romans, and other cultures of antiquity. The work also records the Dacian,[13] Thracian,[14] Roman, ancient Egyptian and North African (Carthaginian) names for some plants, which otherwise would have been lost. The work presents about 600 plants in all,[15] although the descriptions are sometimes obscurely phrased, leading to comments such as: "Numerous individuals from the Middle Ages on have struggled with the identity of the recondite kinds",[16] while some of the botanical identifications of Dioscorides' plants remain merely guesses.
John Goodyer translated the work into English in 1655, and bequeathed it to Magdalen College, Oxford; it was published by the Oxford University Press in 1934.[17][18]
Legacy
Script error: No such module "Lang". formed the core of the European pharmacopeia through the 19th century, suggesting that "the timelessness of Dioscorides' work resulted from an empirical tradition based on trial and error; that it worked for generation after generation despite social and cultural changes and changes in medical theory".[9]
The plant genus Dioscorea, which includes the yam, was named after him by Linnaeus.
A butterfly, the bush hopper, Ampittia dioscorides which is found from India southeast towards Indonesia and east towards China, is named after him.[19]
Gallery
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Portrait of an old man; perhaps the physician Dioscorides, whose name is cut in front of it. Antique paste
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Later representation of Dioscorides
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In a 1240 Arabic edition of Script error: No such module "Lang".
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Cumin and dill from an Arabic book of simples (c. 1334) after Dioscorides (British Museum)
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Byzantine Script error: No such module "Lang"., 15th century
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Folio from an Arabic manuscript of Dioscorides, Script error: No such module "Lang"., 1229
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Translations
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See also
Notes
References
Sources
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- Bruins: Codex Constantinopolitanus: Palatii Veteris NO. 1 [3 volume set] Part 1: Reproduction of the Manuscript; Part 2: Greek Text; Part 3: Translation and Commentary Bruins, E. M. (Ed.)
- Forbes, Andrew; Henley, Daniel; Henley, David (2013). 'Pedanius Dioscorides' in: Health and Well Being: A Medieval Guide. Chiang Mai: Cognoscenti Books.
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External links
Template:Sister project Template:Wikisource/outer coreScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Script error: No such module "Gutenberg".
- Template:Internet Archive author
- Works by Dioscorides
- Dioscorides Materia Medica, in English—the full book downloadable in PDF fileformat.
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- Pedacio Dioscorides anazarbeo: Acerca de la materia medicinal y de los venenos mortiferos, Antwerp, 1555, digitized at Biblioteca Digital Hispánica, Biblioteca Nacional de España
- Les VI livres de Ped. Diosc. de la materie medicinale, Lyon (1559), French edition
- The 1500th Anniversary (512–2012) of the Juliana Anicia Codex: An Illustrated Dioscoridean Recension. Jules Janick and Kim E. Hummer. Chronica horticulturae. 52(3) 2012 pp. 9–15
Template:Ancient anaesthesia-footer Template:Natural history Template:History of biologyTemplate:Ancient Roman medicineTemplate:Authority control
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
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- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- ↑ Nutton, Vivian. Ancient medicine. Routledge, 2012. p. 178
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- ↑ a b De Vos (2010) "European Materia Medica in Historical Texts: Longevity of a Tradition and Implications for Future Use", Journal of Ethnopharmacology 132(1):28–47
- ↑ Some detail about medieval manuscripts of De Materia Medica at pages xxix–xxxi in Introduction to Dioscorides Materia Medica by TA Osbaldeston, year 2000.
- ↑ Zohar Amar, Agricultural Produce in the Land of Israel in the Middle Ages (Hebrew title: גידולי ארץ-ישראל בימי הביניים), Ben-Zvi Institute: Jerusalem 2000, p. 270 Template:ISBN (Hebrew); Tafsīr Kitāb Diāsqūrīdūs - commentaire de la "Materia Medica" de Dioscoride de Abū Muḥammad ʻAbdallāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Bayṭār de Malaga (ed. Ibrahim Ben Mrad), Beirut 1989 (Arabic title: تفسير كتاب دياسقوريدوس)
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".. Page 177.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".. Page 68.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".. Pages 75–76.
- ↑ Isely, Duane (1994). One hundred and one botanists. Iowa State University Press.
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