Original Mattioli Pietro Andrea Antique Italian Woodcut of Hiosciamo

Original Antique Xilografia Hiosciamo By Mattioli Pietro Andrea Woodcut On Paper. The artwork depicts a Hioscyamine plant, with description in Italian below. Certified authenticity on reverse.

Dimensions
15.5” x 19.5”

About the Artist

Acquired from a large art collectors auction in 2023.

Pietro Andrea Mattioli, a Renaissance physician and botanist, was born Mar. 23, 1501. In 1544, Mattioli published a translation with commentary of an ancient text, De materia medica, by the Greek physician Dioscorides. This was basically a book of medical botany, describing about 500 plants and indicating their use for the physician.

The first edition of Mattioli’s celebrated commentary on Dioscorides’ De materia medica – the most significant botanical book from antiquity and the most authoritative source on medical botany during the Renaissance – first appeared in the Italian language in Venice in 1544 as an unillustrated edition titled Di Pedacio Dioscoride Anazarbeo Libri cinque della historia et materia medicinale. The publishing initiative was met with immediate success, and unauthorised editions soon appeared, including that of 1549, printed in Mantua. The event led Mattioli to produce an expanded Latin edition of his work, which was issued in 1554 by the Venetian printer Vincenzo Valgrisi and included new information on herbs and plants, along with the first appearance of small woodcuts that would assist in the reading and studying of the text.