Maura K. Williams

MKW “Dioscorides”

Maura K. Williams

“Dioscorides”

10” x 10”

4-color screen print (hand pulled)

Pedanius Dioscorides served in the Roman army during the time of Nero and Vespasian, late 1^st century CE. He wrote a book in Greek on herbal medicine. In the 16^th century Pietro Andrea Mattioli used the book of Dioscorides to augment the examples with ones he had used. In so doing, he brought the work of Dioscorides to the world anew.

This print combines a picture of “helleboro biancho” from a a 16^th century manuscript of De Materia Medica with the text of the Dioscorides book one as it appears in Padanii Dioscuridis Anazarbei De Materia Medica Libri Quinque ed. M. Wellmann, Volumen 1 quo contintentu Libri I et II, Berlin 1907 (my translation).

Text:

Πολλῶν οὐ μόνον ἀρχαίων ἀλλὰ καὶ νέων συνταξαμένων περὶ τῆς τῶν φαρμάκων σκευασίας τε καὶ δυνάμεως καὶ δοκιμασίας φίλτατε, Ἄρειε, πειράσομαι παραστῆσαί σοι μὴ κενὴν μη δὲ ἄλογον ὁρμὴν ἐσχηκέναι με πρὸς τήνδε τὴν πραγματείαν

With many men not only of ancient times but also of new recent times having written about the recipes for medicines and also their power and properties, dearest Areius, I will try to prove to you that I have not undertaken a fruitless or unreasonable impulse with this treatise …

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