Dioscorides: Codex vindobonensis medicus graecus 1 of the Austrian National Library, Vienna

by Pedanius Dioscorides

Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1977

About the author

Pedanius Dioscorides, (born c. AD 40, Anazarbus, Cilicia—died c. 90), Greek physician and pharmacologist whose work De materia medica was the foremost classical source of modern botanical terminology and the leading pharmacological text for 16 centuries.

Dioscorides’ travels as a surgeon with the armies of the Roman emperor Nero provided him an opportunity to study the features, distribution, and medicinal properties of many plants and minerals. Excellent descriptions of nearly 600 plants, including cannabis, colchicum, water hemlock, and peppermint, are contained in De materia medica. Written in five books around the year 77, this work deals with approximately 1,000 simple drugs.