On Medical Matters

1549 in octavo format, contain these annotations.

The merits of Leonardi Fuchsii, a very sharp man, consist primarily in criticizing the Arabic translators and in comparing the descriptions of Dioscorides with nature itself, as much as possible. He wrote a book titled Paradoxa medicinae Paradoxes of Medicine, which exposed and refuted the errors of the Arabs (Basel, 1535, folio).

Anton. Musa Brassavolus of Ferrara provides very few aids; his Examen medicamentorum simplicium Examination of Simple Medicines (Zurich, 1555, octavo) adds new ones to the hallucinations common at that time.

The work of Ludov. Anguillara is highly to be commended; he traveled throughout all of Greece, Macedonia, and Illyricum, in order to gain knowledge of the plants described by Dioscorides for himself. In a rare booklet (Semplici Simples, Venice, 1561, octavo), he strives to correct the text from time to time, but especially illustrates the plants of Dioscorides with his own observations.

Nor should Barthol. Maranta be underestimated, whose Methodus cognoscendorum simplicium Method of Knowing Simples, published at Venice in 1559 in a square format, contains innumerable expositions drawn from his own observation; and Valer. Cordus, whose annotations on Dioscorides were edited by C. Gesner at Frankfurt in 1561 in a larger format.

The commentaries of Petri Andreae Matthioli on Dioscorides are by far the most celebrated, nor do they need my praise. Yet he neither applied enough study to correcting the text, nor was he free from hallucinations, which even arose from rivalries he had with other contemporaries. I generally use the edition of his complete works, which Io. Casp. Bauhinus edited at Basel in 1674 in a larger format.

Furthermore, we certainly cannot do without the excellent and immortal works of Fabii Columnae. He began to agitate questions about the plants of Dioscorides with an entirely new study, and his most ample and accurate knowledge of plants, at least of Italian ones, often successfully resolved those questions. One who is about to bring light to Dioscorides cannot put down from his hands his Ecphrasis stirpium Exposition of Plants (Rome, 1616, quarto), nor his Phytobasanum Plant-trial/test, edited by Iani Planci (Milan, 1744, quarto).