parsnips

Pietro Mattioli (1501-1577), a physician and botanist, first published his commentaries on the classic work on medical botany from antiquity – Dioscorides’ De materia medica – in 1544 in Italian.  He identified the plants that the ancient Greek had discussed as being medically useful and added dozens of new ones known from other parts of Europe.  Mattioli’s work was quickly translated into numerous European languages and re-published for more than a century as the standard text on the subject.  This edition – in German, dated 1678 – is evidence of the work’s enduring value.  This b