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''De Materia Medica'' (Latin for "On Medical Material") is an encyclopaedia and pharmacopoeia of herbs and the medicines that can be obtained from them. The five-volume work describes many drugs known to be effective, including aconite, aloes, colocynth, colchicum, henbane, opium and squill. In all, about 600 plants are covered, along with some animals and mineral substances, and around 1000 medicines made from them. The work was written between 50 and 70 AD by Pedanius Dioscorides, a Roman physician of Greek origin. It was widely read for more than 1,500 years until supplanted by revised herbals in the Renaissance, making it one of the longest-lasting of all natural history books. ''De Materia Medica'' was circulated as illustrated manuscripts, copied by hand, in Greek, Latin and Arabic throughout the mediaeval period. From the sixteenth century on, Dioscorides' text was translated into Italian, German, Spanish, and French, and in 1655 into English. It formed the basis for herbals in these languages by men such as Leonhart Fuchs, Valerius Cordus, Lobelius, Rembert Dodoens, Carolus Clusius, John Gerard and William Turner. Gradually such herbals included more and more direct observations, supplementing and eventually supplanting the classical text. Several manuscripts and early printed versions of ''De Materia Medica'' survive, including the illustrated Vienna Dioscurides manuscript from sixth-century Constantinople. ==Book== Between 50 and 70 AD, Dioscorides wrote a five-volume book in his native Greek, ''Peri hules iatrikēs'', known more widely by its Latin title ''De Materia Medica'' ("On Medical Material"). It became the principal reference work on pharmacology across Europe and the Middle East for over 1500 years, and was thus the precursor of all modern pharmacopoeias. In contrast to many classical authors, ''De Materia Medica'' was not "rediscovered" in the Renaissance, because it never left circulation; indeed, Dioscorides' text eclipsed the Hippocratic corpus.〔 In the medieval period, ''De Materia Medica'' was circulated in Latin, Greek, and Arabic.〔Some detail about medieval manuscripts of ''De Materia Medica'' at (Ibidis Press )〕 In the Renaissance from 1478 onwards, it was printed in Italian, German, Spanish, and French as well.〔Boas, 1962. p47〕 In 1655, John Goodyer made an English translation from a printed version, probably not corrected from the Greek. While being reproduced in manuscript form through the centuries, the text was often supplemented with commentary and minor additions from Arabic and Indian sources. Several illustrated manuscripts of ''De Materia Medica'' survive. The most famous of these is the lavishly illustrated Vienna Dioscurides, produced in Constantinople in 512/513 AD; the Naples Dioscurides and Morgan Dioscurides are somewhat later manuscripts in Greek, while Greek manuscripts survive today in the monasteries of Mount Athos. Densely illustrated Arabic copies survive from the 12th and 13th centuries. The result is a complex set of relationships between manuscripts, involving translation, copying errors, additions of text and illustrations, deletions, reworkings, and a combination of copying from one manuscript and correction from another. ''De Materia Medica'' is the prime historical source of information about the medicines used by the Greeks, Romans, and other cultures of antiquity. The work also records the Dacian names for some plants, which otherwise would have been lost. The work presents about 600 plants in all, along with some animals and mineral substances, and around 1000 medicines made from these sources.〔Osbaldeston, 2000. Introduction, page xx〕 Botanists have not always found Dioscorides' plants easy to identify from his short descriptions, partly because he had naturally described plants and animals from southeastern Europe, whereas by the sixteenth century his book was in use all over Europe and across the Islamic world. This meant that people attempted to force a match between the plants they knew and those described by Dioscorides, leading to what could be catastrophic results.〔Sutton, 2007. p35〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「De Materia Medica」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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