Dioscoride - Medicina Antiqua - 512-1978

THE OLDEST ILLUSTRATED MEDICAL ATLAS OF THE WEST: DIOSCORIDES BETWEEN SCIENCE AND WONDER
Remarkable facsimile edition of the famous Codex Vindobonensis 93, universally known as Dioscorides of Vienna, one of the most important illustrated manuscripts surviving from antiquity. preserved at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna, the codex was produced in Constantinople around 512 AD for the Byzantine princess Anicia Juliana and constitutes the oldest illustrated herball that has come almost intact to our days. This prestigious reproduction published by Club du Livre in 1978 allows us to admire, in faithful colors, the miniatures, botanical, zoological and medical representations that made the manuscript one of the fundamental works in the transmission of scientific knowledge from antiquity to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
MARKET VALUE
The high-quality facsimiles of the great illuminated manuscripts published by Club du Livre and by publishers specialized in the seventies maintain solid collecting interest. The reproductions of Codex Vindobonensis 93, complete with the commentary volume and the packaging, are generally marketed between 600 and 800 euros.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Two volumes. Editorial bindings in half basane and full basane pressed dry, preserved within their respective original cases. One volume containing the fully colored reproduction of the manuscript, the other devoted to studies and scientific commentaries. Full-color reproduction of the entire codex. Spines slightly sun-bleached. Case shows normal signs of use. Numbered copy 3585. Overall excellent example complete with the original editorial jacket. Pp. (2); 150; 2nn; (2). 8nn; 322; 8nn.

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Medicine Antiqua. Fac-similé du Codex Vindobonensis 93.
Paris, Club du Livre, 1978.
Pedanio Dioscoride.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The Codex Vindobonensis 93 represents one of the most important monuments in the history of medicine and botany. Based mainly on the treatise De Materia Medica by Pedanio Dioscoride, a Greek physician of the 1st century AD, the manuscript gathers hundreds of medicinal plants illustrated with astonishing realism for the era. Alongside the botanical images appear representations of animals, physicians, patients and scenes of daily life that constitute an indispensable source for knowledge of the late antique and Byzantine world. For more than a millennium the codex was consulted by doctors, apothecaries and scholars, profoundly influencing the European and Islamic scientific tradition.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Pedanio Dioscoride was born in Anazarbus, Cilicia in the 1st century AD and was a military physician in the Roman army. His work De Materia Medica constitutes the most important pharmacological treatise of antiquity and remained the principal medical reference in Europe and the Mediterranean until the modern era. His descriptions of plants, medicinal substances and therapeutic preparations influenced Western medicine for over fifteen centuries.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The facsimile was published in 1978 by Club du Livre on the basis of the famous Vindobonensis 93 manuscript preserved at the Austrian National Library in Vienna. The edition faithfully reproduces the miniatures, text and layout of the original and is accompanied by specialist studies by Charles H. Talbot and Franz Unterkircher. The copy described here belongs to the numbered edition and bears the number 3585, evidence of the controlled editorial nature of the publication. Vienna Dioscorides is considered one of the most important illustrated scientific manuscripts of antiquity and one of the supreme testimonies of Byzantine miniature art.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Franz Unterkircher, Der Wiener Dioskurides. Codex medicus Graecus 1 der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek.
Charles H. Talbot, Medicine in Medieval England.
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Codex Vindobonensis Med. Gr. 1.
WorldCat, bibliographic records of the Club du Livre edition.
Nissen, Die botanische Buchillustration.
Blunt & Stearn, The Art of Botanical Illustration.
Singer, A History of Biology.
Wellcome Historical Medical Library, catalogs of illustrated medical manuscripts.
ICCU / OPAC SBN, records of the Vienna Dioscorides facsimiles.
Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.