Pedanius Dioscorides Explained

Pedanius Dioscorides
Birth Date:[1]
Other Names:Dioscurides
Known For:De Materia Medica
Occupation:Army physician, pharmacologist, botanist

Pedanius Dioscorides (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Πεδάνιος Διοσκουρίδης, ; 40–90 AD), "the father of pharmacognosy", was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of (On Medical Material), a 5-volume Greek encyclopedia about herbal medicine and related medicinal substances (a pharmacopeia), that was widely read for more than 1,500 years. For almost two millennia Dioscorides was regarded as the most prominent writer on plants and plant drugs.[2] [3]

Life

A native of Anazarbus, Cilicia, Asia Minor, Dioscorides likely studied medicine nearby at the school in Tarsus, which had a pharmacological emphasis, and he dedicated his medical books to Laecanius Arius, a medical practitioner there.[4] [5] Though he writes he lived a "soldier's life" or "soldier-like life", his pharmacopeia refers almost solely to plants found in the Greek-speaking eastern Mediterranean, making it likely that he served in campaigns, or travelled in a civilian capacity, less widely as supposed.[6] The name Pedanius is Roman, suggesting that an aristocrat of that name sponsored him to become a Roman citizen.[7]

De materia medica

See main article: De materia medica. Between AD 50 and 70 [8] Dioscorides wrote a five-volume book in his native Greek, Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Περὶ ὕλης ἰατρικῆς (Perì hylēs íatrikēs), known in Western Europe more often by its Latin title ("On Medical Material"), which became the precursor to all modern pharmacopeias.[9]

In contrast to many classical authors, Dioscorides' works were not "rediscovered" in the Renaissance, because his book had never left circulation; indeed, with regard to Western materia medica through the early modern period, Dioscorides' text eclipsed the Hippocratic corpus.[10]

In the medieval period, was circulated in Greek, as well as Latin and Arabic translation.[11]

While being reproduced in manuscript form through the centuries, it was often supplemented with commentary and minor additions from Arabic and Indian sources. Ibn al-Baitar's commentary on Dioscorides', entitled Arabic: Tafsīr Kitāb Diāsqūrīdūs: Arabic: تفسير كتاب دياسقوريدوس, has been used by scholars to identify many of the flora mentioned by Dioscorides.[12]

A number of illustrated manuscripts of survive. The most famous of these is the lavishly illustrated Vienna Dioscurides, produced in Constantinople in 512/513 AD. Densely illustrated Arabic copies survive from the 12th and 13th centuries, while Greek manuscripts survive today in the monasteries of Mount Athos.[13]

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,[14] Thracian,[15] Roman, ancient Egyptian and North African (Carthaginian) names for some plants, which otherwise would have been lost. The work presents about 600 plants in all,[16] although the descriptions are sometimes obscurely phrased, leading to comments such as: "Numerous individuals from the Middle Ages on have struggled with the identity of the recondite kinds",[17] while some of the botanical identifications of Dioscorides' plants remain merely guesses.

John Goodyer translated the work into English in 1655, and bequeathed it to Magdalen College, Oxford; it was published by the Oxford University Press in 1934.[18] [19]

formed the core of the European pharmacopeia through the 19th century, suggesting that "the timelessness of Dioscorides' work resulted from an empirical tradition based on trial and error; that it worked for generation after generation despite social and cultural changes and changes in medical theory".[10]

The plant genus Dioscorea, which includes the yam, was named after him by Linnaeus. A butterfly, the bush hopper, Ampittia dioscorides which is found from India southeast towards Indonesia and east towards China, is named after him.[20]

Translations

See also

Sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. Encyclopedia: Encyclopaedia Britannica. September 27, 2013. Pedanius Dioscorides. britannica.com. July 4, 2020.
  2. Bauer Petrovska . Biljana . Historical review of medicinal plants' usage . Pharmacognosy Reviews . 2012 . 6 . 11 . 1–5 . 10.4103/0973-7847.95849. 22654398 . 3358962 . free .
  3. Web site: Osbaldeston . Tess Anne . De Materia Medica - Pedanius Dioscorides - . 11 November 2022 . 2008.
  4. Book: Stobart, Anne . Critical Approaches to the History of Western Herbal Medicine: From Classical Antiquity to the Early Modern Period . 2014 . A&C Black . 978-1-4411-8418-4 . 193.
  5. Book: Principles and methods of toxicology . Andrew Wallace . Hayes . 13 . Borzelleca, Joseph F. . Lane, Richard W. . The Art, the Science, and the Seduction of Toxicology: an Evolutionary Development . 5th . 2008 . Taylor & Francis.
  6. Nutton, Vivian. Ancient medicine. Routledge, 2012. p. 178
  7. Book: The Western Herbal Tradition: 2000 Years of Medicinal Plant Knowledge . Tobyn, Graeme . Denham, Alison . Whitelegg, Midge . illustrated . Singing Dragon . 2016 . 9780857012593 . 4.
  8. Web site: Greek Medicine . National Institutes of Health, USA . 16 September 2002 . 1 July 2013.
  9. Book: The History of Medicine . Rooney, Anne . The Rosen Publishing Group . 2012 . 9781448873708 . 121.
  10. De Vos (2010) "European Materia Medica in Historical Texts: Longevity of a Tradition and Implications for Future Use", Journal of Ethnopharmacology 132(1):28–47
  11. Some detail about medieval manuscripts of De Materia Medica at pages xxix–xxxi in Introduction to Dioscorides Materia Medica by TA Osbaldeston, year 2000.
  12. Zohar Amar, Agricultural Produce in the Land of Israel in the Middle Ages (Hebrew title: גידולי ארץ-ישראל בימי הביניים), Ben-Zvi Institute: Jerusalem 2000, p. 270 (Hebrew); Tafsīr Kitāb Diāsqūrīdūs - commentaire de la "Materia Medica" de Dioscoride de Abū Muḥammad ʻAbdallāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Bayṭār de Malaga (ed. Ibrahim Ben Mrad), Beirut 1989 (Arabic title: تفسير كتاب دياسقوريدوس)
  13. Book: Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures . Springer . Selin, Helaine . 2008 . 1077. 9781402045592 .
  14. Book: Nutton, Vivian . Ancient Medicine . Routledge . 2004. . Page 177.
  15. Book: Murray, J. . The Academy . Alexander and Shephrard . 1884. . Page 68.
  16. Book: Krebs . Robert E. . Carolyn A. . Krebs . Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the Ancient World . Greenwood Publishing Group . 2003. CITEREFKrebs2003. . Pages 75–76.
  17. Isely, Duane (1994). One hundred and one botanists. Iowa State University Press.
  18. The Greek Herbal of Dioscorides . Nature . 231–233 . en . 10.1038/133231a0 . February 1934. 133 . 3355 . 1934Natur.133..231. .
  19. Web site: The John Goodyer Collection of Botanical Books . Magdalen College.
  20. Book: Florida Ethnobotany . Austin, Daniel F. . illustrated . CRC Press . 2004 . 9780203491881 . 267.

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