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Books, Autographs & Prints

Wednesday 18 November 2020, 10:30 AM • Rome

68

[Dioscoride] - Amatus Lusitanus, pseud. di Joao Rodrigues de Castelo Branco

In Dioscoridis Anazarbei de Medica Materia libros quinque, 1558

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€ 1.200 - 1.600

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€ 1.536

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Information

Lyon, Matthiam Bonhomme sub Claua Aurea, 1558. In 8th. Typographic mark on the title page, woodcut illustrations for the whole text, sporadic browning, corrections in pen on pages 91-92, rigid parchment binding of the 19th century. On the cover sheet, note of ownership by Giovanni Francesco Calvi.

Specialist Notes

FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION, reissue of the title page with the colophon which preserves the signature "Vidua Balthazaris Arnolleti." Rodrigues, who adopted the humanistic name Amatus Lusitanus, was a Spanish-Jewish physicist and surgeon. He was Mattioli's great rival as editor and commentator of Dioscorides and was the victim of his wrath: "Through charges leveled by Mattioli, Amatus (whose name Mattioli persisted in altering to Amathus, meaning simpleton) was hunted from place to place by the Inquisition. He finally obtained refuge in the Jewish colony in Salonica, but lost his livelihood, his reputation, and the manuscript of the translation of Avicenna that he had nearly completed "Anderson, An illustrated history of the herbals. < br>