them); Book 2 takes up animals and parts of animals, pharmaceuticals fashioned from
various insects, crustaceans, arthropods, reptiles, and larger animals, both wild and
domestic, and then follow cereals, pot herbs, and others which are “sharper”; Book 3 con-
tinues with more roots, juices, and seeds, and Book 4 provides roots and herbs not included
previously; finally in Book 5 are details of wines and mineralogy, disclosing that Dioskou-
ride ̄s knew well the vintner’s technologies since ancient wine production struggled to pro-
duce a beverage that did not become “sour” (viz. turn into vinegar), and the “additives” in
Book 5 are priceless listings of ingredients used to flavor wines, or were substances used in
hopes of controlling what we call fermentation. In Book 5 Dioskouride ̄s considers subjects
far beyond what moderns expect in a work on pharmacology: here are the technologies of
quicklime, the important properties of minerals as manufactured into drugstuffs and other
products, and why one has to know the best sites of mining and smelting of fine ores, so that
the physician can procure good mineral pharmaceuticals; knowledge of such metallurgical
technologies enables the doctor to recognize the best remedies, as contrasted to some com-
mon poisons, also derived from minerals.
Several of Dioskouride ̄s’ descriptions became standard, appearing repeatedly in accounts
of medicines in later Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Armenian, coming down to the first printed
editions of the Renaissance. Illustrative are the opium poppy (4.64), mandrake (4.75), willow
(1.104), the chaste tree (1.103), the two blister beetles (2.61), sea creatures and similar land
animals (2.1–33: n.b. beaver castor, 2.24, standard to the 18th c.), the numerous milks (2.70),
rennets (2.75), fats (2.76), honeys, beeswax, and bee glue (2.82–84), the flavorings of wines
(5. 34–73), minerals and ores (5.76–162), and many others. The complete De materia medica is
a compaction of over 700 items fused into more than 2,000 recipes and formulas, and its
bulk guaranteed it would be modified and augmented according to local requirements. The
original work did not have illustrations, but when codices replaced papyrus rolls, scribes and
artists produced handsome versions of the De materia medica, with the Codex Juliana Anicia
of 512 CE the earliest, extant exemplar. First to employ Dioskouride ̄s in a rearranged,
alphabetical format was O, physician and friend of Julian the Apostate (reigned
361 – 363 CE), but papyri as early as 150 CE show recensions, as do allusions to P
A’s alphabetical Herbs (ca 100 CE) nestled in Gale ̄n (Simples 6. pr [11.792– 796
K.]). The De materia medica achieved immediate popularity reflected in the citation by
E, who mentions Dioskouride ̄s’ synonyms for leopard’s bane (31 [p. 51 Nachm.]
= Diosk. 4.76).
Ed.: H. Stadler, “Dioscorides Longobardus (Cod. Lat. Monacensis 337),” Romanische Forschungen
10 (1897) 181–247, 369–445; 11 (1899) 1–121; 13 (1902) 161–243; 14 (1903) 601–635; M. Wellmann,
Pedanii Dioscuridis Anazarbei De materia medica libri quinque (1906–1914; repr. 1958): the edition cited;
C. Bonner, “A Papyrus of Dioscurides in the University of Michigan Collection,” TA PA 53 (1922)
142 – 168; H. Miha ̆escu, Dioscoride Latino Materia medica libro primo (1938); C.E. Dubler and E. Terés, La
“Materia Médica” de Dioscórides. Transmisión Medieval y Renacentista (1953–1959); Fr. Rosenthal,
“Pharmacology” in The Classical Heritage in Islam (1975) 194–197; Scarborough and Nutton (1982)
187 – 227; A. Dietrich, Dioscurides Triumphans. Ein anonymer arabischer Kommentar (Ende 12. Jahr. N. Chr.)
zur Materia medica (1988); Idem, Die Dioskurides-Erklärung des Ibn al-Baita ̄r (1991); R. Flemming and A.E.
Hanson, “2. Dioscorides, De materia medica II 76.2 and 76.7– 18 ,” in I. Andorlini, ed., Greek Medical
Papyri I (2001) 9–35; M. Aufmesser, Pedanius Dioscurides aus Anazarba Fünf Bücher über die Heilkunde
(2002); L.Y. Beck, Pedanius Dioscorides of Anazarbus De materia medica (2005).
Wellmann (1898); Idem, Die Schrift des Dioskurides Peri Haplo ̄n Pharmako ̄n (1914); Idem (1916); H.
Gerstinger, Dioscurides Codex Vindobonensis Med. Gr. 1 der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek. Kommentarband
DIOSKOURIDE ̄S OF ANAZARBOS