About this Item

Title: The Encyclopedia of Medicaments.

Other Title: Liber Pandectarum Medicinae

Summary
This book is a printed edition of the Pandectarum Medicinae (Encyclopedia of Medicaments) by Matthaeus Sylvaticus (died circa 1342), consisting of an alphabetized list of medications, primarily of herbal origin. Sylvaticus relies on the work of Simon of Genoa (flourished end of 13th century), who provided a lexicon of Latin, Greek, and Arabic medical terms in his dictionary, Clavis Sanationis.

Sylvaticus also draws upon works by Greco-Roman authorities such as Galen, Dioscorides, and Paulus Aegineta (7th century). Among his additional sources are writings from important scientists of the Islamic world, including the Persian physicians Ibn Sina (Avicenna, 980–1037) and al-Razi (Rhazes, circa 865–circa 925), as well as the Andalusian scholar Ibn Rushd (Averroes, 1126–1198).

For each of the 702 entries in this work, Sylvaticus provides the Arabic and Greek name of a plant or other material along with information about its medicinal properties. Similar to Clavis Sanationis, each letter of the Latin alphabet includes a short introduction with notes on transliterating Greek and Arabic terms into Latin.

This edition was commissioned by Ottaviano Scotto of Modena and printed in Venice between 1498 and 1502 by Boneto Locatello, who printed more than 100 works for Scotto, most of them important pre-modern texts. The Pandectarum Medicinae does not include illustrations, although the Locatello-Scotto edition of the Cyrurgia by Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Albucasis, circa 936–1013) contains some of the earliest known woodcut illustrations embedded in a text.

Names
Locatelli, Boneto (flourished 1486–1523), printer
Manliis, Joannes Jacobus de (flourished 1490), contributor
Silvatico, Matteo (died approximately 1342), author
Simon Genuensis, contributor

Created / Published
Venice: Bonetus Locatellus for Octavianus Scotus, [1498 to 1502]