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Detailed record for Additional 22332
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| Author |
Pietro Andrea Mattioli, Physician of Siena, assembled and illustrated by Gherardo Cibo |
| Title |
Extracts from an edition of Dioscorides' 'De re medica' |
| Origin |
Italy |
| Date |
c. 1564-1584 |
| Language |
Italian |
| Script |
Italian cursive |
| Artists |
?Gherardo Cibo (b. 1512, d. 1600) |
| Decoration |
131 full-page framed watercolour images of plants on a background of landscapes or pastoral scenes with people, animals and birds on recto folios (ff. 1-57, 59, 61-65, 67, 69-75, 77-83, 85-87, 89-101, 103-115, 118-124, 127-141, 143, 144, 146-148, 150, 152, 154, 155) and 5 on verso folios (ff. 176-179v, 181v). 25 water-colour botanical drawings with no background (ff. 58, 60, 66, 68, 76r, 84, 88, 102, 116, 117, 125, 126, 142, 145, 149, 151, 153, 163, 164, 166, 173v, 175v, 180v, 182v, 183v). |
| Dimensions in mm |
265 x 195 |
| Official foliation |
ff. 185 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end + 3 unfoliated leaves following f. 89 + 5 unfoliated leaves: 1 following f. 130, 1 following f. 152, 1 following f. 155, 1 following f. 169, 1 following f. 173. f. 185 is a paper paste-down inside the rear binding. f. 107* is a blank leaf following f. 107) |
| Form |
Paper codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. 17th-century gold-tooled and stamped black leather binding. |
| Provenance |
Painted by Gherardo Cibo (b. 1512, d. 1600): a sketch for the vision of St Augustine with an inscription stating that it is copied from designs by Cibo's son (‘figliuolo’), Antonio (Add MS 22333, f. 58). Some of the drawings are dated 1564-1584 and there is a date of 1597 on f. 185 (rear past-down).
Inscriptions relating to the contents on the pastedowns inside the front and rear bindings have been torn and are illegible.
Marchese Giovanni Battista Costabili Containi, and his grand nephew Marchese Giovanni Costabili Containi: their sale, 27 June 1850, lot 2127 (note on f. 1); bought by the British Museum. |
| Notes |
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
Image size : 250 x 170/75
ff. 3-6, 59, 107, 108: black frames to the edge of the page.
The present manuscript and Add MS 22333 are a pair.
This manuscript contains the Discorsi, an Italian herbal that provides commentary on the herbal, De Materia Medica of the Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides (d. 90 BC), written by Pietro Andrea Mattioli (b. 1501, d. 1577), a naturalist and physician of Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria, and of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor. Mattioli has relied on writings by Arabic scholars, and discoveries made in the Orient and America, to add a large number of plants (not all for their medical uses) to those of the Materia Medica. His Latin translation of the Italian text was widely printed in various editions and became a standard work at Italian universities. This manuscript of the original Italian text was assembled and illustrated by Gherardo Cibo (b. 1512, d. 1600), a botanist in Arcevia and nephew of Caterina Cibo, Duchess of Camerino, who, unlike most botanists who relied on artists, illustrated the plants he collected. Cibo was the first to develop the image of the botanist: in many illustrations the botanist is depicted at work, discovering, collecting and studying nature, which emphasised the importance of studying specimens in their local environments. Add MS 22333 contains the same texts and illustrations by Cibo, but also contains a copy of a letter from Mattioli in which he praises Cibo for his work. The oldest surviving herbarium (a collection of pressed and dried plants) is that of Gherardo Cibo, who began to collect plants at least as early as 1532. |
| Select bibliography |
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum, 1854-1860 (London: British Museum, 1875), pp. 634-35.
E. Celani, 'Sopra un erbario di Gherardo Cibo conservato nella R. Biblioteca Angelica di Roma', Malpighia, 16 (1902) 181-226.
Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi, 'Gherardo Cibo: visions of landscape and the botanical sciences in a sixteenth-century artist', Journal of Garden History, 9.4 (1989), 199-216, p. 201).
Arnold Nesselrath, Gherardo Cibo, alias Ulisse Severino da Cingoli: disegni e opere da collezioni italiane (Florence: S.P.E.S, 1989) [exhibition catalogue].
J. Bolten, 'Review: Gherardo Cibo, alias Ulisse Severino da Cingoli.', Master Drawings, 28.2, (1990), fig. 2.
Paula Finden, Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), pp 166-70, fig. 11.
Erma Hermans, 'A 17th century Italian treatise on Miniature Painting and its Authors' in Historical Painting Techniques, Materials and Studio Practice, Papers from the Leiden Symposium ed. by A. Wallert , E. Hermans and M. Peek, Leiden, 1995), pp. 48-57 (p. 53).
Gherardo Cibo: Dilettante di Botanica e Pittore di 'Paesi', ed. by Giorgio Mangani e Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi (Ancona: Il lavoro editoriale, 2013), pls 1, 6-8, 12, 25, 134-68, p. 244. |
| Last revised: Thursday, March 23, 2017 |
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f. 13
Asplenium scolopendrium |
f. 35
Galanthus and Ipheion (?) |
f. 37
Daphnoides |
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f. 46
Abronia arenaria and Solidago virga-aurea |
f. 47
Eryngium |
f. 50
Plantago maior |
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f. 56
Mercurialis annua |
f. 72
Gladiolus Italicus |
f. 85
Paeonia mascula |
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f. 92
Asarum europaeum |
f. 95
Helleboris viridis |
f. 96
Polygonatum |
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f. 104
Viola odorata |
f. 111
Galium cruciatum |
f. 121
Fumaria |
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f. 130
Origanum |
f. 131
Poligonum aviculare |
f. 133
Scrophularia nodosa |
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f. 143
Phyllitis hemionitis |
f. 148
Iris |
f. 150
Callystegia soldanella |
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f. 160
Crocus sativus |
f. 181v
Olea europaea |
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