iv] The Herbal in Italy 85 



Busbecq brought from Constantinople a wonderful col- 

 lection of Greek manuscripts, including Juliana Anicia's copy 

 of the Materia Medica of Dioscorides, now in the Vienna 

 Library (see pp. 8 and 154). He discovered this great 

 manuscript in the hands of a Jew, who required a hundred 

 ducats for it. This price was almost prohibitive, but Busbecq 

 was an enthusiast, and he successfully urged the Emperor, 

 whose representative he was, " to redeem so illustrious an 

 author from that servitude 1 ." His purpose in buying the 

 manuscript seems to have been largely in order to commu- 

 nicate it to Mattioli, who would thus be able to make use of 

 it in preparing his Commentaries on Dioscorides. 



The personal character of Mattioli does not appear to 

 have been a pleasant one. He engaged in numerous con- 

 troversies with his fellow botanists, and hurled the most 

 abusive language at those who ventured to criticise him. 



Another Italian herbalist, Castor Durante, slightly later | 

 in date than Mattioli, should perhaps be mentioned here, 

 not because of the intrinsic value of his work, but because 

 of its widespread popularity. At least two of his books 

 appeared in many editions and translations. 



Durante was a physician who issued a series of botanical 

 compilations, bedizened with Latin verse. The best known 

 of his works is the * Herbario Nuovo,' published at Rome , 

 in 1585 (Text-figs. 45 and 103). A second book, the \ 

 original version of which is seldom met with, has survived 

 in the form of a German translation, by Peter Uffenbach. 

 The German version was named ' Hortulus Sanitatis.' 

 As an illustration of Durante's charmingly unscientific 

 manner, we may take the legend of the "Arbor tristis " 

 which occurs in both these works. The figure which 

 accompanies it (Text-fig. 45) shows, beneath the moon and 

 stars, a drawing of a tree whose trunk has a human form. 

 The description, as it occurs in the ' Hortulus Sanitatis,' 

 may be translated as follows : 



"Of this tree the Indians say, there was once a very 



1 "quern ego emptum cupivissem, sed me deterruit pretium : nam centum 

 ducatis indicabatur, summa caesarei non mei marsupii. Ego instare non desinam 

 donee caesarem impulero ut tarn praeclarum autorem ex ilia servitute redimat." 

 Epist. iv. p. 392. [Quoted by Kickx, Bull. Acad. roy. Bruxelles, Vol. v. p. 

 202, 1838.] 



