Abstract
The present study considers the contemporary context of the creation of P. A. Mattiolli’s botanical-medical publication and its language mutations. The author observes alterations in the interpretation of subsequent editions of the Renaissance work. The publication of the herbarium is a continuous process, extending to the present day. Pietro Andrea Mattioli was an Italian physician and botanist who lived from 1501 to 1577. He initiated the composition of his herbarium as Commentarrii in sex libros Pedacii Dioscoridis, providing a commentary on the work of Pedania Dioskúrid of Anazarba De materia medica, dating from the 1st century AD. The Italian version of the herbarium was published in 1544. The extended Latin version was created in 1554. Concurrently, Mattioli assumed the role of Ferdinand Tyrolský’s personal physician in Prague. In this section, the reader will find an extensive reworking of Mattioli’s text by the renowned scholar Tadeáš Hájek (1525-1600). The Czech edition of the herbarium was published by Jiří Melantrich of Aventine in 1562. In the year 1563, Melantrich also published a German version, translated by Georg Handsch of Česká Lípa. The Polish edition was published with the support of King Sigismund Augustus. The result of the translation of the work is, among other things, the significant influence of Polish botanical terminology by Hájek’s Czech terminology.
The townspeople utilised the herbarium for the subsequent two centuries as both a practical handbook and an atlas, owing to the descriptions of exotic flora. In the contemporary era, the text is widely regarded as an invaluable literary, linguistic and artistic treasure, in addition to its status as a comprehensive compendium of herbal medicine.