MATTIOLI (Pietro Andrea) & MEYERPECK (Wolfgang). Woodcut - Lot 30

MATTIOLI (Pietro Andrea) & MEYERPECK (Wolfgang). Woodcut. Circa 1563. 5,000/7,000 Large-format matrix of a woodcut used to illustrate the Traité de matière médicale based on the Greek text by Dioscorides and commented on by Mattioli. Here, he illustrates the "Pyrethre vray". Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1501-1578) was already a renowned physician and botanist when he was called to Prague in 1554-1555 as private physician to Archduke Ferdinand II. In 1564, he became private physician to Emperor Maximilian II, a position he held until 1568, when he returned to Italy. The Commentaries were first published in Venice in 1544. For the 1563 version translated into Czech and German, he had his work illustrated by Giorgio LIBERALE and, above all, Wolfgang MEYERPECK (1505-circa 1579), who is credited with engraving almost 600 medicinal plates. The Treatise was one of the most important herbariums of the Renaissance. The conservation of these matrices can be explained by the exceptional quality of the xylogravure, a technique that was later replaced by the use of more precise copper plates. 154 of these woods were reused by DUHAMEL du MONCEAU in his Traité des arbres fruitiers. RARE AND PRECIOUS WOODCUT USED TO ILLUSTRATE MATTIOLI'S FAMOUS TREATISE.