Matthaeus Silvaticus or Mattheus Sylvaticus (c. 1280 – c. 1342) was a medieval Latin medical writer and botanist.

His Life and Encyclopedia

Matthaeus Silvaticus was born in northern Italy, probably

Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture. In 2017, it was named as the Eur ...

. He was a student and teacher in botany and medicine at the School of Salerno in southern Italy. His only notability is for writing a 650-page encyclopedia about medicating agents (a

pharmacopoeia A pharmacopoeia, pharmacopeia, or pharmacopoea (from the obsolete typography ''pharmacopœia'', meaning "drug-making"), in its modern technical sense, is a book containing directions for the identification of compound medicines, and published by ...

) which he completed about year 1317 under the Latin title ''Pandectarum Medicinae'' or ''Pandectae Medicinae'' (English: ''Encyclopedia of Medicines''). Most of the medicating agents were botanicals ("herbal medicines"). The presentation is in alphabetical order. The bulk of his encyclopedia is compiled from earlier medicine books, including books by

Dioscorides Pedanius Dioscorides ( grc-gre, Πεδάνιος Διοσκουρίδης, ; 40–90 AD), “the father of pharmacognosy”, was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of '' De materia medica'' (, On Medical Material) —a 5-vo ...

, Avicenna,

Serapion the Younger Serapion the Younger was the author of a medicinal-botany book entitled ''The Book of Simple Medicaments''. The book is dated to the 12th or 13th century. He is called "the Younger" to distinguish him from Serapion the Elder, aka Yahya ibn Sarafy ...

, and

Simon of Genoa Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

. As an indication of its popularity in late medieval Europe, the ''Pandectarum Medicinae'' was printed in at least eleven editions in various countries between the invention of the printing press and 1500.''Pandectarum Medicinae'' at http://www.interzone.com/~cheung/SUM.dir/med43.html. A number of 15th century editions of the ''Pandectarum'' are online a
Digitale-Sammlungen.de

Arabic influence

The medical school in Salerno was influenced by Arabic-to-Latin translations of Arabic medical literature. One indication of the Arabic influence is that 233 out of 487 plant names in Matthaeus's medicines encyclopedia were Latinizations of Arabic plant names. Many of those Latinized Arabic names had little circulation in Latin. Native Latin names existed for some of them, in which case Matthaeus also used the native Latin name as well. In some cases he prefers to give primary status to the Arabic name in preference to the classical Latin name. In other cases he gives primary status to the Latin name and just mentions what the Arabic name is.

Sources compiled from

The ''Pandectarum Medicinae'' is an encyclopedia with almost no original thinking. It has value to historians as a document reflecting the state of pharmacology and medicine in Europe in the late medieval era. The method of presentation in ''Pandectarum Medicinae'' is that a medicinal substance is named with brief identifying information and then follows several lengthier summaries or quotations from well-known medical authorities about the substance's properties and uses. The medical authorities are either (A) the particular ancient Greek medicines writers that were widely read by the medieval Arabs (especially Dioscorides and Galen) or else (B) the Arabic medicines writers available in Latin translations (especially Serapion the Younger and Avicenna).

Simon of Genoa

Part of Matthaeus's encyclopedia was taken from a shorter work by Simon of Genoa (aka Simon Januensis) entitled ''Synonyma Medicinae'', which was written a few decades earlier and which is a dictionary of medicines rather than an encyclopedia of medicines.A late-15th-century edition of Simon of Genoa's ''Synonyma Medicinae'' is a
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(in Latin).

References

External links

*A short biography of Mattheus Silvaticus together with a description of his ''Pandectarum Medicinae'' is a

(in Italian language) *Different editions of the ''Opus Pandectarum'' (aka ''Liber Pandectae'') as printed in Latin in the late 15th century are online a
Digitale-Sammlungen.de (year 1498)Digitale-Sammlungen.de (year 1488)Gallica.BNF.fr (year 1480)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Silvaticus, Matthaeus 14th-century Latin writers History of medieval medicine Pharmacopoeias Year of birth uncertain 1280 births 1342 deaths