Matthaeus Silvaticus

Matthaeus Silvaticus or Mattheus Sylvaticus (circa 1280 - circa 1342) was a medieval Latin medical writer and botanist. His main notability is a book about medicating agents (a pharmacopoeia) 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"). 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.[1] Mattheus Silvaticus was born in northern Italy, probably Mantua.[2] He was a student and teacher in botany and medicine at the School of Salerno in southern Italy.

The medical school in Salerno was influenced by Arabic-to-Latin translations of Arabic medical literature. Matthaeus's encyclopedia was influenced by an encyclopedia of medicines by the 12th century Arab Serapion the Younger. As one indication of Arabic influence, 233 of the 487 plant names that Matthaeus used were Latinizations of Arabic plant names.[3] Many of those Latinized Arabic names had little circulation in Latin. Readers later complained that native Latin names existed for many of them, and that Matthaeus was either ignorant or vulgar to have used the Arabic names.[1] Despite the wide circulation of Matthaeus's encyclopedia in 14th and 15th centuries, the Arabic names in it were not adopted by Latin Europe (except for the smaller number of Arabic names that had entered Latin by other, earlier pathways of transfer of Arabic medical literature to the Latins).

A substantial portion of Matthaeus's encyclopedia was copied from a shorter work by Simonis Januensis aka Simon of Genoa.[4]

References and external links

  1. ^ a b Pandectarum Medicinae at http://www.interzone.com/~cheung/SUM.dir/med43.html
  2. ^ Dictionnaire historique de la médecine ancienne et moderne, by N.F.J. Eloy (year 1778).
  3. ^ Matteo Silvatico @ SummaGallicana.it (in Italian language).
  4. ^ A 19th century publication of a 15th century Latin medical botany dictionary called the Alphita has, in its 19th century footnotes, a large number of cross-references to and quotations from Mattheus Silvaticus's work, and also from Simon Januensis's work. It is downloadable at Alphita.