Edited by Girolamo Rossi and Francesco Torresani, text in Greek, woodcut printer's device to title and verso of final f., initial spaces with guide-letter. The second edition of what Norman calls 'the authoritative source on the materia medica of antiquity', which was first published by Aldus in 1499. The work is an attempt to give a system of drugs, subdivided into remedies from the vegetable, animal, and mineral kingdoms.

Pedanius Dioscorides (c. 40 – 90 AD) was a physician, pharmacologist and botanist, the author of De Materia Medica (as it was widely known by its Latin name translated from the Greek) —a 5-volume encyclopedia about herbal medicine and related medicinal substances (a pharmacopeia), that was widely read for more than 1,500 years, and was the precursor to all modern botanical pharmacopeias.

It was never "rediscovered" in the Renaissance because it was never lost, as it was used extensively and principally by herbalists and physicians throughout medieval times, being translated in various languages including, Arabic, Indian, Spanish, French, and English. It was referenced as an authoritative source well into the 1800s.

Of the variety of herbal remedies for dental ailments Dioscorides recommends olives in various forms, including an olive oil extract boiled and smeared on unhealthy teeth to extract them, the olive oil as a mouth rinse for badly afflicted gums, and the green sprigs of the olive tree to cleanse the teeth rather than reed twigs.

Provenance:'Henr: Ios: Rega Med; Doc:' (engraved armorial bookplate); 'C.Lloyd' (20th pencil inscription to head of front free endpaper).