Revealing marginalia: Mattioli’s annotated copy of the Discorsi (1544)

Abstract This article presents the discovery and analysis of Pietro Andrea Mattioli’s annotated copy of the 1544 Discorsi on Dioscorides’ De materia medica, preserved at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The marginalia reveal Mattioli’s working methods during the preparation of the expanded Valgrisi edition of 1548 and document the substantial transformation of the text from a medical textbook into a natural historical encyclopaedia. The annotations include additions, deletions, corrections, new quotations, and critical remarks directed at contemporary authors such as Leonhart Fuchs and Antonio Musa Brasavola. They also show how Mattioli expanded the original scope of the work by integrating personal observations and practical information on simples and their uses. The discovery provides rare evidence of the editorial process behind one of the most influential Renaissance medical commentaries and illustrates how a philological enterprise developed into a pedagogical and natural historical project.