Pedanius Dioscorides (Greek: ?? ??; circa 4090 AD) was a Greek physician, pharmacologist and botanist, the author of a 5-volume encyclopedia about herbal medicine and related medicinal substances (a pharmacopeia), that was widely read for well more than a thousand years. A native of Anazarbus, Cilicia, Asia Minor, Dioscorides practiced in Rome at the time of Nero. He was a surgeon with the army of the emperor, so he had the opportunity to travel extensively, seeking medicinal substances (plants and minerals) from all over the Roman and Greek world. This miniature painting is from a 12th century Arabic edition of Disocorides' work.

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