DIOSCORIDE

First edition of the Marcello Virgilio translation in Latin, dedicated to Leo X. The princeps edition was based on an old translation by Petrus de Abano (ca. 1250-1316), and published in 1478 in Colle di Val d'Elsa. The original text was written in Greek around 60 AD.
Title page in red and black. 45 lines per page. Colophon : "Florentiæ per hæredes Philippi Iuntæ Florentini. Anno ab incarnatione Domini.1518. Idibus Octobris. Leone decimo Christiana[m] Rempub. gerente." Superb Filippo Giunta printer's mark on verso of last leaf. Bibliographical note in French opposite the title page.
Full modern limp vellum binding, all edges faintly bluish.
A lack of a small piece of paper skillfully filled on the title page, and the margins of the first endpapers have been restored. A few pages at the end of the volume show the discreet work of a few worms - without affecting the text. The copy has been thoroughly cleaned.
We have not been able to find any copy of this important edition for sale, except in the catalogue of a nineteenth-century German bookshop (Ernest Heinemann, Offenbach sur le Mein, 1840).
Provenance: Crowned monogram H.O. and library stamp of Prince Nicolas Petrovitch of Oldenburg (1840-1886) on the title page. He was the great-grandson of Emperor Paul I, through his daughter Catherine Pavlovna (1788-1819) who married George of Oldenburg. His sister Alexandra married Grand Duke Nicholas, son of Emperor Nicholas I. His nephew Peter of Oldenburg married Grand Duchess Olga, daughter of Emperor Alexander III.