Explain the Biography of Pedanius Dioscorides?
Pedanius Dioscorides, a Cicilian Greek, who lived in the first century A.D. was the most important botanist after Theophrastus. He was a military physician under Emperor Nero of Rome. His principal writings were on medical botany. During the Middle Ages his work was far more popular than that of Theophrastus though he knew less about botany. For more than 1500 years he was the alpha and omega of European botany. His chief contribution, 'Meteria Medica' was description of about six hundred species mainly Mediterranean, used for medicinal purposes. Another manuscript, the 'Anicia Juliana Codex' was prepared for the daughter of a Byzantine emperor about 512 A.D. from material originally compiled by Dioscorides. It contained coloured illustrations of plants and is still in existence.
The most significant aspect of this period of early Greek and Roman naturalists and scholars was that men began to think originally and fundamentally about the universe, supernaturalism and mythology were abandoned in preference to logic. During this time the foundations for scientific study of nature were laid.