Restoration of Pietro Andrea Matthioli’s “I Discorsi” (1563)

ONE OF THE MAIN PHARMACEUTICAL BOTANICAL TEXTS OF THE XVI CENTURY

Stefania Zeppieri | Conservazione e Restauro Beni Librari, Archivistici, Opere d'Arte su carta e manufatti Affini | Biblioteca Antonianum di Roma: Restauro volumi rari GR0403 - Stefania Zeppieri | Conservazione e Restauro Beni Librari, Archivistici, Opere d'Arte su carta e manufatti Affini | Biblioteca Antonianum di Roma: Restauro volumi rari

Notes about the restoration project

The object of this restoration was an early edition of “I Discorsi” by Pietro Andrea Matthioli, printed in Venice in 1563 by the publisher Valgrisi.

The book is one of the best known pharmaceutical botanical texts of the sixteenth century. It had immense luck, so much so that editions continued until the second half of the 18th century. The most interesting feature is that the specimen is almost completely covered with handwritten notes that show how the text was used by someone who had studied it in depth.

Preserved in the collection of old printed books of the National Central Library of Rome, had been the subject of restoration and was in a poor state of conservation.

The book had been dismembered into two parts that had been bound over time in different ways, and had suffered an entomological attack for which most of the papers were heavily degraded.

Also the frontispiece, after damage probably due to a combustion, had been restored and retouched.