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The New York Academy of Medicine

Phytognomonica

Giambattista Della Porta. Phytognomonica. Naples: Salvianus, 1588.

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This illustrated herbal, by the Neapolitan natural scientist and polymath Giambattista Della Porta, offers thirty-two very beautiful woodcuts illustrating the botanical Doctrine of Signatures. The Doctrine suggested that a divine creator fashioned plants in order to indicate the maladies that they would cure. Some show the part the plant resembles, suggesting a suitable medicine for the relevant area, as with this woodcut, showing eyebright to treat the eye. This copy complements our significant holdings of Della Porta's works and other botanical references from the early modern period.

Adoption price: $4,970.00

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