Comparing Artistic Style and Scientific Illustration Practices in the Illustrated Copies of al-Ḥashāʾish (Quwā al-Aghdhiyah) at the Parliament Library and Discorsi by Mattioli at the British Library, London

Introduction: Illustration is known today as a scientific illustration because the coexistence and association of science and art have long been part of the characteristics of the progress of any civilization.  Scientific illustration is a method of communication that allows complex ideas, details, and theories to be presented in an interesting and informative way. It is possible to communicate scientific concepts more clearly through illustrations rather than through the technical jargon often used to describe them. Drawing or rendering scientific images in an accurate manner is how these artists or illustrators communicate science and inform audiences. Pedanius Dioscorides, a renowned Greek physician of the first century AD, authored his book “Materia Medica”. This book is considered one of the primary sources on botany and zoology in Islamic and Western civilizations. Dioscorides was born in the first century AD in Anazarba, a town in northern Cilicia (southeastern Asia Minor) and probably studied at nearby Tarsus, which was renowned for its study of pharmacology. Describing himself as having lived a "soldier's life," he claimed to have traveled widely, including to Greece, Crete, Egypt, and Petra. In about 65 AD, after much direct observation of plants in their native habitats and careful practical experience with the medicinal uses of herbs, as well as those derived from animals and minerals, Dioscorides wrote De Materia Medica (as the original work in Greek is known in Latin) in five books "on the preparation, properties, and testing of drugs" (Preface I); each chapter dealing with a single substance, its description, preparation, and therapeutic properties. Dioscorides' plant descriptions use an elementary classification, though he cannot be said to have used botanical taxonomy. Book One describes the uses of aromatic oils, salves and ointments, trees and shrubs, and fleshy fruits, even if not aromatic. Since the 6th century AD, it has been feasible to analyze the book al-Hashaish in Europe. From the third century onwards, after translating this book into Arabic, books and treatises on pharmaceuticals and pharmacology were written based on it. The impact of the al-Hashaish book was so noticeable that Islamic sages hardly used any other book in the field of medicine, particularly herbs, as much as this book. Additionally, illustrators in different eras re-illustrated and reproduced this book many times, not only to make these images reflect the visual aspects, but also to represent the subtleties and facts of the scientific text. “Scientific illustration” as the title suggests, represents the visual aspects of scientific topics and observations of the natural world; in this type of illustration, it is important to establish a relationship between science and art.
Purposes & Questions: This research focuses on introducing two Islamic and Western versions titled “al-Hashaish–Qawi al-Aghdhiyah” (available in the library of the Iranian Parliament, book identification code: 7739-10) and “Discorsi Mattioli” (available in the British Museum Library, book identification code: 22332). Both versions are illustrated and compiled based on Dioscorides’ Materia Medica, and belong historically to the Safavid and Renaissance periods (990 AH / 1582 AD and 972 AH / 1564 AD). This research aims to study the artistic style and scientific illustration methods in these versions comparatively. The research questions include: 1- What is the artistic style and scientific illustration method used in the illustrated versions of al-Hashaish in the libraries of the Iranian Parliament and the British Museum? 2- Which version aligns more closely with scientific illustration criteria and performs better in terms of scientific legitimacy?
Methods: The research methodology in this article is a descriptive-analytical one, based on library studies and reference to visual images of medicinal plants. Through a comparative study of the versions alongside historical description and analysis of images, the authors reached research results. The research results indicate that Islamic and Western artists employed different styles in illustrating scientific texts. Also, if the main goal of the scientific illustration of the Materia Medica book was to know as much as possible about the samples and their different types in nature; the western version (Mattioli's Discourse) presented a better scientific illustration using execution techniques and various natural colors.
Findings & Results: Scrutinizing the images of these two versions suggests that due to the lack of visual fidelity to the plants and the commitment to the previous version, the artist of the al-Hashaish Islamic Parliament Library version was content with his creativity and mental strength for the illustration of this version. Meanwhile, the illustrator of the Italian version (Gherardo Cibo), a well-known artist and botanist of that time, owned a herbarium that he had started collecting in 1532, implying that the images of the plants, their habitats, cultivation and harvesting methods were well-known to the artist. That’s why the artist could refer to the objective reality of the plants more than to the scientific text when depicting the plants.