Pietro Mattioli (1634) - Crab and Lobster Marine Crustaceans
Crab and Lobster (Recto–Verso Leaf)
Crabe de mer (Sea Crab) – recto
L’écrevisse de mer (Lobster / Crayfish) – verso
Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1501–1578), Les commentaires sur les six livres de Pedacius Dioscoride Anazarbeen - Translation: Commentaries on the six books of Pedacius Dioscorides Anazarbeus on Medicinal Substances.
Venice: A. Carbout, 1634
Hand-colored woodcut on laid paper, ~9 × 14 in.
Unframed - framing price on request, image attached for illustration purposes only,
Description
This leaf from Mattioli’s celebrated 1634 French edition unites two of the most striking crustacean images of the Renaissance: the sea crab on the recto and the lobster (écrevisse de mer) on the verso. Both creatures are engraved with an extraordinary attention to detail, their shells, claws, and segmentation rendered with a clarity that made Mattioli’s edition a cornerstone of early marine natural history. Use our imaging enhancing plug in to zoom in and dive deep into the detail of this amazing artifact.
This crustacean pairing represents the empirical heart of Renaissance ichthyology. Crabs and lobsters were of economic as well as scientific interest, valued as food sources yet feared for their claws and supposed medicinal or astrological properties.
Translation Highlights
Crabe de mer:
“The crab of the sea, when burnt to ash, taken in drink, was believed to break kidney stones; likewise, its flesh boiled in wine was recommended by Dioscorides for those troubled by spleen disorders.”Écrevisse de mer:
“The lobster, armed with great claws, nourishes men at the table, yet in physic its shell ground to powder was thought to aid in staunching fluxes of the belly. Pliny mentions its sudden change of shell as a marvel of nature.”
Scholarly Note
Scientific significance: These images draw directly from the Renaissance effort to catalogue edible marine life with accuracy, drawing on Aristotle, Pliny, and the Mediterranean diet.
Symbolism: The crab was tied to the astrological sign Cancer, associated with cycles, tides, and water’s shifting powers. The lobster, with its fearsome claws, became a common emblem in cabinets of curiosity.
Comparative context: Similar depictions can be found in Rondelet’s Libri de Piscibus Marinis (1554) and Aldrovandi’s De Reliquis Animalibus (1606), but Mattioli’s edition popularised them in vernacular French.
Verso–recto unity: Unlike isolated single-sided impressions often cut for framing, this sheet preserves its integrity as a full leaf, providing both major crustaceans together as originally issued.
Rarity
Crustacean plates are among the most desirable in Mattioli’s oeuvre, highly sought by both natural history collectors and interior decorators.
Intact recto–verso leaves are far rarer than single-sided examples on the market.
Hand-colored copies are particularly scarce; many surviving sheets remain plain.
The background to this document:
So, just in case you haven’t had enough of this incredible fishy document, here is the timeline of the creation of the original De Materia Medica in the first century through to you holding the print in your hand once you buy it!
1st century AD — Dioscorides composes De Materia Medica, a pharmacological manual describing ~600 plants, animals, and minerals with medicinal uses.
512 AD — The Vienna Dioscorides (Byzantine illuminated manuscript) is created for Princess Anicia Juliana, preserving the text in Greek with lavish illustrations.
9th–10th centuries — De Materia Medica translated into Arabic; widely circulated in the Islamic world with commentaries that later re-enter Europe.
1478 — First printed Latin edition of De Materia Medica (Colle, Italy), bringing the text into Renaissance print culture.
1544 — Pietro Andrea Mattioli publishes his Italian commentary, expanding Dioscorides with Alpine plants, zoological notes, and contemporary medical practice.
1554 — Mattioli issues a Latin edition with hundreds of woodcut illustrations, transforming the work into a Renaissance natural history encyclopedia.
1634 — French edition, Venice (published posthumously by A. Carbout), continuing Mattioli’s influence across Europe.
2025 - You log onto Lumenrare and see this wonderful work, buy it, receive the document in its sealed container by courier, you hold it with the cotton gloves you just bought, you give it a smell and then you dig a hole in your garden and put it in a time capsule for a scientific student to find in another five hundred years.
Crab and Lobster (Recto–Verso Leaf)
Crabe de mer (Sea Crab) – recto
L’écrevisse de mer (Lobster / Crayfish) – verso
Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1501–1578), Les commentaires sur les six livres de Pedacius Dioscoride Anazarbeen - Translation: Commentaries on the six books of Pedacius Dioscorides Anazarbeus on Medicinal Substances.
Venice: A. Carbout, 1634
Hand-colored woodcut on laid paper, ~9 × 14 in.
Unframed - framing price on request, image attached for illustration purposes only,
Description
This leaf from Mattioli’s celebrated 1634 French edition unites two of the most striking crustacean images of the Renaissance: the sea crab on the recto and the lobster (écrevisse de mer) on the verso. Both creatures are engraved with an extraordinary attention to detail, their shells, claws, and segmentation rendered with a clarity that made Mattioli’s edition a cornerstone of early marine natural history. Use our imaging enhancing plug in to zoom in and dive deep into the detail of this amazing artifact.
This crustacean pairing represents the empirical heart of Renaissance ichthyology. Crabs and lobsters were of economic as well as scientific interest, valued as food sources yet feared for their claws and supposed medicinal or astrological properties.
Translation Highlights
Crabe de mer:
“The crab of the sea, when burnt to ash, taken in drink, was believed to break kidney stones; likewise, its flesh boiled in wine was recommended by Dioscorides for those troubled by spleen disorders.”Écrevisse de mer:
“The lobster, armed with great claws, nourishes men at the table, yet in physic its shell ground to powder was thought to aid in staunching fluxes of the belly. Pliny mentions its sudden change of shell as a marvel of nature.”
Scholarly Note
Scientific significance: These images draw directly from the Renaissance effort to catalogue edible marine life with accuracy, drawing on Aristotle, Pliny, and the Mediterranean diet.
Symbolism: The crab was tied to the astrological sign Cancer, associated with cycles, tides, and water’s shifting powers. The lobster, with its fearsome claws, became a common emblem in cabinets of curiosity.
Comparative context: Similar depictions can be found in Rondelet’s Libri de Piscibus Marinis (1554) and Aldrovandi’s De Reliquis Animalibus (1606), but Mattioli’s edition popularised them in vernacular French.
Verso–recto unity: Unlike isolated single-sided impressions often cut for framing, this sheet preserves its integrity as a full leaf, providing both major crustaceans together as originally issued.
Rarity
Crustacean plates are among the most desirable in Mattioli’s oeuvre, highly sought by both natural history collectors and interior decorators.
Intact recto–verso leaves are far rarer than single-sided examples on the market.
Hand-colored copies are particularly scarce; many surviving sheets remain plain.
The background to this document:
So, just in case you haven’t had enough of this incredible fishy document, here is the timeline of the creation of the original De Materia Medica in the first century through to you holding the print in your hand once you buy it!
1st century AD — Dioscorides composes De Materia Medica, a pharmacological manual describing ~600 plants, animals, and minerals with medicinal uses.
512 AD — The Vienna Dioscorides (Byzantine illuminated manuscript) is created for Princess Anicia Juliana, preserving the text in Greek with lavish illustrations.
9th–10th centuries — De Materia Medica translated into Arabic; widely circulated in the Islamic world with commentaries that later re-enter Europe.
1478 — First printed Latin edition of De Materia Medica (Colle, Italy), bringing the text into Renaissance print culture.
1544 — Pietro Andrea Mattioli publishes his Italian commentary, expanding Dioscorides with Alpine plants, zoological notes, and contemporary medical practice.
1554 — Mattioli issues a Latin edition with hundreds of woodcut illustrations, transforming the work into a Renaissance natural history encyclopedia.
1634 — French edition, Venice (published posthumously by A. Carbout), continuing Mattioli’s influence across Europe.
2025 - You log onto Lumenrare and see this wonderful work, buy it, receive the document in its sealed container by courier, you hold it with the cotton gloves you just bought, you give it a smell and then you dig a hole in your garden and put it in a time capsule for a scientific student to find in another five hundred years.