Folio from the De Materia Medica of Dioscorides
Dioscorides, a physician in the Roman army, wrote a herbal in Greek in the first century A.D., discussing, as was traditional for the genre, the characteristics of each plant, its habitat, and its use. The naturalistic illustrations of Greek herbals served as models for Islamic artists, who simplified the plants and made them more symmetrical than their prototypes, in accordance with Islamic taste for ornamental design.
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