RARE FIRST FRENCH EDITION of a 16th-century treatise in botany, where the author - Pietro Andrea Gregorio Mattioli (Matthiolus) (1501-1577), a renowned doctor and naturalist, described 100 new plants and coordinated the medical botany of his time in his Discorsi ("Commentaries") on the Materia Medica of Dioscorides. The first edition of Mattioli`s work appeared in 1544 in Italian. There were several later editions in Italian and translations into Latin (Venice,1554), Czech, (Prague,1562), German (Prague, 1563) and the present lavishly illustrated French edition (Lyon,1572). 385x250mm. 138+819+22 pages (altogether 973 pages). Marbled rebound board Hardcover with brown leather ribbed gilt spine. Cover scratched and worn. Cover and spine rubbed. stained and partly peeled. Cover edges, corners, spine edges and hinges worn/peeling. Spine gilt partly faded or missing. Small hole on front whitepage. Title page repaired - text partly missing. First few pages bottom corner repaired - text partly missing on several pages. Page 108/109 slightly torn with small damage to text. Page 239/240 bottom half taped - text readable. Several pages stained due to pressed flower - text readable. Few pages slightly stained and/or age-stained - no damage to text. Text block upper edge slightly stained. Pages yellowing and slightly wavy. [SUMMARY]: This extremely rare profusely illustrated 16th-century treatise in botany has suffered some damage, but is still in good reading condition.