Botanical errors in Plinius signaled by Leonicenus

Abstract

Nicoló Leonicenus, humanist and physician, became the center of a polemic on the errors of Plinius that, at the end, eroded the confidence that still was posed on Plinius until the late XV century. Though Leonicenus claimed that he was guided only by the desire of helping the young physicians in those aspects related lo health and life that were menaced by the historical inertia of the errors, his antagonists tried to bound him to terminological or textual aspects. What those errors are? Which are the methods employed by Leonicenus in revealing them, and on which botanical foundations? Those are the questions that we pretend to solve.