The oldest surviving copy of Pedanius Dioscorides's treatise on medical botany and pharmacology, De materia medica, is an illuminated Byzantine manuscript produced about 512 CE. Dioscorides, a Greek physician, who may have served in the Roman army, wrote De materia medica in the first century CE.

"Presented in appreciation for her patronage in the construction of a district church in Constantinople, the parchment codex comprises 491 folios (or almost a thousand pages) and almost four hundred color illustrations, each occupying a full page facing a description of the plant's pharmacological properties. . . .

"In the Anicia codex, the chapter entries of De Materia Medica have been rearranged, the plants alphabetized and their descriptions augmented with observations from Galen and Crateuas (Krateuas), whose own herbal probably had been illustrated. Five supplemental texts also were appended, including paraphrases of the Theriaca and Alexipharmaca of Nicander and the Ornithiaca of Dionysius of Philadelphia (first century AD), which describes more than forty Mediterranean birds, including one sea bird shown with its wings both folded and open" (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/aconite/materiamedica.html, accessed 11-22-2008)

The Anicia Juliana codex also contains the earliest illustrated treatise on ornithology. It is one of the earliest surviving relatively complete codices of a scientific or medical text, one of the earliest relatively complete illustrated codices on any medical or scientific subject, and arguably the most beautiful of the earliest surviving scientific codices. It also contains what are probably the earliest surviving portraits of scientists or physicians in a manuscript. See Singer, Charles. "The herbal in antiquity and its transmission to later ages, " J. Hellen. Stud. 47 (1927) 1-52. For further details about this manuscript see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

Nicander was a Greek poet and physician. His Theriaca, in 958 hexameters, dealt with the symptoms and treatment of poisoning by the bites of poisonous animals; the Alexipharmaca considered intoxications through animal, vegetable, and mineral poisoning, and their suitable antidotes. Nicander was also the first writer to mention the medicinal use of the leech. The above work has a Greek text, and is one of the few medical incunabula issued by Aldus Manutius of Venice. A Latin translation appeared at Cologne in 1531. See Nicander: The Poems and Poetical Fragments edited by A. S. F. Gow and A. F. Scholfield.(Cambridge, 1953), and also P. K. Knoefel & M. C. Covi, A Hellenistic Treatise on Poisonous Animals (The "Theriaca" of Nicander of Colophon): A Contribution to the History of Toxicology (1991).

Nicander's works were first published in print by Aldus Manutius together with the first edition in Greek of Dioscorides, De materia medica, and two works on venoms by "Pseudo Dioscorides" ISTC No: id00260000. Digital facsimile from Bayerisches Staatsbibliothek at this link

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Essays by Alain Touwaide, Jean Pierre Angremy,  Christian Förstel and Grégoire Aslanoff concerning the 10th century Byzantine illuminated manuscript designated as "BnF Supplement grec 247." This spectacularly illustrated manuscript is the only surviving Byzantine illuminated manuscript of these didactic poems.  The Theriaka  concern poisonous bites of snakes, scorpions insects and other animals from the sea, air or land. Nicander provided information in three main categories: physical description and ethology of the poisonous animals, the symptoms of their bites and stings, and finally treatment for poisoning. The Alexipharmaka  consists of 630 verses dealing with poisons absorbed orally from plants, animals and minerals, with a systematic tripartite division concerning the physical description of the solution in which the poison was mixed, clinical symptoms following the poisoning, and enumeration of specific therapies. Spanish text; superb color illustrations. This book was a commentary volume for a deluxe facsimile of the manuscript issued by Moleiro.