Common hepatica. 16th century Italian illustration of a common hepatica plant (Anemone hepatica), by Gherardo Cibo, 1568. A man is shown collecting plants nearby. Common hepatica was used in traditional medicine to treat liver disorders. This plate is taken from Discorsi on Dioscorides' De Materia Medica by Pietro Andrea Mattioli, a work of herbal medicine first published in Italy in 1554. Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1501-1577) was an Italian doctor and naturalist who wrote commentaries on De Materia Medica , an encyclopaedia of herbal medicine by the first century Greek physician and botanist Dioscorides.