Gerard, John. The Herball, or generall historie of plantes. London : Printed by A. Islip, J. Norton and R. Whitakers, 1636. Call No. QK41 .G28 1636
First published in 1597, John Gerard’s Herball, or generall historie of plantes was the most widely circulated botany book in English in the 17th century. There are eighteen hundred woodcuts in the Herball, almost all of them taken from the Eicones Plantarum (1590) of Jacobus Theodorus, which themselves been reproduced from earlier herbalists such as Mattioli, Dodoens, Clusius, and Lobel. But Gerard was not sufficiently knowledgeable to match all the plant descriptions with their proper illustrations. The first edition of the Herball went to press with some illustrations missing a description.
This copy depicted above is the second edition which was published in 1633. It was enlarged and amended by Thomas Johnson, who dismissed Gerard’s ideas with the introductory comment that “His chiefe commendation is that he out of a propense goodwill to the publique advancement of this knowledge, endeavoured to performe therein more than he could well accomplish; which was partly through want of sufficient learning.” Essentially unchanged, the Herball was published again in 1636.
The Herball is a book full of charm and a 16th and 17th take on herbology.
reblogged from Scientific Illustration
