Lot 307: JOHN PARKINSON (1567-1650)

Theatrum Botanicum: the Theater of Plants. Or, an Herbal of a large extent, London: Thomas Cotes, 1640. 2o (345 x 220mm). Additional engraved title by William Marshall, woodcut initials and head-and-tail pieces, 2,717 woodcut illustrations, errata leaf at end. (Engraved title a little frayed and browned, K 2 with small rusthole, 5N 4 torn along gutter, edges frayed of 5Z 1 & 5 and 6T 3 & 4, occasional mostly marginal short tears, some marginal dampstaining to lower fore-corners). Contemporary calf (rebacked and recornered, rubbed and scuffed). Provenance : ?Thomas Brice (ink signature on title); Rev. W. T. Bree (bookplate); Mittie Arnold (bookplate). FIRST EDITION. "One of the two pillars of botany in England till the time of Ray" (Henrey p.79), the Theatrum botanicum "could perhaps be called the last British herbal, as it still reprints much mediaeval lore" (Plesch). Eclipsed during the author's lifetime by Johnston's edition of Gerard's herbal and by Parkinson's own Paradisus Terrestris, the vast Theatrum was unjustly dismissed after his death as an imitation of Lobel. However, although traditional in its arrangement and haphazard classification scheme, the encylopaedic work was not simply derivative. Of the 4,000 native English plants described by Parkinson, only 1,000 had appeared in Gerard's herbal. 28 plants are recorded here for the first time, including the strawberry tree, the lady's slipper orchid, and the Welsh-poppy. Brunet IV, 378; Freeman 2925; Henrey 286; Hunt 235; Nissen BBI 1490; Pritzel 6934.