Lot 411: PARKINSON, John (1567-1650). Paradisi in sole Paradisus Terrestris. Or a G

PARKINSON, John (1567-1650). Paradisi in sole Paradisus Terrestris. Or a Garden of all sorts of pleasant fowers. London: Humfrey Lownes and Robert Young, 1629. The frst edition of the frst important English treatise on horticulture, from the library of 17th-century horticulturalist John Rea. Parkinson was apothecary and botanist to Charles I. Of the nearly 1000 plants described in the Paradisus, which treats in detail the fower garden, kitchen garden and orchard, a large number grew in Parkinson’s own garden at Long Acre. The book is flled with references to contemporary botanists and gardeners, and it provides one of the best single sources of information on gardening practices and styles in early 17th-century England, in such a delightful, homey style that gardeners cherish it to the present day (Hunt). ESTC S115360; Henrey 282; Hunt 215; Nissen BBI 1489; Pritzel 6933; STC 19300. Folio (321 x 204mm). Woodcut title with elaborate scene of the Garden of Eden, signed A Switzer, 108 full-page woodcuts each with numerous fgures of plants, the plates of tulips faintly hand-colored, one full-page woodcut of garden designs, 3 small text woodcuts, woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initials. (Marginal restoration to title, frst text leaf, and three leaves at end occasionally just touching text or image, several corners renewed and a few other marginal repairs.) Full green crushed levant morocco gilt, original calf covers stamped IOHN REA mounted as front and back doublures, edges gilt, by Rivieré (spine lightly sunned). Provenance: John Rea (d.1681, English horticulturalist, author of Flora or, A Complete Florilege, 1665; binding, name in gold ink on **6v; Sawyer catalogue 214, 1953); Thomas Wall (early ownership signature on **6v); John Charrington, The Grange (bookplate).