Lot 213: PARKINSON, JOHN

Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris. London: [Humfrey Lownes and Robert Young], 1629

Folio (12 3/4 x 8 3/8 in.; 324 x 214 mm). Full-page title woodcut with Adam and Eve in the Garden, 109 full-page woodcut text illustrations (all but one botanical), 3 smaller woodcut text illustrations; three margins of title renewed affecting a small section in lower outer corner and small holes in other two corners, marginal mends in next ten leaves and in last six leaves, a few other minor mends within the volume all without loss. Nineteenth century panelled calf, gilt-ruled with floral gold-stamps at four corners, spine gilt, red sprinkled edges, dentelles; joints cracking, thin scrape on upper cover.

Henrey 1:282; Hunt 215; Nissen BBI 1489; STC 19300

First edition, first issue "the first work published on English gardening" (ODNB). Parkinson was a London apothecary so well respected in his profession that he was one of the five apothecaries who were consulted by the College of Physicians during the compilation of the first Pharmacopoeia Londinensis.

Dedicated to Queen Henrietta Maria, for which Charles I gave him the title of botanicus regius primarius, this work has descriptions of almost 1000 plants, with many of the entries giving evidence of cross-breeding and careful selection. "Part of the charm of the Paradisus lies in the author's love of plants and his sensibility of their beauty, feelings strongly reflected throughout his writing. His book is of interest and value as a record of the state of horticulture in England at the beginning of the seventeenth century" (Henrey 1:164).