The herbalist's bible : John Parkinson's lost classic rediscovered : Theatrum botanicum (1640) PDF
Preview The herbalist's bible : John Parkinson's lost classic rediscovered : Theatrum botanicum (1640)
C ONTENTS Preface Introduction A note to the reader THE HERBALIST’S BIBLE Agrimony & hemp agrimony Archangels & deadnettles Balm & motherwort Betony Blackthorn Bugle Burdock Burnet Burnet saxifrage Celandine Centaury Chicory Chili, cayenne Cleavers Coca Coltsfoot Comfrey Corn Daisies Dandelion Dock Elder Elecampane Eyebright Feverfew Figwort Goldenrod Ground ivy Groundsel Hawthorn Honeysuckle Horsetail Houseleek Hyssop Ivy Jasmine Knapweed Lady’s bedstraw Lady’s mantle Liquorice Lovage Marjoram Meadowsweet Milk thistle Mint Mistletoe Mugwort Mullein Nettles Onion, leek & garlic Pellitory of the wall Pimpernel Poppies Primroses & cowslips Rosemary Sage Sanicle Sassafras Savory Seaweed Selfheal Solomon’s seal Sorrel St John’s wort Strawberry Thyme Tobacco Tomato Tribulus Vervain Violets & heartsease Watercress Weld Woodruff Yarrow Notes Appendixes Brief biographies A select Parkinson bibliography Index Acknowledgements The authors Dedicated to JOHN PARKINSON (1567–1650) Writer, gardener, herbalist, botanist, apothecary Phoebus hath fifty times lash’t through the signes, Since thou intend’st this Iubilee of lines. And now ’tis extant; and shall swiftly scou’re Through darke oblivion to the world’s last houre. . . . Keepe thy Hesperides; may thy herbes with thee Still bloome; by Prester never blasted bee. And seeing by thy hands the day is wonne, No night of Age shall cloude bright Parke-in-sunne. John Harmer, Oxford (writing in the preliminary pages of Theatrum Botanicum, 1640) Worthy sir, You have built us a Botanicke Theater; with such excellent skill and advantage to the Spectator; that at one view he commands the prospect of both Hemisphers; and all their vegetables in the pride of beauty: ranged in their proper orders, decking the Hils, Plaines, Valleyes, Medowes, Woods, and Bankes, with such a world of shapes and colours, so delightfull to the eye, so winning upon the rationall Soule which feeds on rarities! that we cannot hope for a more compleate Paradise upon earth, till Nature have found out a new stocke for more variety; what can be added to this I see not; nor is it (I beleeve) yet knowne to the best of Artists that have made search. John Speed, Med.D., Oxon (writing in the preliminary pages of Theatrum Botanicum, 1640) right: John Parkinson’s dedication to King Charles I of his ‘Manlike Worke of Herbes and Plants,’ in Theatrum Botanicum, 1640. He had become the royal herbalist a few months before publication P REFACE Our connection with John Parkinson began in late 2005 when we first saw a copy of his Theatrum Botanicum (1640) in the Collection of Rare Botanical Books at the John Innes Foundation in Norwich. It was our good luck to have found a collection of old botanical and herbal books within four miles of where we were living, and we made full use of it. The book itself was a huge folio of 1,788 pages of illustrated text, with a sturdy leather cover, and weighing in at 11 lb (5 kg). It is not a book to be treated lightly, in any sense of the word. We did hear that some twenty or thirty years previously the book could then be borrowed from the open shelves of the John Innes Library, and that one person cycled home with a copy in an open rucksack on his back, later returning it complete with rain spatters. Such old volumes were being treated with rather more care by the time we visited, with climate control and close supervision. Indeed, Theatrum now had the status and charisma of a rare book, the original edition of 1640 never having been reprinted. Open its first few pages and you find the descriptive title page, in the 17th century manner, with some 180 words describing this ‘herball of a large extent.’ It is actually the biggest herbal ever to be published in English, so Parkinson didn’t over-sell himself here. Opposite the title is a frontispiece (which we reproduce in a hand-coloured version) by the engraver William Marshall, with central panels showing Adam as the original gardener, with a spade, and Solomon, the wise authority, with a crown and sceptre. At the four corners are four naked ladies from different continents who are riding on appropriate steeds and surrounded by native plants. But what hits the eye among this careful mythology is the inset likeness at the foot of the page of John Parkinson himself, aged 73. He has short hair under an apothecary’s skullcap and is dressed dourly in black, with a plain ruff, and holding a thistle. He is slender in build, unsmiling, somewhat tired and lightly bearded—and looks uncannily like Julie’s father!
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