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Case 2: The Later Herbals
Exhibition curator: Hugh Cahill
John Gerard. The herball or generall historie of plantes. … Very much enlarged and amended by Thomas Johnson, citizen and apothecarye of London. London: Printed by Adam Islip, Joice Norton & Richard Whitakers, 1633.
Rare Books Collection FOL. QK75 GER
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Banana bunch, from: John Gerard. The herball or generall historie of plantes. … Very much enlarged and amended by Thomas Johnson, citizen and apothecarye of London. London: Printed by Adam Islip, Joice Norton & Richard Whitakers, 1633. [Rare Books Collection FOL. QK75 GER] |
Gerard's herbal was first printed, by John Norton in 1597 and it was without a competitor for over thirty years. However, in 1629 the botanist John Parkinson published his seminal gardening book Paradisi in sole, paradisus terrestris. In this work Parkinson signalled his intention to publish a great herbal. To pre-empt Parkinson the successors of Gerard's original publisher commissioned Thomas Johnson, apothecary and botanist, to undertake a revision and correction of the text. They also used different woodcuts to illustrate it. While the first edition used the blocks from Eiciones plantarum (1590) by Tabernaemontanus, Johnson's edition used superior blocks from the press of Christopher Plantin. However, Johnson is believed to have supplied some of the illustrations himself, including that of the bananas shown here. Johnson was a Royalist and during the Civil War he was fatally wounded during the defence of Basing House. Anthony à Wood (1632-1695) wrote of him that he was "no lesse eminent in the Garrison for his valour and conduct, as a Souldier, than famous through the Kingdom for his excellency as an Herbarist, and Physician."
Parkinson's Theatrum Botanicum, which was eventually published in 1640,
and Johnson's edition of Gerard's herbal mark the end of an era. They
were the last of the great woodcut herbals. From then on all major books on
medical botany used engraved plates; indeed engraved plates had appeared in
herbals, such as Pietro di Nobili's Herbal (ca. 1580) and Fabio Colonna's
Phytobasanos, for over sixty years.
Elizabeth Blackwell. A curious herbal. London: John Nourse at the Lamb, 1739.
Rare Books Collection FOL. QK98.2 BLA
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| Flower of Pulmonaria Maculosa, from: Elizabeth Blackwell. A curious herbal. London: John Nourse at the Lamb, 1739. [Rare Books Collection FOL. QK98.2 BLA] |
Elizabeth Blackwell (d. 1758) was originally from Aberdeen. In 1728 she married her second cousin Alexander (d. 1747) and moved to London with him. Alexander, using Elizabeth's dowry, established a printing business at the Atlas, opposite Catherine Street in the Strand. However, the business foundered and Alexander was imprisoned for debt. A curious herbal was conceived by Elizabeth Blackwell as a way of extricating her husband from prison. She realised there was a need for a work containing lifelike reproductions of medicinal plants and details of their medicinal uses. Encouragement came from Sir Hans Sloane, Richard Mead and apothecary Isaac Rand, director of the botanical garden at Chelsea.
Blackwell drew the plants from life at the botanical garden at Chelsea. She
also engraved the copper plates herself and coloured the prints of the first
edition by hand. Alexander assisted with the text. Initially published in weekly
parts, the first volume, which contained commendations from the Royal College
of Physicians, was completed in 1737, the second in 1738 or early 1739. Although
the drawings of the plants are considered by some to be a little stiff in execution,
they are attractive and the book enjoyed considerable success on publication.
Enough money was raised from sales to release Alexander from prison. Shortly
after his release Alexander travelled to Sweden in 1742, where he became involved
in a political plot and was executed in 1747.
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Lemon, from: William Woodville. Medical botany: containing systematic and general descriptions, with plates of all the medicinal plants, indigenous and exotic, comprehended in the catalogues of the materia medica, as published by the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London and Edinburgh. London: Printed and sold for the author, by James Phillips ... 1790-1793. [Guy's Hospital Physical Society Collection RS124 WOO] . |
William Woodville. Medical botany: containing systematic and general descriptions, with plates of all the medicinal plants, indigenous and exotic, comprehended in the catalogues of the materia medica, as published by the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London and Edinburgh. London: Printed and sold for the author, by James Phillips ... 1790-1793.
Guy's Hospital Physical Society Collection RS124 WOO
Published in three parts and a supplement by the Cumberland physician William Woodville (1752-1805) between 1790 and 1795, this work, which contains nearly three hundred plates, remained the standard illustrated work on the British pharmacopoeia until the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when it was superseded by Bentley and Trimen's Medicinal plants. A second edition appeared in 1810 and it was revised and enlarged by W.J. Hooker and G. Spratt in 1832.
James Sowerby's skilful and beautiful drawings were undoubtedly a major contribution
to the success of this work. Sowerby (1757-1822) began his artistic career as
an apprentice to Richard Wright, the marine painter. Later, he supported himself
by teaching drawing and by painting portraits and miniatures before turning
to landscape painting. His work came to the notice of the publisher William
Curtis, who employed him as a botanical illustrator and instructed him in botany.
Robert Bentley. Medicinal plants: being descriptions with original figures
of the principal plants employed in medicine and an account of the characters,
properties, and uses of their parts and products of medicinal value. London:
J. & A. Churchill, 1880.
Early Science Collection QK99.A1 BEN
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| Cocoa pod, from: Robert Bentley. Medicinal plants: being descriptions with original figures of the principal plants employed in medicine and an account of the characters, properties, and uses of their parts and products of medicinal value. London: J. & A. Churchill, 1880. [Early Science Collection QK99.A1 BEN] |
Both of the authors of this classic work of medical botany have associations with King's College. Robert Bentley (1821-1893) became Professor of Botany at King's College in 1859 and Henry Trimen (1843-1896) was curator of the anatomical museum at King's between 1866 and 1867. Medicinal plants soon became the standard work in its area. There are over three hundred entries and each contains a physical description of the plant and its varieties, habitats, botanical classification, commercial and medicinal uses and chemical composition. Each entry is also accompanied by a precise hand-coloured plate drawn the botanist David Blair FLS (Fellow of the Linnean Society), who had previously illustrated James Britten's European ferns (1879). To help aid plant identification there are also several line drawings of the parts of each plant.
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