[Rarebooks] FS: Earliest important treatise on Horticulture published in England. 1629

[Karmbooks at aol.com]

(HORTICULTURE) Parkinson, John. PARADISI IN SOLE PARADISUS TERRESTRIS. Or, 
a Garden of All Sorts of Pleasant Flowers Which Our English Ayre Will 
Permitt to Be Noursed Up: with a Kitchin-Garden of All Manner of Herbes, Rootes, & 
Fruites, for Meate or Sauce Used with Us, and an Orchard of All Sorte of 
Fruit-Bearing Trees and Shrubbes Fit for Our Land Together with the Right 
Ordering Planting & Preserving Them and Their Uses & Vertues... London: (Humfrey 
Lownes and Robert Young). 1629. First edition. Folio. (xii),612,(16)pp. 
Complete with 110 woodcuts, comprising a pictorial title, portrait of 
Parkinson, and 108 full-page woodcuts containing nearly 800 figures, mostly by 
Christopher Switzer. Later Cambridge calf, triple-fillet borders stamped in gilt, 
spine elaborately stamped and lettered in gilt in compartments. Hinges a bit 
rubbed. An early ownership inscription on recto and verso of title and head 
of dedication leaf. Fore-edge of title and lower outer blank corner of the 
first ten leaves with professional paper restoration. Overall, a very good 
copy.     $6,000.00 (trade discount allowed)
Hunt calls this work, "One of the most beloved of all early English books 
on gardening." In addition to explaining how to design, cultivate, and 
maintain different sorts of gardens, Parkinson describes more than 1,000 plants in 
the work – including flowering seasons, medicinal properties, and variant 
names for each – and debunks many popular superstitions about plants like 
mandrake, mistletoe, and wolfsbane along the way. A landmark botanical book and 
a cornerstone of any horticultural library. STC 19300. Henrey I, 282. Hunt 
I, 215. Nissen BBI 1489.

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