The Herball Or Generall Historie of Plantes…Very much Enlarged and Amended by Thomas Johnson

London: Printed by Adam Islip, Joice Norton and Richard Whitakers, 1633. Second and Best Edition (first: 1597), the first to be edited by London apothecary and botanist, Thomas Johnson, who contributed extensived revisions and additions. “Gerard is perhaps the best remembered of all the English herbalists.” (Garrison & Morton). A barber surgeon, he supervised the gardens of Lord Burleigh and Theobolds and kept his own famous garden in Holborn for twenty years, for which he issued a list of plants cultivated, the first complete catalogue ever published of the contents of a single garden. According to Arber and the Osler catalogue, Gerard used as the basis of his herbal a translation of Dodoens begun by Robert Priest, but without any acknowledgment, while according to William T.Stearn (DSB), “to what extent Gerard was indebted to Priest’s work is quite uncertain…the Herball as published…was on the whole so massive a task that it seems charitable to credit [Gerard] with the whole. It remains a valuable source of information about the plants available in western European gardens at the end of the sixteenth century and about the Latin and vernacular names then applied to them.” The 1597 edition was illustrated mainly with woodblocks obtained by the publisher Norton from Nikolaus Bassée of Frankfurt, who had used them in the German herbal of Tabernaemontanus (Theodorus of Bergzabern), 1588-91. Several other cuts were added by Gerard, notably one which is considered to be the earliest depiction of the potato, which Gerard believed was native to Virginia. In his revised edition, Johnson enlarged the text to include a total of 2850 plants, added a comprehensive historical introduction, “corrected many of Gerard’s more gullible errors, and improved the accuracy of the illustrations by using Plantin’s woodcuts.” (Hunt). Gerard’s herbal is listed in European Americana because it includes numerous descriptions and illustrations of American plants, including the previously mentioned potato. Alden II 633/39. Arber pp. 129-134. Cole 358. Henrey I 155. Hunt 223. Nissen, BBI, 698n. Pritzel 3282n. STC 11751. Wellcome 2753. cfBib. Osleriana 2722 & cfGarrison & Morton 1820 (1st Edn.). folio. pp. 19 p.l. (incl. engraved title by J.Payne which incorporates a portrait of the author in the lower panel above the imprint), 1630 [i.e. 1634], [44]. lacking initial & final blanks & 2 leaves of index (R-S). over c2766 woodcuts of plants in the text. woodcut ornaments & initials. 19th century calf, rebacked with spine mounted, corners renewed (covers rubbed, engraved title cut to neatline at lower & outer edge & mounted, 2 leaves of index cropped – one torn with slight loss, otherwise a very good clean copy although the margins in general are closely trimmed)