The herball, or, Generall historie of plantes

BINDING:
This copy has been rebound and the text block trimmed. Quarter-bound leather over marbled paper covered pasteboards. Sewn onto 5 cords. Compartment 2 on spine has been overlaid with a red leather label with a short title and the date 1688 stamped in gold. Some additional gilding on spine.  No headband or tailband. Flatbacked.

CONDITION:
Binding -- poor. The leather and the marbled papers are badly cracked and scuffed. The spine is cracking. The back board has detached from the spine.
Pages -- fair. Most of the pages are clean and easy to read. Some light staining. There has been some restoration work done on the front matter including pasting the title page onto a new leaf (title page is also missing its bottom right corner). Three leaves are missing from the text block: 4Y3, 6Z1, ZA1. Leaf 7A6 is badly damaged.

Generally fair condition. Due to its large size, this book should be handled with extra care.

DEDICATIONS:
About the Editors (¶1v)
To Sir William Cecil (¶2r)
Praise for John Gerard (¶3v)
To the Reader from St. Bredwell Physition (¶5r)
To the Reader from George Baker (¶6r)
To the Reader from John Gerard (¶¶1r)
To the Reader from Thomas Johnson (¶¶2r)

ILLUSTRATIONS:
Engraved title page, decorated initials (woodcut), printer's devices (woodcut), numerous woodcuts depicting plants.

MARGINALIA:
Printed Marginalia: Light reference notes mostly in the front matter. Paragraphs in the chapters of the main text have been denoted alphabetically.
Handwritten Notes: An inscription that reads: "For The Raspis - See Page 1273" is written in graphite on the back of the title page. Page 1273 does contain an entry for the raspis bush.The name F. D. Hoeniger is written  in graphite on the inner pastedown (top left) and the recto of the first flyleaf (top right). The inscription “gerard 1633 corrected by Thomas Johnson." has been written on the inner pastedown in graphite and looks to be in the same hand as the person who wrote the name F. D. Hoeniger (presumably himself). There are three instance of pressed plants in the book (there may be more as the condition of the binding is so poor that the book can not be opened all the way and some small plants may be deep in the gutter). They are located on pg. 1073 (fronds), 1343 (three leaves) and 1577 (white blossom). There is a slip of paper containing a written note regarding some changes made in the book which has been placed between the cover and the flyleaf.
 

PROVENANCE:
Donated by F. D. Hoeniger. CRRS call number “Qk 41 G3 1633 Large CRRS Rare Oversized' written on the recto of the title page. There are five slips of paper inserted between the cover and the flyleaf. Three of these pieces are excerpts from booksellers catalogues. Only one has a title: "Thomas Thorp, 27 Albemarle Street, W.1". The book that has been noted on this sheet is the third edition. The smaller two pieces have descriptions for the second edition. The piece that bears the handwritten inscription: "Bow Windows Book Shop Cat. 49 Dec. 71." has a description of a copy that matches the bindings of the CRRS copy. Price listed on that piece is 285 pounds.

RELATED:
Second edition. First printed in 1597.
STC 11751

TITLE PAGE:

[Within an engraved title page in the three sections: first section contains a landscape with plants, two banners, two obelisks, two women with the names Ceres and Pomona, and a sun with the Hebrew for Yahweh written on it; second section contains two male figures with the names Heophrastus and Dioscorides, two columns and an oval frame; final section has a portrait of John Gerard (?) in an archway flanked by two potted plants; signed Io Payne Sculps;31 x 19.5 cm; platemark has been trimmed off.] [Within a banner] Ecce dedi vobis omnes herbas ſementantes ſemen, que ſunt. Gen: 129. │ [Within a slot] Excideret ne tibi diuini muneris Author │ Præſentem monstrat quælibet herba Deum. │ [Within an oval frame]THE │HERBALL │ OR GENERALL │ Hiſtorie of │ Plantes.│ Gathered by John Gerarde │ of London Master in │ CHIRVRGERIE │ Very much │ Enlarged and Amended by │ Thomas Johnson │ Citizen and Apothecarye │ of │ LONDON │ [Within a slot] London Printed by │ Adam Iſlip Joice Norton │ and Richard Whitakers │ Anno. 1633.

TYPE:
Roman, italics, some blackletter.

WATERMARK:
Crown over a heraldic shield with two rampant lions.