THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL;
VOLUME 1: OR, BOTANICAL, MEDICAL, AND AGRICULTURAL DICTIONARY. CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF all the known Plants in the World, ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THE LINNEAN SYSTEM. SPECIFYING THE USES TO WHICH THEY ARE OR MAY BE APPLIED, WHETHER AS FOOD, AS MEDICINE, OR IN THE ARTS AND MANUFACTURES. WITH THE BEST METHODS OF PROPAGATION, AND THE MOST RECENT AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENTS. Collected form indisputable Authorities. ADAPTED TO THE USE OF THE FARMER - THE GARDENER - THE HUSBANDMAN - THE BOTANIST - THE FLORIST - AND COUNTRY HOUSEKEEPERS IN GENERAL.. BY THOMAS GREEN. THE SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND IMPROVED. VOL.1. (Printers device) LONDON: PRINTED AT THE CAXTON PRESS, BY HENRY FISHER, Printer in Ordinary to His Majesty. PUBLISHED AT 38, NEWGATE-STREET; AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. VOLUME 2: THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; OR, BOTANICAL, MEDICAL, AND AGRICULTURAL DICTIONARY. CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF all the known Plants in the World, ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THE LINNEAN SYSTEM. SPECIFYING THE USES TO WHICH THEY ARE OR MAY BE APPLIED, WHETHER AS FOOD, AS MEDICINE, OR IN THE ARTS AND MANUFACTURES. WITH THE BEST METHODS OF PROPAGATION, AND THE MOST RECENT AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENTS. Collected form indisputable Authorities. ADAPTED TO THE USE OF THE FARMER - THE GARDENER - THE HUSBANDMAN - THE BOTANIST - THE FLORIST - AND COUNTRY HOUSEKEEPERS IN GENERAL.. BY THOMAS GREEN. THE SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND IMPROVED. VOL.11. (Printers device) LONDON: PRINTED AT THE CAXTON PRESS, BY HENRY FISHER, Printer in Ordinary to His Majesty. PUBLISHED AT 38, NEWGATE-STREET; AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.
Large thick 4to. 2x275x220mm. VOLUME 1: 2feps. [1] Hand-coloured allegorical frontispiece of Wisdom and Activity collecting Vegetables. An engraved allegorical hand-coloured vignette title. [1] Title Page. [1] 2p Preface. (1)2-10 Introduction. [1] 1 hand-coloured plate of simple leaves. 11-790. 3 feps. VOLUME 2: 3feps. [1] Hand-coloured allegorical frontispiece of Elements producing Plants & Flowers. Title Page. [1] (1)4-883. (1)2-56 Apendix. 4feps. Both volumes hold a total of 109 -- 3 frontispieces and 106 very finely coloured botanical plates. Each plate is dated, also with the Latin name from the Linnean System and common English name given for each plant. Both volumes finely and fully bound in modern dark tan calf with blind tooling on the edge of the boards. The spines have raised bands with gilt lines and devices in the compartments. Each has a dark red morocco label with gilt lettering. Internally very clean. A very handsome set.
- Thomas Green was a British author who published this massive herbal dictionary in 1816. Little is known about him, but he may be the same Thomas Green who wrote Extracts from the Diary of a Lover of Literature (1810), Memoirs of her Late Royal Highness Charlotte Augusta (1818) and A Biographical Memoir of the Late Edward Pearson DD (1819). These books on show here are illustrated with three fine allegorical frontispieces by William Marshall Craig and stipple-engraved (a method of engraving in which a grainy effect is produced by a series of tiny dots or flecks) by R. Hicks. Craig was a fashionable miniature painter who illustrated London Cries (1804) and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1788 to 1827. The 106 botanical plates were engraved by F. Dixon, G. Dobie, W. Swift and others. Most of the plates depict two or four plants, and many were copied from originals by famous botanical artists such as Merian, Ehret and Miller. The pineapple, melon, lemon and pepper were copied from Maria Sybilla Merian's Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (1705); the orchid, carnation, papaya, etc., were copied from Philip Miller's Gardener's Dictionary (1755). This handsome book 'The Universal Herbal' is an encyclopedia of herbal knowledge, augmented with gardening and cooking information, this popular book was re-issued in this second edition revised format in 1824 at the Caxton Press, London, and Henry Fisher, Liverpool. The BL has 4 copies. Surprisingly three are odd variants -- an 1820 and a n/d, both printed in Liverpool. One of 1923 has no place of printing, also one dated 1924. The BL does not have a first of 1816.
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Antiquarian category
ref number:
11079