{"title":"Natural History","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe natural world, including plants, animals, geology, ecology, and scientific observation.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"boodt-anselmus","title":"BOODT, Anselmus","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond corrected and improved edition (including new illustration) by Adrianus Toll, of this important work on gemstones and minerals, first published in 1609, the definitive work of the Belgian mineralogist, alchemist and physician, Anselmus Boodt. \"In his Gemmarum et Lapidum Historia, Boodt made the first attempt at a systematic description of minerals, dividing the minerals into great and small, rare and common, hard and soft, combustible and incombustible, transparent and opaque. He uses a scale of hardness expressed in three degrees and notes the crystalline forms of some minerals (triangular, quadratic, and hexangular). Boodt criticizes some of the views of Aristotle, Pliny, Paracelsus, and others. He also mentions atoms. He enumerates about 600 minerals that he knows from personal observation, and describes their properties, values, imitations, and medical applications. There are also tables of values of diamonds according to their size and a short description of the polishing of precious stones. Boodt cites nineteen authors and, besides the minerals known to him, gives a list of 233 minerals whose names he knows from Pliny and Bartholomeus Anglicus, among others.\" D.S.B., II, p. 293. From 1583 Boodt lived Bohemia as physician to Wilhelm Rosenberg, the burgrave of Prague. In 1584 he was nominated physician in ordinary to Rudolf II (with a considerable salary) and retained this position until 1612. There is no evidence however that he ever seriously practiced as a physician; Rudolf clearly saw him as one of his alchemists. Boodt was placed in charge of Rudolf's collection of gems in his  Kunstkammer . The  Naturalia  (minerals and gemstones) were in a 37 cabinet display with the gems and minerals systematically arranged, the large uncut gemstones held in strong boxes. De Boodt was an avid mineral collector and travelled widely on collecting trips to the mining regions of Germany, Bohemia and Silesia, often accompanied by his Bohemian naturalist friend, Thaddaeus Hagecius. This work also gives us our most important source of knowledge of Renaissance gem cutting, the carving of precious stones, the making of jewelry, forgery and trade of precious stones.  De Boodt assembled virtually all of the knowledge then extant  by far the most thorough and complete up to date  [his work] is further distinguished by its intimate knowledge of the art of the lapidary and must therefore be regarded as the first treatise to offer more than the briefest views of gem cutting  Sinkankas. The woodcuts include illustrations of corals, geodes, fossils, gems, minerals, along with tools and methods of working them. A very good copy of this seminal work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOODT, Anselmus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816105189711,"sku":"L1023b","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1023B_6.png?v=1781795311"},{"product_id":"standish-arthur","title":"STANDISH, Arthur","description":"\u003cp\u003eVery rare second edition of this important work, a rare variant published with a folding imprimatur leaf, not found in the British Library.  Arthur Standish reflected the general concern at the increasing shortage of timber in The Commons Complaint which contained two special grievances, as noted in the subtitles:  the first, general destruction and waste of woods in this Kingdom with a remedy for the same: also how to plant wood according to the nature of every soile  The second concerned  the extreme dearth of victuals  and was to be remedied by planting fruit trees, breeding more poultry, and destroying vermin.  Peter McDonald, J. P. Lassoie.  The Literature of Forestry and Agroforestry.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Church s contemporary was Arthur Standish, about whom we know next to nothing. He may have been involved in some way in the Crown surveys, given that in 1611 he wrote that he had been traversing the country investigating the themes on which he would publish for the previous four years. In a series of texts (or more correctly, one gradually expanded text), Standish provided a schema for enhancing the national wood yields such that  the whole Kingdom hereby may be preserved from the ruine that is greatly feared.  His Work differed from Church s in that it provided rather less detail on arboriculture, but a rather grander scheme for increasing output that would benefit the entire economy, freeing up land and resources for alternative uses, and through which the careful setting of pollards and hedgerows could eliminate the need for coppice-woods altogether. Standish claimed some Royal encouragement and won a laudatory preface from poet and engraver Henry Peacham; but his plans, like so many projects of the time, soon lapsed into obscurity. What however marks out Church and Standish is their intent: they did not speak of  improvement  but  profit , but the core of their argument was directed towards the increase of output through better practice. Increased revenue was thus incidental to countering the scarcity of an essential resource. Standish was one of the first to differentiate himself from a slow drip of handbooks for very specific crafts, such as beekeeping, tree-grafting or seed-setting, by projecting a grander project of national renewal.  Richard W. Hoyl  Custom, Improvement and the Landscape in Early Modern Britain . \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (1713   1792), styled Lord Mount Stuart before 1723, was a Scottish nobleman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain (1762 1763) under George III, and was arguably the last important  favourite  in British politics. a very rare and important work with appropriate provenance.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"STANDISH, Arthur","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816126259535,"sku":"L1872","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/1872-STANDISH-Arthur-5.jpg?v=1781795277"},{"product_id":"dorsten-theodor","title":"DORSTEN, Theodor","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst and only edition of this beautifully illustrated herbal. One of the two printing variants, here the title has woodcut plants instead of printer's device. All the numerous illustrations were consistently coloured, probably for the publisher. Theodor Dorsten (1492-1552) was a physician and botanist, as well as professor of medicine at the University of Marburg. In recognition of his contribution to botanic studies, Charles Plumier and Carl Linneus named Dorstenia a family of the Moraceae (mulberry or fig family). As Dorsten explains in the preface, he was commissioned by the renowned publisher of scientific books Christian Egenolff to expand and translate into Latin the Kreutterbuch von allem Erdtwaechs by Eucharius Rösslin, published in 1533. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Dorsten s herbal was expanded in its turn in 1557 by Egenolff s son-in-law, Adam Lonicer. The Botanicon provides a remarkable account of sixteenth-century botanic and pharmacopeial knowledge. It describes alphabetically hundreds of herbs, along with tubers, spices, fruits, nuts, a couple of mushrooms and some liquids very broadly speaking derived from plants, such as vinegar, resin, honey, but also asphalt, cheese and water. Entries comprise a detailed illustration, the different names in Greek, Latin and German, references from ancient and contemporary authorities, description of physical qualities and healing properties and often recipes for medicaments. Those who followed some of the misleading prescriptions must have suffered greatly. Bitumen is said to cure cancer when mixed with vinegar and stop women s periods when combined with beaver s secretion; inhaling its smoke is supposed to prevent mucus (probably), while one gets rid of tooth pain by chewing it (perhaps). Luckily, it was hard to find asphalt at the time. It was mainly collected on the shores of the Dead Sea and thus was known as bitumen Iudaicum. The various uses suggested by Dorsten for cannabis (f. 60r) are equally noteworthy and maybe more appropriate. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This copy belonged to the famous Italian humanist Benedetto Varchi (1503-1565), as indicated by his faint autograph on the title. Varchi possessed vast and multifaceted knowledge. Member of several Italian circles and in particular the Florentine Academy, he was mainly interested in philosophy and literature. Yet, he did not disregard science. Among the 85 books identified as annotated by him, there are important treatises on maths, astronomy, veterinary and human medicine (see A. Siekiera,  Benedetto Varchi , in Autografi dei letterati italiani: il Cinquecento, I, Rome 2009, pp. 337-357, at pp. 343-348). This copy was later acquired by a close friend of Varchi, Lelio Bonsi (1532-post 1569). The two exchanged some sonnets and Bonsi was included among the interlocutors of Varchi s linguistic dialogue Ercolano. A member of the Florentine Academy and of the Order of St Stephen, Bonsi was also a legatee of Varchi s will.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DORSTEN, Theodor","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816128487759,"sku":"K19","price":39500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8139.jpg?v=1781795269"},{"product_id":"markham-gervase","title":"MARKHAM, Gervase","description":"\u003cp\u003eFourth edition  revised, corrected, and amended, together with many new additions,  of this important and innovative agricultural work by Markham, on the preparation and improvement of soils and on arable farming generally.  Soil husbandry began to be seen as the key to productive, profitable farming. Gervase Markham, one of the first agricultural writers to write in English instead of Latin, described soils as various mixtures of clay, sand, and gravel. What made good soil depended on the local climate, the character and condition of the soil, and the local plants (crops).  Simple Clays, Sands, or Gravels together; may be all good, and all fit to bring forth increase, or all   barren.  Understanding the soil was the key to understanding what would grow best, and essential to keeping a farm productive.  Thus having a true knowledge of the Nature and Condition of your ground . it may not only be purged and clensed   but also so much bettered and refined.  Prescribing steps to improve British farms, Markham recommended using the right type of plow for the ground. He advised mixing river sand and crushed burned limestone into the soil, to be followed by the best manure to be had, preferably ox, cow, or horse dung. In describing procedures for improving barren soils, Markham advocated growing wheat or rye for two years in a field, and then letting sheep graze and manure it for a year. After the sheep, several crops of barley were to be followed in the seventh year by peas or beans, and then several more years as pasture. After this cycle the ground would be much improved for growing grain. The key to sustaining soil fertility was to alternate livestock and crops on the same piece of ground. Equally important, although it received less attention, was preventing erosion of the soil itself. Markham advised plowing carefully to avoid collecting water into erosive gullies. Good soil was the key to a good farm, and keeping soil on the farm required special effort even on England s gentle rolling hills.  David R. Montgomery.  Dirt. The Erosion of Civilizations  The work also deals with the preservation of grains and pulses, including a section on the best grain to take to sea (which he concludes is rice). It also contains two chapters at the end on the husbandry of cattle for plowing. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Many books on agriculture and gardening were published during the century, but from the historical point of view the most important are those of Markham, because they appeared at an early stage in the new development, were widely read, and full of useful information and sound advice. Markham was a too prolific writer, but one can forgive his constant repetition and shameless re-issuing of unsold books under a new title for the great influence his writings had on English agriculture. His most important work was  Markhams farewell to husbandry.  It dealt fully and expertly not only with ploughing, sowing and harvesting, but with methods such as sanding, lining, marling and manuring, by which fertility of land could be increased.  Anne Wilbraham  The Englishman s Food: Five Centuries of English Diet .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MARKHAM, Gervase","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816139104591,"sku":"L2675","price":1750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2675.jpg?v=1781795189"},{"product_id":"lawson-william","title":"LAWSON, William","description":"Fourth edition, slightly enlarged from the previous, of this beautifully illustrated work on gardening, the only published work of William Lawson, all early editions of which are now rare. Little is known of Lawson s life apart from what he tells us in the preface   that he has 48 years and more experience of furnishing his northern orchard and country garden  with needfull plants and usefull herbs . The work is dedicated to Sir Henry Belosses of a well known Yorkshire family who appears to have been a neighbour of the author and shared his keen horticultural interest and tastes.\r \r Lawson claims no authority for his work other than his own observation and experience;  my meer and sole experience, without respect to any former-written Treatise , but he was obviously sensible, educated and well read.  A man of some learning, he evidently read widely on agriculture and gardening, and his two works are also scattered with references to the classics. When he died he willed  all my latine books \u0026amp; mie English books of contraversie  to his son William, which suggests that he may well have owned a relatively substantial library of books for the period.  Julie Gardham   Glasgow University Library Special collections. Within a small compass he provides sound instruction for  planting, grafting as to make any ground good, for a rich Orchard  particularly in the north.  Occasionally in the text he refers to the difficulties of this environment. He advises his fellow northerners, for instance, to  meddle not with Apricockes nor Peaches, nor scarcely with Quinces, which will not like our cold parts . This book can therefore be credited with being the first to deal with the northern garden.  Julie Gardham. This followed by similar information on  herbes of common use, their virtues, seasons, profits, ornaments, variety of knots, models for trees, and plots for the best ordering of Grounds and walks , together with the  Husbandry of Bees .  The work goes on to deal comprehensively with all aspects of orchard management, covering: the kind of soil required ( blacke, fat, mellow, cleane and well tempered ) and how to improve it; the best kind of site and how to protect it with fencing, or even better,  quickwood, and moates or ditches of water ; how to deal with  annoyances  such as animals, birds, thieves, disease and the weather (not to mention the evils of a  carelesse master ); how to plant, space and prune your trees; the different types of fruit trees and bushes and their qualities; and how to gather, store and preserve the fruits of your labours. As Lawson sums up,  skill and pains, bring fruitful gains .  Julie Gardham. The section entitled  the County Houswife s Garden  is valuable for its attention to the essential role of women in the rural household, as cooks, nurturers of fine flowers and keepers of the herbal medicine cupboard. Also Appended to this edition, is Simon Harwood s short treatise on the art of propagating plants and another, which may be by Lawson or Harwood, on how to increase the yield from a wide selection of fruits. A simple practical work written with much charm by an obvious enthusiast and still eminently readable.","brand":"LAWSON, William","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816139137359,"sku":"L2578a","price":6500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-11.31.24.webp?v=1781795188"},{"product_id":"markham-gervase-1","title":"MARKHAM, Gervase","description":"\u003cp\u003eThird edition of this most interesting agricultural work, first published in 1625, concerning  improving the soils of the Weald of Kent. Much is taken verbatim from Markham s earlier work on soil improvement,  farewell to husbandry  but here is of great interest as it has applied his techniques specifically to a particular region of England.  In the pamphlet,  The inrichment of the weald of Kent  of 1625, the Author advocated a systematic program for improving the productivity of the  unapt  soils of the region. It was to be based on the regular spreading of Marl (which was commonly found in the Weald) to enrich the ground, and, equally important, the introduction of ley farming to the enclosed fields which have previously been used for either pasture or arable. A complete dressing of marl   the author recommended 300 to 500 loads per acre   would serve for 20 to 30 years:  your marlable grounds being ordered in this wise .. will continue to stand fruitfully either for corn or pasture . The improver did not go into much detail about the cost of systematic marling, but gave the game away when he referred to the farm he had in mind. Under his scheme the  husbandman  of 100 or 125 acres will plough a fifth or sixth of his land, leaving the rest to pasture, and after a few years the former arable would become pasture again, as former grassland was ploughed up for corn in turn. In the sixteenth century, however, the farm of 125 acres in the Weald was exceptional, and the improvers prescription, had it been widely known, was beyond the budget of most Wealden farmers. Nevertheless, such grandiose schemes for dressing both the arable and pasture land of whole farms speak loudly of the recurring reality of Wealden farming: most Wealden soils were poor and unproductive compared to nearby arable regions like northeast Kent.  Michael Zell  Industry in the Countryside: Wealden Society in the Sixteenth Century .   Many books on agriculture and gardening were published during the century, but from the historical point of view the most important are those of Markham, because they appeared at an early stage in the new development, were widely read, and full of useful information and sound advice. Markham was a too prolific writer, but one can forgive his constant repetition and shameless re-issuing of unsold books under a new title for the great influence his writings had on English agriculture.  Anne Wilbraham  The Englishman s Food: Five Centuries of English Diet .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MARKHAM, Gervase","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816139366735,"sku":"L2676","price":1250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_5687.jpg?v=1781795188"},{"product_id":"cato-marcus-porcius","title":"[CATO, Marcus Porcius]","description":"\u003cp\u003eA handsome copy of this interesting compendium on Roman agriculture and country life, edited by Giovanni Giocondo from Verona, with dedication by Pietro Bembo. The conjunction of these texts can be found from the Middle Ages. The texts of Cato the Censor and Varro were transmitted together in numerous manuscripts, that of Columella previously lost, was rediscovered by Poggio Bracciolini in the early 15th century, in a 9th century manuscript from Fulda. They were first jointly published in 1472 in Venice by Nicolas Jenson and formed the principal source of information on aspects of Roman rural life, such as wine and olive production, farming, bookkeeping and the breeding and grazing of livestock. The authors, Marcus Porcius (234-149 BC), Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27BC) and Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (4-c.70 AD), were Roman gentlemen, farmers and landowners. The edition was based on the manuscripts found in Paris by Giovanni Giocondo (c. 1433   1515) which contained a more correct version of the Roman texts. Giovanni Giocondo was one of the main representatives of Renaissance Humanism, editor of other Aldine texts and known for his annotated and illustrated edition (1511) of Vitruvius  De architectura. This edition includes a papal privilege, a dedicatory letter by Bembo to Leo X (November 1513), Giovanni Giocondo s preface to Leo (1514), two addresses by Aldo to the reader, errata, another preface from the philologist Giorgio Merula (1430-1494) to Pietro Priuli, an extensive glossary of obscure terms, finally a letter from Merula to Bernardo Giustiniani, followed by the table of contents. In the dedication Aldo expresses his interest in these treatises and his wish to spend his old age in the countryside. The text opens with Cato s De agricoltura (c. 160 BC), the oldest surviving prose work in Latin, dealing with the development of vine, olive and fruit growing. There follows Varro s Rerum rusticarum (c. 36 BC), divided into 3 books, on farm building and labour, the breeding, management and feeding of animals, especially sheep and birds, fowl, bees and fishponds. It provides the etymology of words, citing earlier authors who wrote on the cultivation of the fields. Columella s  De re rustica  in 12 books, is considered the most important work on agriculture, characterised by the elegance and purity of the style. It is a systematic treatise on rural economy in general, covering a number of topics: book 1 concerns general matters, such as buildings and labour, 2 soils; 3-5 wines, olives and fruit; 6-7 domestic animals, 8 poultry and fishpond, 9 bees, 10 (in verse) and 11 gardening, 12 a farm manager s wife s duties and recipes for wine and vinegar. Book 10 in dactylic hexameters is a sort of supplement to Virgil s Georgics. Columella s work also includes a separate book on arboriculture, which is part of a larger work. The text closes with Palladius, who lived c. 400 AD and was the last of the Latin writers concerned with agriculture. His work is divided into 14 books. The first presents a general introduction; each of the following 12 describes the works suitable for a particular month. Book 14 is a didactic poem in elegiac verse on the grafting of trees.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[CATO, Marcus Porcius]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816140218703,"sku":"L2628","price":4250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2628-1.jpg?v=1781795183"},{"product_id":"cato-marcus-porcius-varro-marcus-terentius-columella-lucius-moderatus-palladius-rutilius-taurus","title":"CATO, Marcus Porcius, VARRO, Marcus Terentius, COLUMELLA, Lucius Moderatus, PALLADIUS, Rutilius Taurus","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe early initials painted gold with red penwork were probably produced in France by an anonymous artist. They reflect types based on Roman epigraphy, especially Geoffrey Tory s manual  Champfleury  (Paris, 1529). They may have been inspired by the gilt initials often executed for Jean Grolier. The finely gilt thistles on the spine closely resemble those in Barber,  Printed Books and Bookbindings , FL. 75, W.Cat.212. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A fine, large copy of this successful collection of famous classical texts on agriculture, edited by the friar and humanist Giovanni Giocondo and integrated with material from the Giunta edition of 1521. The thorough subject index which precedes the texts was devised for a C16 readership interested in the classical rustic virtues of landownership and the practical aspects of country life, with topics as varied as the best place to set up a beehive, horticulture, remedies for dogs with flees and sick horses, ways to scare snakes off stables and regulations for workers. Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 BC) was a Roman statesman, military officer and author. His only complete, extant work,  De Agri Cultura  (c.160 BC) is a manual on the management of a country estate reliant on slaves, with a special interest in the cultivation of vines. A prolific writer patronised by Augustus, Marcus Terentius Varro (116-107BC) based his  Rerum rusticarum libri tres  on his direct experience of farming. He notably warns his readers to avoid marshlands, where  animalia minuta  that cannot be seen by the human eye may be breathed in or swallowed and cause illnesses. A soldier and farmer, Lucius Moderatus Columella (4-70AD) is best known for his  Res rustica  in twelve volumes and the shorter  De arboribus . Intended as a manual of husbandry,  Res rustica  deals with a wealth of activities including the cultivation of vines and olives, the farming and treatment of animals, and the management of workers.  De arboribus  contains information on horticulture, subdivided by kind of tree. Inspired by Columella and much admired in the medieval period, Palladius s (C4-5AD)  Opus agriculturae  (or  De re rustica ) provides an account of the typical monthly activities of a Roman farm, and mentions the utility of building mills over abundant waterways to grind wheat. These texts, first published together in Venice in 1472, enjoyed wide circulation in C16 Italy and France.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CATO, Marcus Porcius, VARRO, Marcus Terentius, COLUMELLA, Lucius Moderatus, PALLADIUS, Rutilius Taurus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816140677455,"sku":"L2384","price":4250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8513.jpg?v=1781795180"},{"product_id":"monardes-nicolas","title":"MONARDES, Nicolas","description":"\u003cp\u003eA fine copy of the very rare third edition in English, translated by John Frampton, of several most interesting Spanish treatises by Monardes. “The author was one of the most distinguished Spanish physicians of his time. This is the third edition, with additions, of the English translation of his book on the curative plants of the New World; the first and second editions having been printed in 1577 and 1580 respectively. The work opens with a notice on Columbus’s discovery, and among other things, contains a long article on tobacco. (folios 33 – 45)” Church. “The Spanish discovery of the new world produced not only a supply of precious metals but of rare plants apt for study as potential drugs and the means to miraculous new cures. Early among those who pursued these botanical novelties was Nicolás Monardes of Seville, who collected, studied, catalogued, grew and integrated them into his medical practice. After many years, he wrote a singular treatise which was translated into several languages including English and Latin in several spirits at once: a botanical collection; a book of Pharmaceutical simples; a treatise on miraculous cures; a book of wonders; and a work promoting the commercial exploitation of overseas resources. These diverse rhetorical aspects become even more apparent in the work’s translation into English by the merchant-trader John Frampton of Bristol. Monardes’ treatise is not only scientific in its import, but a print culture phenomenon revealing how the new instruments for the mass dissemination of astonishing new data could reconstruct the popular imagination. …Nicolás Monardes of Seville, .. realized as early as the 1530s that these simples might not only contain miraculous healing powers but fetch very high prices, prompting him to collect, classify, and even grow a goodly number of them for incorporation into his clinical practice. The account he at last published, after some thirty years of collecting and study, appeared in parts beginning in 1565 and 1569, and in its entirety in 1571. It became a seminal work in circulating news of these discoveries not only among botanists and apothecaries throughout Europe, but among common readers of the vernacular, for Monardes had chosen to publish in Spanish rather than the Latin of medical specialists. Therein is to be found the earliest accounts of sassafras, cannafistola, sarsaparilla, and the carlo sancto root, a scant four among the seventy-one simples comprising the work. …He had created two works in one, a botanical dictionary, .. but simultaneously a book of wonders, a published “cabinet of curiosities,” …[The English translation] followed the full Spanish edition by only a few years. .. Frampton, as a trader —in full anticipation of the days when such Englishmen as Sir Walter Raleigh would espouse the trade in New World simples— put forward the entire spirit of medical hope and pharmaceutical merchandising in his literary construction of “joyful news.” .. through Frampton’s offices, in bringing Monardes to the attention of English readers,.. there may be seen the foundation for incentives behind the English colonization of Virginia on the basis of commodities formerly little to be imagined. .. Monardes’ enthusiastic account of this plant (Florida sassafras) had a remarkable afterlife in the history of the earliest attempts by the English to found a colony in Virginia. Through Frampton’s translation, the English came to prize the wood of this plant as a cure for many diseases, including syphilis. Thomas Harriot elaborated upon this report in conjunction with the discovery of this wonder-working tree in Virginia in his ‘Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (1590)’.” Donald Beecher, “Nicolás Monardes, John Frampton and the Medical Wonders of the New World.”\u003cbr\u003e\nA rare, important and beautifully illustrated work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MONARDES, Nicolas","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816141103439,"sku":"K110","price":32500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/monardes.jpg?v=1781795179"},{"product_id":"dolce-lodovico","title":"DOLCE, Lodovico","description":"\u003cp\u003eA later issue of this important work on the virtues of precious stones by the prolific Venetian polygraph Lodovico Dolce (1508-1568). After completing his education, he worked with the press of Gabriele Giolito de  Ferrari in Venice. He composed comedies, tragedies and verses on mythology, influenced by Virgil, Ovid and Catullus. He also had a keen interest in art criticism and wrote the dialogue entitled  Aretino ovvero Dialogo di pittura  (1557) on the comparison of poetry and painting, where he praised the artist Titian. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The present treatise is a translation of Camillo Leonardi from Pesaro s  Speculum lapidum  (1547), and falls into the lapidary tradition discussing origin, appearance and powers of the gems. Precious stones and metals were considered valuable since ancient times but they were also attributed particular qualities. The first treatises on the artificial stones were composed towards the end of the Middle Age. After the dedicatory letter to Giovambattista Campeggio, comparing the virtues of the patron to rubies and other gems, the preface stresses the ancient interest of princes and aristocrats in the gems. There follow three books: book 1 describes physical features of the stones, and how they were created by the action of the natural elements; book 2 their properties and the influence they have on those who wear them. It ends up with an alphabet of the colours of the stones and an index containing names, etymology and species, as well as the place where they are located and the virtue of each gem. The author includes references to precious stones in public collections, particularly the Basilica of Saint Mark in Venice and buildings in Rome. Book 3 is dedicated to the images sculpted into the stones studied by the geomancy, to be interpreted with the support of astrology. Other treatises on the topic were published in the same years, such as Jean de la Taille s Blason de pierres preciouses (1574) and Remy Belleau s Le Amours et nouveaux eschanges des pierres preciouses (1576), however, as his authorities, Dolce mostly mentions only the philosophers Aristotle, Avicenna, Averroes and Albert the Great.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DOLCE, Lodovico","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816141365583,"sku":"L2713","price":2500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2793-3.jpg?v=1781795177"},{"product_id":"markham-gervase-2","title":"MARKHAM, Gervase","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond separately printed edition of this most interesting agricultural work, first published in 1625, concerning the improving of the soils of the Weald of Kent. Much of the content of the work is taken verbatim from Markham s earlier work on soil improvement,  farewell to husbandry  but here is of great interest as he has applied his techniques specifically to a particular region of England.  In the pamphlet,  The inrichment of the  weald of Kent  of 1625, the Author advocated a systematic program for improving the productivity of the  unapt  soils of the region. It was to be based on the regular spreading of Marl (which was commonly found in the Weald) to enrich the ground, and, equally important, the introduction of ley farming to the enclosed fields which have previously been used for either pasture or arable. A complete dressing of marl   the author recommended 300 to 500 loads per acre   would serve for 20 to 30 years:  your marlable grounds being ordered in this wise .. will continue to stand fruitfully either for corn or pasture . The improver did not go into much detail about the cost of systematic marling, but gave the game away when he referred to the farm he had in mind. Under his scheme the  husbandman  of 100 or 125 acres will plough a fifth or sixth of his land, leaving the rest to pasture, and after a few years the former arable would become pasture again, as former grassland was ploughed up for corn in turn. In the sixteenth century, however, the farm of 125 acres in the Weald was exceptional, and the improvers prescription, had it been widely known, was beyond the budget of most Wealden farmers. Nevertheless, such grandiose schemes for dressing both the arable and pasture land of whole farms speak loudly of the recurring reality of Wealden farming: most Wealden soils were poor and unproductive compared to nearby arable regions like northeast Kent.  Michael Zell  Industry in the Countryside: Wealden Society in the Sixteenth Century .   Many books on agriculture and gardening were published during the century, but from the historical point of view the most important are those of Markham, because they appeared at an early stage in the new development, were widely read, and full of useful information and sound advice. Markham was a too prolific writer, but one can forgive his constant repetition and shameless re-issuing of unsold books under a new title for the great influence his writings had on English agriculture.  Anne Wilbraham  The Englishman s Food: Five Centuries of English Diet .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MARKHAM, Gervase","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816146379087,"sku":"L2677","price":1250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2677.jpg?v=1781794940"},{"product_id":"peucer-kaspar","title":"PEUCER, Kaspar","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond edition in French of Peucer s encyclopaedic work on divination;  it seems to have been the most influential of his numerous writings which were concerned with the varied fields of medicine, astronomy, mathematics, natural history, and psychology , (Thorndike VI p. 493). On the whole the work approves of divination in natural circumstances   reading dreams, for instance, or the stars, but agrees with the Bible in condemning certain branches of divination related to demons and witchcraft. Peucer s bias is unflinchingly Protestant, denying the possibility of Miracles, and he attributed the successfulness of relics and invocations of saints to demons rather than divinity.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n After discussing divination in general, he turns to oracles and theomancy, then to magic, which he thus incorrectly implies is a variety of divination, whereas the opposite is true, then to divination from entrails, to augury and aruspicina, to lot-casting under which he puts geomancy and divining from names and numbers and to dreams and their interpretation. Next he considers medical prognostications, meteorology and weather prediction, physiognomy and chiromancy, astrology, and last prodigies and portents  (Thorndike VI p. 495). He is highly suspicious of Alchemy as a purely devilish art on the one hand, but on the other entirely approving of Astrology, which he himself put to practice and considered essential to the study of medicine. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Kasper Peucer (1525   1602) was a prominent physician and scholar who studied with Melanchthon (and married his daughter) at the University of Wittenberg where he was appointed in turn professor of philosophy, mathematics, and medicine. His pupil, John Garcaeus, called Peucer the  most celebrated professor of mathematics in this academy . Peucer s religious views were influenced by his close relationship with Melanchthon, which deviated from the local Lutheranism in its Calvinist colourings, and when Melanchthon died in 1560 Peucer became a prominent religious authority. Although he climbed the academic ranks quickly, and gained appointment as physician to Augustus I, Elector of Saxony, his  Crypto-Calvinist  beliefs were his downfall. In 1574, letters discovered by his patron that expressed a desire to convert Augustus to Calvinism led to a twelve year imprisonment in Königstein Fortress. After his release from prison in 1586, he became physician to the duke of Anhalf, where he remained until his death in 1602.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PEUCER, Kaspar","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816152801615,"sku":"L2851","price":2500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-12.28.35.webp?v=1781794933"},{"product_id":"piccino-giovanni","title":"PICCINO, Giovanni","description":"\u003cp\u003eScarce, curious manual on tobacco, probably the earliest Italian attempt at a scientific disquisition on the topic. All we know about Giovanni Piccino is what is written on the t-p: he was a doctor in the town of Orte, near Rome. Based on ancient and modern authorities,  Petopiccino  is a systematic study of the excellency and virtues of tobacco a  divine gift , a  force of nature  addressed to the wider Italian public. Due to its intensive use in Europe after its arrival in Spain from the New World, Piccino calls it the  fifth element , a quasi-Aristotelian substance necessary for  the preservation of our Platonic microcosm . After discussing its botanical features and etymology, explaining that  peto  is a name given to it in the New World, he proceeds to list its virtues if cooked, chewed, distilled, etc., and its wondrous powers including chasing away venomous animals, repressing libido, treating stomach ache and relieving the symptoms of gout. He also mentions early criticism of tobacco; for instance, when sniffed in the form of powder its most popular use it may cause excessive sneezing and even lesions to the nose. An interesting medical, botanical and ethnographic compendium on the social importance of tobacco in C17 Italy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PICCINO, Giovanni","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816154472783,"sku":"L2852","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_8328.jpg?v=1781794922"},{"product_id":"dioscorides","title":"DIOSCORIDES","description":"\u003cp\u003eA handsome copy of this fundamental ancient Greek work on herbal medicine the first pharmacopoeia which influenced Western medical practice until the C19. The work had been circulating in Latin (as well as Greek and Arabic) throughout the medieval period, never falling into oblivion. It was first printed by Filippo Giunta in 1518, in a Latin translation and commentary by the Florentine humanist and Medici chancellor Marcello Virgilio Adriani (1464-1521), of which this is the second edition. Born in Cilicia, Discorides (40-90AD) was a Greek physician at the service of the Roman army and an expert botanist. A compendium of medical knowledge which rivalled Hippocrates s and Oribasius s works,  De Materia medica  discusses the properties and medical uses of hundreds of herbs all typical of the eastern Mediterranean region, often providing their names in other languages like Thracian, ancient Egyptian or Carthaginian. Its five parts cover a variety of topics including not only aromatic or culinary herbs and plants (e.g., cardamom, cinnamon, liquorice and valerian) but also cereals, fruit, roots, seeds and even minerals from which ointments, drinks or balms can be made. The short sections discuss the name, origins, physical characteristics and medical uses of each; room is also devoted to specific conditions, their symptoms and the best practice and medicaments to treat them. To the bite of adders, vipers and basilisks, for instance, is devoted a long section which explains how to intervene in case of emergency and how to prepare and use life-saving pharmacopoeia including cedar juice, bitumen and green  pilulae  made from plane trees cooked in diluted wine.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DIOSCORIDES","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816154865999,"sku":"L2872","price":12500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/20190713_154501.jpg?v=1781794920"},{"product_id":"herrera-gabriel-alonso-de","title":"HERRERA, Gabriel Alonso de.","description":"\u003cp\u003eVery scarce edition of this extremely successful and ground-breaking manual of agriculture in Castilian. Gabriel Alonso de Herrera (1470-1539) was a Franciscan agronomist and brother to the humanist Hernando and the musician Diego Alonso de Herrera. He is most renowned for this  Libro de agricultura , first printed in Spain in 1513, which underwent over 20 editions in just a few decades and was translated into Latin, Italian and French. It was a compilation based on a variety of agricultural and medical sources, including Greek (Galen and Hippocrates), Arabic (Avenzoar and Avicenna), and Latin  De re rustica  authors (Columella, Cato, Varro and Palladius). Following the classical tradition, Herrera presented a holistic view of the agronomist as knowledgeable in the cultivation of crops and trees, techniques for making soil and water suitable for agriculture and horticulture, the forecast of adverse weather conditions, farming and herbal medical remedies. He also injected into this solid tradition new ideas based on contemporary agricultural theories and his own experience concerning the identification of high-quality seed which should be grown separately from the rest to improve the quality of crops, as well as plant reproductive morphology, i.e., he believed that plants could be masculine or feminine. Juan de Valverde s  Despertador  and Guti érrez Salinas s  Discursos  similarly deal with agricultural and horticultural techniques; the first also discusses farming and the use of beasts of burden as well as the remedies to preserve one s estate in times of famine and inclement weather. \u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\n  The printer, Mat√≠as Mares, intended this text to be bound with Juan de Valverde s  Despertador , Diego Guti érrez Salinas s  Discursos del pan y del vino del Ni√±o Jes√∫s  originally printed in Alcal√° de Henares in 1600 and here summarised and Gregorio de los Rios s  Agricultura de jardines  printed in Zaragoza in 1604. This copy contains the 4 ll. of preliminaries (plus an additional leaf of errata) and 242 ll. of text which encompass the (complete) works by Herrera, Valverde and Salinas. The separately printed 6 ll. containing de los Rios s work were not bound in this copy, as Palau, see below.  \u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\n  Jos é de Aguirre SJ was an Inquisitor whose  expurgatorio  dating from the 1640s is recorded in other Spanish books. He authored the pamphlet  Profec√≠a de Santa Hildegardis .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HERRERA, Gabriel Alonso de.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816155947343,"sku":"L2970a","price":1850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_4157.jpg?v=1781794911"},{"product_id":"doglioni-giovanni-nicolo-1","title":"DOGLIONI, Giovanni Nicol√≤","description":"\u003cp\u003eScarce copy of this important didactic almanac including the prediction of weather conditions, planetary influence and a perpetual calendar  one of the earliest if not the earliest almanack according to the Gregorian Calendar unknown to Poggendorff  ( Bibliotheca Chemico-Mathematica  1076). Giovanni Nicol√≤ Doglioni (1548-1629) was a Venetian notary appointed to several public offices in the city, and the author of works on chronology, cosmography and the calculation of time.  L anno  contextualised for a broader audience the reform of the Julian calendar introduced by Gregory XIII in 1582 a revision which led to major scholarly debates on  gnomonica  or the computation of the portions of the solar day. The first section of the work discusses the four elements that constitute the world, the subdivisions of the earth into continents, countries and provinces, the meteorological phenomena resulting from the mixture of the elements as well as a table tracing the movements of the planets. In the second section Doglioni explains the subdivisions of time according to conventional units. The fundamental unit the day can be natural (following the planetary course of the sun in relation to the earth as a whole) or artificial (according to the specific place in which the onlooker is situated). This distinction is used as the basis to explain the correct construction of sundials on buildings. There follows an examination of the subdivision of historical time the discipline of chronology so dear to the medieval and Renaissance periods and the meaning of  century ,  age ,  age of man  and  age of the world , with a perpetual calendar and a long table recording universal dates and events from the creation to the year 5545 [1586AD]. Later owners annotated the perpetual calendar counting the days for the years 1646, 1668 and 1709. The last section provides perpetual calendars to identify Feasts of the Saints and moveable liturgical feasts. It was reprinted as  L anno riformato  in 1599 and its tables accordingly updated. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Giovanni Battista Lambruschini S.J. (1755-1827) was professor at the Jesuit seminary in Genoa, a great opponent of the French Revolution and the centre of a Jesuit circle including the renowned philologist Cardinal Angelo Mai.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DOGLIONI, Giovanni Nicol√≤","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816156078415,"sku":"L2885","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage_e03e142e-f040-46f2-84c1-4d818e74ac66.png?v=1781794912"},{"product_id":"jenner-thomas","title":"JENNER, Thomas","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first edition of this interesting work on fisheries and the lack of their exploitation by the British fishing industry, an important early treatise in the benefits of concerted investment in a particular industry. The work set out in eight clear points why such an investment would be beneficial from an  Encrease in Shipping  and an  Encrease of private Wealth  to an  Encrease of Power abroad .  Jenner was one of the main London print publishers and sellers; his active career spanned over half a century. His beginnings remain obscure. He was a member of the Grocers  Company, and was possibly the Thomas Jenneu, son of James, who received his freedom in 1619. His earliest publication, a portrait by Delaram (Hind II 229.28), is securely dated to 1618. There are strong reasons for thinking that he took over the short-lived business of Maurice Blount which was at the same address.   The prints made for him in 1621 by Willem de Passe, who was married to an  Elisabeth Jennerts    presumably a relation   were the finest produced in London at the time, and were entered into the Stationers  register on his behalf by George Fairbeard. Jenner still produced some significant plates in the 1630s (eg the portrait of the Earl of Northumberland by Cornelis van Dalen, Hind III 254.5), but his stock went steadily down-market over the years, and by his death he was only a marginal figure. .. In 1651 he wrote a political pamphlet,  London s blame if not its shame , attacking supine government policy over the fishing industry. Although Jenner was a specialist print publisher, many of his publications include letterpress.  British Museum.   Not all Jenner s books were devotional, and with London s Blame if not its Shame (1651) he revealed both patriotism and business acumen. The work is a plea for developing the fishing of English coastal waters which, Jenner argues, if efficiently exploited would not only provide a vital source of food but also give employment  for a thousand Ships, and at least twenty thousand Fishermen and Mariners at Sea, and consequently as for as many Tradesmen and Labourers at Land  (London s Blame, 10).  DNB.   Although seventeenth-century writers often stated the principle that the gain of one party in trade was at the expense of the other, suggesting a finite understanding of commerce, they were simultaneously able to envisage how it might expand without resulting in a corresponding loss. Most simply, it was possible to increase agricultural and industrial production alike: English territories contained vast natural resources ripe for exploitation, as reflected in the huge number of agricultural pamphlets of the period, as well as a burgeoning interest in technological inventions, in mining, land drainage, and numerous other enterprises. And if husbandry could fuel expanded trade, the seas surrounding Britain offered what was believed to be  a continual Sea-harvest of grain , from  infinite shoals and multitudes of Fishes . T. Jenner, Londons blame, if not its shame (London, 1651), p. 1.  Leng, T.  Commercial conflict and regulation in the discourse of trade in seventeenth-century England.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"JENNER, Thomas","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816156635471,"sku":"L2771","price":1750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_6105.jpg?v=1781794909"},{"product_id":"markham-gervase-4","title":"MARKHAM, Gervase","description":"An excellent and rare sammelband of some of Markhams most important works with an edition of Lawson s  A new orchard and garden  reissued here with an additional general title page by John Harrison, probably to sell unsold copies. It forms an important collection of Markham s best works on husbandry in the most complete editions. Markham s Farewell to Husbandry is an important and innovative agricultural work on the preparation and improvement of soils and on arable farming generally. The work also deals with the preservation of grains and pulses, including a section on the best grain to take to sea (which he concludes is rice). It also contains two chapters at the end on the husbandry of cattle for ploughing.  In the pamphlet,  The inrichment of the weald of Kent  of 1625, the Author advocated a systematic program for improving the productivity of the  unapt  soils of the region. It was to be based on the regular spreading of Marl (which was commonly found in the Weald) to enrich the ground, and, equally important, the introduction of ley farming to the enclosed fields which have previously been used for either pasture or arable. Michael Zell  Industry in the Countryside: Wealden Society in the Sixteenth Century \r \r The English housewife contains a huge variety of detailed recipes and information, the majority concerning the preparation of food and drink, with smaller sections on medicine ,household remedies and weaving. Markham starts with a brief description of the ideal temperament of a housewife, before moving on to household remedies  for the curing of those ordinary sickenesses which daily perturb the health of men and Women . Apart from the usual (C16th) remedies there are many concerning childbirth, and cosmetics, with a very interesting section at the end on how to make various oils, such as oil of lavender and camomile, for such things as  to make smooth hands . The next and most substantial chapter in on cookery, starting with a description of how to maintain a garden to supply the kitchen. Many of the recipes are for classics of English cookery such as rice and bread pudding, trifle, custards,  Gammon of bacon pie , apple tart, and  marmalad  among many others. The work then moves on to distillation and the making of many  aqua-vitae  and various  waters , and concludes with a section on the making of perfumes. Then comes a short chapter on the keeping and preserving of wine, including a description of  Burdeaux  and  Renish  wines, and how to choose them and  remedy  them. A short chapter on weaving and dying of wool is followed by chapters on dairy work and the making of a whole variety of cheeses and butter, the making of Malt and bread making and finishes with how to brew beer, ales, cider and perry.\r \r The final work is the beautifully illustrated work on gardening, the only published work of William Lawson, all early editions of which are now rare.  A man of some learning, he evidently read widely on agriculture and gardening, and his two works are also scattered with references to the classics. When he died he willed  all my latine books \u0026amp; mie English books of contraversie  to his son William, which suggests that he may well have owned a relatively substantial library of books for the period.  Julie Gardham   Glasgow University Library Special collections. Within a small compass he provides sound instruction for  planting, grafting as to make any ground good, for a rich Orchard  particularly in the north. The section entitled  the County Houswife s Garden  is valuable for its attention to the essential role of women in the rural household, as cooks, nurturers of fine flowers and keepers of the herbal medicine cupboard. Also appended, is Simon Harwood s short treatise on the art of propagating plants and another, which may be by Lawson or Harwood, on how to increase the yield from a wide selection of fruits. A simple practical work written with much charm by an obvious enthusiast and still eminently readable\r \r  Many books on agriculture and gardening were published during the century, but from the historical point of view the most important are those of Markham, because they appeared at an early stage in the new development, were widely read, and full of useful information and sound advice.   His most important work was  Markhams farewell to husbandry.  It dealt fully and expertly not only with ploughing, sowing and harvesting, but with methods such as sanding, lining, marling and manuring, by which fertility of land could be increased.  Anne Wilbraham  The Englishman s Food: Five Centuries of English Diet .","brand":"MARKHAM, Gervase","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816166859087,"sku":"L3263","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3263-1-1.jpg?v=1781794867"},{"product_id":"plattes-gabriel","title":"PLATTES, Gabriel","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first edition of this most interesting work on mining and the discovery of minerals with a large section section on the arts of dyeing and fixing colours. It gives directions for  finding  metals and minerals, for  melting, refining and essaying them , and not only how to test gold but how to make it. Unfortunately, this was at greater cost than its value and of so little benefit to its discoverer that Plattes is  said to have dropped down dead in the London streets for want of food  (Lowndes). The Discovery also included some  interesting notices of the gold and silver mines in Peru, New England, Virginia, the Bermudas, and other parts of America . Sabin.  Very little is known about Gabriel Plattes; he was probably born at the beginning of the century. There is little evidence regarding Plattes  career in the period preceding his association with the Hartlib Circle. He seems to have been William Engelbert s assistant, to whom he dedicated his first two books:  A Discovery of Subterraneall Treasure , .. and  A Discovery of Infinite Treasure, hidden since the World s Beginning  both of them published in 1639. These two books were designed to be complementary .. The  scientific  and technological sections were interspersed with remarks about ethical and economic issues, pointing to a religious obligation which Plattes believed that people like him had to nourish in themselves and to disseminate it to the widest public in order to contribute to the improvement of the estate of the nation. These first two books published by Plattes were famous and highly appreciated in England and abroad, Marin Mersenne even expressing his intention to translate Plattes  books in French. The main aim of the books was to construct solidarity as both the instrument and the goal of a program of amelioration. Gabriel Plattes  name was associated with two of the most active personalities that worked in London at that time: the mathematician John Pell and the agricultural improver Richard Weston.Webster claimed that it was due to the association with John Pell, a promoter of Baconian experimental science, that Plattes changed his style and became more of an adept of the  experimental  way.  Oana Matei.  Husbanding Creation and the Technology of Amelioration in the Workes of Gabriel Plattes.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Plattes makes references to the lodestone and discusses the new plantations in New England, Virginia, Bermudas, and the mines in Peru but it is perhaps scientifically most interesting as the first English work to describe the process of separating silver and gold by nitric acid. There are chapters on the origins of mountains and minerals, the smelting and refining of lead, tin, iron, copper, and silver. An entire chapter is dedicated to gold also describing a means  of detecting counterfeit gold, with the following chapter on its alchemical production.The final chapter is most interesting for its discussion of making dyes from vegetable sources and giving various recipes for fixing colours. Plattes is said to have died in extreme poverty He left his unpublished papers to his friend Samuel Hartlib, who later published the utopian work the  Description of the Famous Kingdome of Macaria , which, though is often attributed to Samuel Hartlib, under whose name it was published, is now recognised as Plattes work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PLATTES, Gabriel","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816168005967,"sku":"L3274b","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-18-copy_07172d02-14df-487c-a817-b240ab6b5e9e.jpg?v=1781794862"},{"product_id":"cato-marcus-porcius-varro-marcus-terentius-columella-junius-moderatus-palladius-rutilius-taurus","title":"CATO, Marcus Porcius, VARRO, Marcus Terentius, COLUMELLA, Junius Moderatus, PALLADIUS, Rutilius Taurus","description":"\u003cp\u003eBel exemplaire de cette  édition, extr‚àö‚Ñ¢mement rare  ( Catalogue des livres de la biblioth√®que de feu M. le marquis De Terzi , this copy, 1861, lot 195). The earliest recorded private owner of this copy was a priest in Bergamo, and the last the Bergamese Marquis de Terzi. It was the second edition issued in northern Italy, and one of only three works printed by the de Bruschis the first printers in Reggio Emilia.  This is a good example of the rivalry between the prototypographers, five Italian incunabula of the  Scriptores rei rusticae , by five different printers, in three cities; three editions by three different printers in one of them, Reggio Emilia   After that the tradition of the four  Scriptores  was common  (Sarton,  Hellenistic Science and Culture , 388). This florilegium of agricultural works was devised for a readership interested in the classical rustic virtues of landownership and the practical aspects of country life, with topics as varied as the best place to set up a beehive, horticulture, remedies for dogs with flees and sick horses, ways to scare snakes off stables and regulations for workers. Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 BC) was a Roman statesman, military officer and author. His only complete, extant work,  De Agri Cultura  (c.160 BC) is a manual on the management of a country estate reliant on slaves, with a special interest in the cultivation of vines. A prolific writer patronised by Augustus, Marcus Terentius Varro (116-107BC) based his  Rerum rusticarum libri tres  on his direct experience of farming. He notably warns his readers to avoid marshlands, where  animalia minuta  that cannot be seen by the human eye may be breathed in or swallowed and cause illnesses. A soldier and farmer, Lucius Moderatus Columella (4-70AD) is best known for his  Res rustica  in this edition with a commentary by Pomponius Laetus which deals with a wealth of activities including the cultivation of vines and olives, the farming and treatment of animals, and the management of workers. Inspired by Columella and much admired in the medieval period, Palladius s (C4-5AD)  Opus agriculturae  (or  De re rustica ) provides an account of the typical monthly activities of a Roman farm, and mentions the utility of building mills over abundant waterways to grind wheat. A well-margined copy with very practical marginalia highlighting sections on castrating chickens suggesting a landowner s everyday use.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CATO, Marcus Porcius, VARRO, Marcus Terentius, COLUMELLA, Junius Moderatus, PALLADIUS, Rutilius Taurus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820339175759,"sku":"K137","price":15000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/20250306_174935-copy.jpg?v=1781794848"},{"product_id":"vettori-piero","title":"VETTORI, Piero.","description":"\u003cp\u003eFine copy of Piero Vettori s classic commentary on Cato, Varro and Columella. Vettori (1499-1585) was among the most influential Italian humanists and Greek philologists, and editor of works some of them appearing for the first time in print by Aeschylus, Cicero, Aristotle and Euripides, mostly published in Paris and Lyon.  Explicationes  was intended as an appended commentary with references to specific phrases and lines in Vettori s editions of Cato, Varro and Columella s works on husbandry, agriculture and farming, with which it was sometimes bound (see Renouard 55:2). These were known collectively as  De re rustica  a florilegium addressed to a C16 readership interested in the classical rustic virtues of landownership and practical aspects of country life, covering topics as varied as the best place to set up a beehive, horticulture, remedies for dogs with flees and sick horses, ways to scare snakes off stables and regulations for workers. Marcus Porcius Cato s (234-149 BC)  De Agri Cultura  (c.160 BC) was a manual on the management of a country estate reliant on slaves, with a special interest in the cultivation of vines. Marcus Terentius Varro s (116-107BC)  Rerum rusticarum libri tres  was based on his direct experience of farming. A soldier and farmer, Lucius Moderatus Columella (4-70AD) is best known for his  Res rustica , one the cultivation of vines and olives, farming and estate management, and the shorter  De arboribus , on horticulture. Vettori compares his edited text to a variety of sources. These included epigraphic inscriptions and ms. variants in Latin and Greek found, for instance, in the Bibliotheca Medicea, easy access to which he had enjoyed since 1538, when he was appointed professor of classics in Cosimo I de  Medici s Studio Fiorentino.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"VETTORI, Piero.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820341469519,"sku":"L2966","price":1500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_6881-scaled.jpg?v=1781794842"},{"product_id":"markham-gervase-6","title":"MARKHAM, Gervase","description":"\u003cp\u003eThird edition  revised, corrected, and amended, together with many new additions,  of this important and innovative agricultural work by Markham, on the preparation and improvement of soils and on arable farming generally.  Soil husbandry began to be seen as the key to productive, profitable farming. Gervase Markham, one of the first agricultural writers to write in English instead of Latin, described soils as various mixtures of clay, sand, and gravel. What made good soil depended on the local climate, the character and condition of the soil, and the local plants (crops).  Simple Clays, Sands, or Gravels together; may be all good, and all fit to bring forth increase, or all   barren.  Understanding the soil was the key to understanding what would grow best, and essential to keeping a farm productive.  Thus having a true knowledge of the Nature and Condition of your ground . it may not only be purged and clensed   but also so much bettered and refined.  Prescribing steps to improve British farms, Markham recommended using the right type of plow for the ground. He advised mixing river sand and crushed burned limestone into the soil, to be followed by the best manure to be had, preferably ox, cow, or horse dung. In describing procedures for improving barren soils, Markham advocated growing wheat or rye for two years in a field, and then letting sheep graze and manure it for a year. After the sheep, several crops of barley were to be followed in the seventh year by peas or beans, and then several more years as pasture. After this cycle the ground would be much improved for growing grain. The key to sustaining soil fertility was to alternate livestock and   crops on the same piece of ground. Equally important, although it received less attention, was preventing erosion of the soil itself. Markham advised plowing carefully to avoid collecting water into erosive gullies. Good soil was the key to a good farm, and keeping soil on the farm required special effort even on England s gentle rolling hills.  David R. Montgomery.  Dirt. The Erosion of Civilizations  The work also deals with the preservation of grains and pulses, including a section on the best grain to take to sea (which he concludes is rice). It also contains two chapters at the end on the husbandry of cattle for plowing.   Many books on agriculture and gardening were published during the century, but from the historical point of view the most important are those of Markham, because they appeared at an early stage in the new development, were widely read, and full of useful information and sound advice. Markham was a too prolific writer, but one can forgive his constant repetition and shameless re-issuing of unsold books under a new title for the great influence his writings had on English agriculture. His most important work was  Markhams farewell to husbandry.  It dealt fully and expertly not only with ploughing, sowing and harvesting, but with methods such as sanding, lining, marling and manuring, by which fertility of land could be increased.  Anne Wilbraham  The Englishman s Food: Five Centuries of English Diet .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MARKHAM, Gervase","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820343075151,"sku":"L2678","price":950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/20190518_144914-scaled.jpg?v=1781794834"},{"product_id":"academie-des-sciences","title":"[ACADÉMIE DES SCIENCES].","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn excellent ms., on thick high-quality paper, of this fascinating work a meteorological perpetual calendar from 1521 to the end of the world, and an agricultural almanac, with numerous observations on wine. It was prepared in 1680 by the Acad émie des Sciences for François-Michel Le Tellier (1641-91), Marquis de Louvois, Secretary of War under Louis XIV. In the preliminaries, the work is attributed to the mysterious Neapolitan philosopher Joseph le Juste, frequently listed, in C18 French prophetic collections, alongside Pythagoras and Nostradamus.  The figure of Joseph Le Juste was already present in prophetic literature and almanacs.   the biblical Joseph, who interpreted dreams, who had received a revelation from an angel concerning the prediction of good and bad days  (Halbron,  Vaticinations , 2014). The Acad émie had allegedly collected the prophecies which had passed their tests, hence were deemed  infallible and truthful  a witty fiction ( Journal de Paris , 1807, 445). After a brief introduction on seasonal time, the work provides a meteorological perpetual calendar, in 28-year cycles, suggesting best practices in agriculture, fishing and cloth manufacture in relation to the weather. Great attention is paid to wine-making, with St Jean, Rochelle, Soitou, Auxerre and Champagne being the most profitable, resistant and tasty wines, and to the wine trade, with observations on the fluctuations of prices according to the quality of the harvest, the supply of specific wines and the effect of the surrounding economic situation on good or bad harvests. Fodder, rye, grain, cattle and wool are also discussed, with suggestions on how to avoid losing money by foreseeing demand and supply thanks to the almanac. Louvois himself owned numerous estates, with complex gardens and water pipes. \u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\n  A contemporary reviewer of the 1807 printed edition doubted whether the Acad émie ever offered the ms. to Louvois. In fact, the only recorded institutional copy in the US may even be the presentation copy, with Louvois s illuminated coat of arms on the t-p, now at UC Davis. The few others recorded (e.g., Cochran,  Catalogue , 1837, n.237; Uni Strasbourg, Ms.0.556) were copied from this, probably upon request of members of the Acad émie. The watermark of this copy dates it probably to the early C18 (Churchill,  Watermarks , n.130), like the Strasbourg copy. A ms. note suggests that it was sold from the inventory of M. De la Jonch√®re, arguably M. Lescuyer de la Jonch√®re, academician, topographer and hydrographer in the 1710s ( Le journal des sçavans , 192;  Histoire De L Academie , 555). It was later in the library of Jean-Baptiste Huzard (1755-1838), a French veterinary doctor, himself a member of the Acad émie and later the Institut. His large library comprised over 40,000 volumes, many on natural science; the present was lot 5507 in the catalogue  Biblioth√®que Huzard  (Part I) (1843).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[ACADÉMIE DES SCIENCES].","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820348940623,"sku":"L3523","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Screenshot-2021-06-03-at-17.49.01-e1622739125449.png?v=1781794803"},{"product_id":"marbodeus-with-pseudo-apuleis","title":"MARBODEUS [WITH] PSEUDO-APULEIS","description":"\u003cp\u003eScarce editions of two works on the virtues of precious stones and herbs. Marbodus (c.1035-1123) was Bishop of Rennes, a poet and hagiographer.  De gemmarum lapidumque formis , his first work to appear in print, in 1511, was translated into several vernaculars in the middle ages, even influencing Hebrew lapidaries. This 1543 edition was produced by the humanists Alardus Amstelredamus and Pictorius Villinganus on the basis of a longer ms.; it contains nearly 100 additional lines, and 16 stones, of uncertain authorship, in a separate section. A century before the successful lapidary attributed to Albertus Magnus, it discussed precious stones  in a novel way, listing them one by one, paying sole attention to their alleged properties  (d Angeville, 7). Written in exquisite Latin metre, each of the 63 sections is devoted to a single gem (e.g., iaspis, sapphire, chrysopasius), explaining its formation, appearance, etymology, exotic origins (e.g., Ethiopia or India), medical properties (against fever, helpful to women giving birth) and preparations. This is followed by Alardus s and Pictorius s learned commentaries, which add ms. textual variants, and references to ancient authorities like Pliny, Dioscorides, Galen or the Church Fathers, and more recent ones like Camillus Leonardus and Marisilio Ficino. Variants also included additional information on the stone s virtues (e.g., iaspis  curbs sexual desire  by reducing the menstrual cycle and the possibilities of conception). \u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\n  The second work was  the most practical and most widely used remedy book in the   Middle Ages  ( Western Herbal Tradition , 6). It survives in numerous illustrated mss and was even translated into Old English. It is attributed to a Pseudo-Apuleius as the unknown author presented the herbal as the work of the famous 2nd-century author, Apuleius of Madaura. Based on Pliny and Dioscorides, the text was probably written in the 4th century. This edition was produced by Johannes Philippus de Lignamine and dedicated to Cardinal Gonzaga. It comprises studies of 132 common herbs, including their Greek, Latin and French names, their environment, appearance, flavour, medical properties, preparation (including quantity) and administration, according to specific ailments (e.g., paralysis, chills, wounds, worms, generic pain, nose bleed). Interesting is the frequent appearance of remedies against the bite of snakes, scorpions and even rabid dogs. \u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\n  Two important works of early Western natural science, in scarce early editions.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MARBODEUS [WITH] PSEUDO-APULEIS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820350579023,"sku":"L3245a","price":7500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/1-1_7b7dfafe-e90b-44fa-8691-eb1413cec3ae.jpg?v=1781794797"},{"product_id":"bussato-marco","title":"BUSSATO, Marco.","description":"\u003cp\u003eGood copy of the fourth, enlarged and most complete edition of this successful work on horticulture. Born in Ravenna, Marco Bussato (or Bussati, fl.1570-1600) led an obscure life, working as an itinerant expert of arboreal grafting in the countryside of the Romagna region. A manual based on his experience,  Giardino d agricoltura  presented horticulture as an art of which its readers would learn the  fine secrets . The focus is on the growth of fruit trees, with a few excursions into the cultivation of cereals, the production of wine, breeding pigeons, and other country activities. After discussing the planting, pruning and grafting of sundry kinds of plants in orchards and gardens as well as the tricks of the trade, Bussato provides a  lunario perpetuo  or almanac subdividing horticultural activities according to the phases of the moon during the month in which they should be carried out. The handsome woodcuts are the same as in previous editions, some re-cut after those originally prepared for the first edition published under a different title in Ravenna in 1578.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BUSSATO, Marco.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820353528143,"sku":"L2683","price":1650.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8908.jpg?v=1781793814"},{"product_id":"gerolamo-cardano","title":"GEROLAMO CARDANO","description":"\u003cp\u003eTwo influential works by the Italian polymath Gerolamo Cardano (1501-1576) in a beautifully decorated contemporary binding by the German bookbinder  Meister des Kolumbaquartiers  (Schunke 1937, 336; Einbanddatenbank 129874b), based in .Cologne.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Expert in mathematics, biology, physics, astronomy, astrology and author of more than 200 works on medicine, Cardano is today most known for introducing the use of negative numbers in Europe for the first time (Ars Magna, 1545). The first edition of De Astrorum Iudicii represents one of his most controversial works on astronomy and astrology. Structured as a four-part commentary on the Tetrabiblos (in Latin translation) by the Greek philosopher and mathematician Ptolemy (100-170 AD), the book presents a series of astrological techniques aimed at demonstrating that all the main events in people s lives can be attributed to the stars. In addition, the brief related volume  Geniturarum Exempla  contains twelve horoscope examples illustrated with attractive diagrams and symbols, among them the horoscope of King Edward VI and of the Archbishop John Hamilton of St. Andrews (Genitura I and II). To these eminent personalities, Cardano predicts a bright future; however, it appears that the latter was hanged by the reformers, while the former died of tuberculosis not long after the publication of this work. The author goes as far as casting the horoscope of Christ: accused of heresy by the Inquisition for these pages, Cardano was imprisoned in 1570.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n De Subtilitate Libri XXI is widely considered Cardano s masterpiece and, due to its enormous success, it continued to be reprinted long after the author s death. It is an encyclopaedia of natural science and metaphysics, divided into twenty-one books which respectively deal with: 1) matter and its natural motion, 2) the elements, 3) the sky, 4) light, 5) mixtures and compounds, 6) metals, 7) stones, 8) plants, 9-10) animals, 11-12) humans, their appearance and temperament, 13) the senses, 14) soul and intellect, 15)  de incerti generis aut inutilibus subtilitatibus , 16) Sciences, 17) Arts, 18) Miracles, 19) Demons, 20) Angels, 21) God and the universe. This edition constitutes Cardano s update to the first of 1550, and it accounts for more recent geographical discoveries and philosophical discourses. Among the detailed woodcut illustrations, the ones representing machines are perhaps the most fascinating: these include a suction pump, .the .Archimedean screw, a hoist, and many others. In the pages discussing engineering, Cardano also informs us that Leonardo da Vinci tried to fly, but he failed. In the section regarding the sky (Liber III) the author describes the stars observed by Amerigo Vespucci during his third voyage to the Indies.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GEROLAMO CARDANO","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859633807695,"sku":"L3648","price":17500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3648-1.jpg?v=1781793787"},{"product_id":"harvey-william","title":"HARVEY, William.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.Nominally the third edition of Harvey s great work  probably the most important book in the history of medicine  (Heirs of Hippocrates 256) however only the second of the complete text. The second edition (1635) omitted parts of the introduction and chapters one and sixteen of the text. Harvey (1578-1657) read medicine at Cambridge and Padua, where he was a pupil of Fabricius, was a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Physician-in-charge at St. Bartholomew s Hospital, from 1615 Lumleian Lecturer and subsequently physician to King James I, Charles I and notables such as Francis Bacon. He was the most important medical figure in England of his day. But his fame rests on the publication in 1628 of this small work, describing accurately for the first time, the circulation of the entire system of the blood.  The scientifical outlook on the human body was transformed and behind almost every medical advance of modern times lies the work of Harvey  (Heirs of Hippocrates cit.sup). DSB vol.6 pg. 151 adds  By this discovery he revolutionised physiological thought   Beyond this, he inspired a whole new generation of anatomists who sought to emulate his methods in the study of animal functions. And, more generally still, his work was one of the major triumphs of early modern science, and thus helped to generate the enthusiasm for science that came to dominate European intellectual life during the second half of the seventeenth century.  Harvey s discovery of the functions of the circulation even now remains the cornerstone of modern physiology and medicine. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n . .Like the first, this edition is printed on indifferent paper and often with binding errors. Here however, Harvey s text is printed passage by passage alternately with his refutation of Parisano while the criticisms and refutations of Primrose constitute the separate second text. It is also the earliest complete edition obtainable. The last first we could find at auction, nearly twenty years ago, sold for approximately three quarters of a million US$.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HARVEY, William.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859633938767,"sku":"L3675","price":45000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8022.jpg?v=1781793785"},{"product_id":"alamanni-luigi","title":"ALAMANNI, Luigi.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA beautifully bound copy in top quality morocco of this finely printed edition of Alamanni s didactic poem on agriculture. An Italian statesman and poet, Luigi Alamanni (1495-1556) studied philosophy in Florence and attended gatherings at the Orti Oricellari, a famous meeting place for the Florentine social and intellectual  élite and an anti-Medicean circle. Here, he became friends with Machiavelli. In 1522, after participating in an unsuccessful conspiracy against Giulio de' Medici (afterwards Pope Clement VII), he fled to France and became one of the leading poets at the court of King Francis I. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  La Coltivazione  is Alemanni s most celebrated and famous work, dedicated to King Francis I and first published in Paris by Robert Estienne in 1546. Drawing inspiration from Vergil s Georgics, Rucellai s  Api  (= bees) and Columella s Latin works on agronomy, in this didactic poem Alemanni describes everything concerning cultivation and rustic life. The work is divided into six books and elegantly written in  versi sciolti , namely hendecasyllables without rhyme.  This poem has preserved a considerable reputation, from the great purity and elegance of the style, as well as from the methodical arrangement and the sagacity of its agricultural precepts  (Simonde de Sismondi). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The fine red morocco binding is similar in style to the bindings made by the Derome le Jeune (1731-1788, see Bibliotheca Bibliographica Breslaueriana n. 17) and Louis Doceur (d. 1769; see  Louis Doceur 1746  on Cyclopaedia.org). Two exceptionally skilful craftsmen, they are among the most celebrated eighteen century French binders: their richly gilt and decorated bindings were sought after and expensive. The inner dentelle motif and the small dot tool with a cross appear almost identical to a binding signed by Antoine Durand (active c. 1765, see  Antoine Durand 1769  on Cyclopaedia.org for a similar binding sold at Christies in 2004). The design of the compartments on the spine is also very similar. Master bookbinder from 1765, Durand married the daughter of the king s bookbinder, Guillaume Mercier.  Durand was named official binder of the Royal Library as well as binder for the city of Paris, he went on to become the binder of the comte de Artois and the duc d'Angoul‚àö‚Ñ¢me  . This signifies that he was a busy and successful binder who also moved in Royal circles  (Cyclopaedia.org). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This copy is from the library of the engraver and printer Wilfred Merton (1888-1957), who was also an avid book and manuscript collector specialising in rare Oriental printing and papyri.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ALAMANNI, Luigi.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859638690127,"sku":"L831","price":3500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_9167.jpg?v=1781793774"},{"product_id":"albertus-magnus-1","title":"ALBERTUS MAGNUS.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA good copy of this fascinating treatise on animals, printed in Venice by the heirs of the distinguished Octavianus Scotus, in a beautiful English contemporary, probably London, binding. The two ornamental rolls appear not to have been identified by Oldham. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A German Dominican friar, bishop and philosopher, Albertus Magnus (c. 1200-1280) is regarded as the most learned and prolific scholar of the Middle Ages, the only one to whom the epithet  Magnus  ( The great ) was applied. Known by his contemporaries as the  Doctor universalis , he was later beatified and proclaimed Doctor of the Church. Albertus was active in almost all departments of learning, and the influence of his writings and commentaries on theology, logic, metaphysics, psychology, and the natural sciences was immense.  He combined elements of Aristotelism, Neo-Platonism, Christian theology and Muslim and Jewish philosophy, which he formed into one great system; but his chief aim as a philosopher remained the reconciliation of Aristotelianism with Christian teaching.   Thomas Aquinas attended his lectures, and Dante placed both master and pupil among the  Spiriti Sapienti  in the heaven of the sun  (PMM 17). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This remarkable work on zoology in 26 books is Albert s longest commentary on Aristotle s natural treatises, which also integrates material from Thomas of Cantimpr é s encyclopedic  On the Nature of Things  and Albert s own studies on animals. Albert began to observe the habits of animals during childhood, and, in contrast to the long-established tradition of bestiaries in which creatures were described in an allegorical way, in his  De animalibus  he presents the behaviours and physiognomy of animals on the basis of empirical observation. The first 19 books recount the contents of Aristotle's  Historia animalium ,  De partibus animalium  and  De generatione animalium , dealing with the anatomy and physiology of different animals compared to humans, their reproduction and life cycle, and the procedures to be followed when studying them. Books XX-XXI contain Albertus  synthesis of the previous. Finally, books XXII-XXVI constitute a dictionary of animals, in which separate sections are dedicated to quadrupeds, acquatic animals, serpents and  vermins , listed in alphabetical order and individually described. In all, there are 477 species in this encyclopaedia. Remarkably, Albert is the first naturalists to describe the garden dormouse, the marten, the weasel and the rat. He recognised three types of European squirrel before the concept of subspecies was introduced into biology, and he is also the first writer to portray whales in realistic terms. Although this is not a medical text, a wide range of therapeutic data is also included, particularly in relation to the diseases of horses and falcons, which Albertus knew very well from his personal experience.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ALBERTUS MAGNUS.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859639607631,"sku":"L3628","price":6500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/1-3_70d4c663-c82c-4781-bd09-4e000a4036cc.jpg?v=1781793772"},{"product_id":"castro-rodrigo","title":"CASTRO, Rodrigo.","description":"\u003cp\u003eHandsome collection of the 1604 reissue (Pars prima) and the 1603 first edition (Pars secunda) of this hugely important gynaecological treatise by Rodrigo de Castro (c. 1546-1627\/29). Part one discusses the anatomy of the uterus and breasts; semen and menses; coitus; conception and pregnancy; labour and breastfeeding, and part two discusses various female diseases, including those allegedly particular to widows and virgins, issues with pregnancy and child birth as well as the health of wet nurses. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Rodrigo de Castro Lusitano was a Jewish-Portuguese physician who moved to Hamburg in 1594 to escape anti-Semitic persecution. He studied at Salamanca and was then asked by Philip II of Spain to go to India and select medicinal plants to bring to Spain; though Castro refused on health grounds. De Castro s wife died in 1603, leaving him alone with young children. The same year the present work was published. This forms the first treatise on gynaecology written by a Portuguese author, combining acute medical and anatomical observations with contemporary opinions on women and superstitious beliefs in monstrous beings. De Castro provides a list of medicines to be administered for avoiding a pregnancy likely to result in birthing a monster. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The work makes extensive reference to ancient medical texts, classical and Arabic, including Hippocrates, Aristotle, Pliny, Soranus, Galen Averroes and Avicenna. De Castro combines this with considerable interaction with contemporary European authors like Mercado, Par é and Rousset. Pregnancy and child birth was predominantly attended to by midwives, not doctors, in this era, yet de Castro describes many ailments and treatments in detail, including a massage that should be given to encourage child birth, as well as recommending the presence of the husband, which was unheard of at the time. Semen and menstrual blood is discussed in detail. De Castro believed women had semen and that it was, to an extent, animate. He also believed menstrual blood nourished the child in the womb and that it was not, contrary to common opinion, hotter than man's blood. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CASTRO, Rodrigo.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859640656207,"sku":"L3709","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"acosta-cristobal","title":"ACOSTA, Cristóbal","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of this beautifully illustrated, influential work on medicinal plants of the East Indies. The splendid woodcuts are the first images of Indian flora printed in Europe, made from the author’s own accurate drawings.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA Portuguese doctor, naturalist and botanist, Cristóbal Acosta (c. 1525-1594) is considered a pioneer in the study of Indian plants and their use in pharmacology. He was born in Africa – in his works he calls himself ‘Africanus’ – possibly in Tangiers or Ceuta (Portuguese at the time) or in Cape Verde. Around 1550, after completing his studies in Arts and Medicine in Spain, he travelled as a soldier to India. In the city of Goa, he met the great physician and naturalist García da Orta, the first European to describe the indigenous drug plants of India in his ‘Coloquios dos simples’. Appointed personal physician of the viceroy Luís de Ataíde, Acosta returned to Goa in 1568 and spent many years studying the local flora and collecting botanical specimens from various parts of India. His ‘Tractado de las drogas’ is an illustrated adaptation of Da Orta’s earlier treatise, with a series of interesting additions of his own. Acosta states: “The learned Dr. Orta has written with curiosity and diligence, but he has used reports, whereas I have set down what I have seen with my own eyes and depicted from life”.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this work, Acosta describes a total of sixty-nine botanical species for medicinal use. Each entry contains an attractive illustration, a general description of the plant, its morphological elements (root, stem, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds), geographical environment, therapeutic and dietary properties, and finally commercialization and industrial uses. References to the great classical naturalists of Greco-Latin antiquity are combined with the traditional guidelines of Galenic therapy. Among the species described, we find: nutmeg, tamarind, coconut, ginger, cardamom, mango, rhubarb, and asafoetida. Some of them, such as cinnamon, black and white pepper, cloves, nutmeg or opium had not been mentioned by da Orta. The author also depicts a few native American plants, including the pineapple, amber, rubber tree, sugar cane and the “Indian fig” of Peru. At the end, there is a fascinating section titled ‘Tractado del Elephante y de sus calidades’, that is a ‘treatise on the elephant and its qualities’ – this is considered the first monograph on the Indian elephant printed in Europe. It includes a realistic drawing of an elephant leaning against the trunk of a coconut palm and another of a war elephant with a castle on its back. Acosta’s ‘Tractado’, is also among the first works to record words from the basque language.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe ex-libris of “Don Fernando de Henao Monjaraz” appears on several volumes held in the National Library of Madrid and in other Spanish libraries (Real Academia de la Lengua, Biblioteca de Palacio). A bibliophile and owner of a large book collection, Don Fernando is identified by most scholars as a relative of the Spanish poet and nobleman Gabriel de Henao Monjaraz (1589-1637) – possibly his son, but it must be noted that his father and brother had the same name. He might be the same Don Fernando de Henao Monjaraz, noble knight of Santiago, who enrolled in the ‘Escuela de Cristo’ (a catholic institution for secular priests) in 1659 and died in 1698.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ACOSTA, Cristóbal","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859642360143,"sku":"L3694","price":15000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/1_15ce3ea0-c7fe-4aaa-8126-5dec9029f530.jpg?v=1781793750"},{"product_id":"bussato-marco-1","title":"BUSSATO, Marco.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA good copy of the first edition of this successful work on horticulture. Marco Bussato (Bussati or Busatti, first half of the 16th century   after 1600) was born in Ravenna. Orphaned at an early age, he earned his living as an itinerant expert of arboreal grafting: he visited  many places in Italy  and Rome in particular, learning the agricultural practices of different regions. A manual based on his experience,  Giardino d agricoltura  presents horticulture as an art of which its readers will learn the  most beautiful secrets . Bussato s perspective is that of a vigilant and attentive landowner. A rather  aristocratic  point of view evident in the distinction that he makes between useful and delightful agriculture, despising herbaceous plants that require \"great effort and sweat\" and concentrating on tree crops, that bring \"joy to the eye\". The latter are more  suitable  for the gentleman, and indispensable elements of that taste for the landscape that dominates Renaissance agriculture. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The 64 chapters focus on the growth of fruit trees, with a few excursions into the cultivation of cereals, the production of wine, breeding pigeons, and other country activities.  In spite of its title, Bussato s main subject is fruit trees, from seedlings in their nursery to the careful pruning of mature trees, illustrated with some of the first accurate and detailed diagrams of methods of grafting. These illustrations first appeared in the author s  Prattica historiata dell inestare gli arbori , a treatise on grafting alone, which was published in Ravenna in 1578. Its text was revised and included in the larger  Giardino  in 1592, which was itself enlarged for later editions in 1593 and 1612. A monthly calendar of work to be done in the garden completes the book, each month with its own head-piece showing an occupation appropriate to the season. E.A. Bunyard, writing in 1923 in the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society about early Italian gardening books, said of Bussato that  The author was a poet, and the book is written in rather more literary style than usual in such treatises . The elegance of its printing is equally unusual in books of this kind, though given the date and place of its publication that is perhaps less remarkable.  (Raphael) This volume includes a tailpiece with two winged figures with trumpets (fol. G5, recto) which, according to Mortimer (Harward Italian 95), does not appear on all copies. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The manuscript ex-libris might belong to the Italian public land surveyor Andrea Serafini, active at the half of the 18th century in the Veneto region. His name is recorded in the archives of the State of Venice (ASVe, Provveditori sopra beni comunali, b. 232, neg. 1949), and various sources mention his work in measuring the extension of fields, wine-making estates and woods. A skilled illustrator, he realised several detailed drawings and maps of cities and lands as part of his job; these are particularly interesting nowadays for the study of the historical geography of north-eastern Italy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BUSSATO, Marco.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859643310415,"sku":"L3725","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-15-copy.jpg?v=1781793745"},{"product_id":"albertus-magnus-2","title":"ALBERTUS MAGNUS.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA good copy of the first edition of this remarkable collection of treatises on natural science by Albertus Magnus, edited by the Italian philosopher and physician Marcantonio Zimara (c. 1470-1532). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A German Dominican friar, bishop and philosopher, Albertus Magnus (c. 1200-1280) is regarded as the most learned and prolific scholar of the Middle Ages, the only one to whom the epithet  Magnus  ( The great ) was applied. Known by his contemporaries as the  Doctor universalis , he was later beatified and proclaimed Doctor of the Church. Albertus was active in almost all departments of learning, and the influence of his writings and commentaries on theology, logic, metaphysics, psychology, and the natural sciences was immense.  He combined elements of Aristotelism, Neo-Platonism, Christian theology and Muslim and Jewish philosophy, which he formed into one great system; but his chief aim as a philosopher remained the reconciliation of Aristotelianism with Christian teaching.  (PMM 17). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The 18 works included in this volume constitute an extremely interesting and valuable selection of Albertus  studies on natural science and philosophy, which complement his best known  De animalibus  and  De mineralibus . Particularly outstanding is  De vegetabilibus et plantis , a paraphrase in seven books of the pseudo-Aristotelian  De vegetabilibus  on the morphology and physiology of plants, also including Albertus  personal digressions based on his own botanical observations. Albert  succeeded in giving consistent, convincing explanations of the small details of plant life   These books stand as a remarkable reconciliation of the curiosity of a naturalist, the temperament of a philosopher, and the responsibilities of a teacher   unique in the Middle Ages and rare enough in any period.  (Reeds) Also important is  Speculum astronomicum , whose attribution to Albertus is disputed. Aimed at opposing superstition, it explains the distinction between descriptive and judicial astronomy, and it is fundamental for its bibliographical content: it lists numerous titles of astronomical and astrological writings available to Albert and his contemporaries, recommending their value in a Christian context. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In the volume are also Albert s treatises on sensation, discussed in regard to sleep and waking ( De somno et vigilia ), the sense organs ( De sensu et sensato ), imagination and memory ( De memoria et reminiscenza). The motion of the living things is described in  De motibus animalium  and  De spiritu et respiratione , while  De juventute et senectute  and  De morte et vita  are concerned with the processes of ageing, living and dying. Physiological functioning is discussed in  De nutrimento et nutribili , while intellect is the object of  De intellectu et intellegibili ,  De unitate intellectus  and  De natura et origine animae . Also notable are  De natura locorum  discussing the geography of the earth and its climatic zones, as well as  De causis proprietatum elementorum  on the properties of the elements and their position in the sublunar region.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ALBERTUS MAGNUS.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859644326223,"sku":"L3805","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3785-2.jpg?v=1781793741"},{"product_id":"ramus-peter-snel-willebrord","title":"RAMUS, Peter. SNEL, Willebrord","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of Peter Ramus popular work on arithmetic for students with the commentary by the dutch mathematician Willebrord Snell. “Willebrord Snell, .. astronomer and mathematician who discovered the law of refraction, which relates the degree of the bending of light to the properties of the refractive material. This law is basic to modern geometrical optics. In 1613 he succeeded his father, Rudolph Snell (1546–1613), as professor of mathematics in the University of Leiden. His Eratosthenes Batavus (1617) contains the account of his method of measuring the Earth. The account of Snell’s law of refraction (1621) went unpublished, capturing attention only when the Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens related Snell’s finding in Dioptrica (1703).” Enc. Brit. “This is a reprinting of the first part (the arithmetic, without the geometry) of Ramus’ 1569 publication, Arithmeticæ libri duo: Geometriæ septem et viginti … Snel was a proficient computer and improved the classical method of finding the value of π by use of polygons. Using his method, he was able to find π t_ 35 places using a polygon of 230 sides rather than the 262 sides used earlier by Ceulen. Peter Ramus (Pierre de la Ramée) was primarily a teacher of mathematics who was a central figure in the early stages of the Scientific Revolution. He was born into a noble family that had lost its fortunes in war. When, at the age of twelve, he entered the University of Paris, he was obliged to work as a servant to a wealthy student. He graduated in 1536, defending a thesis on Aristotle, and was engaged as a teacher at the university. His teaching, however, was anti-establishment in nature, for he attacked Aristotle, particularly his logic, and defended a thesis in which the works of Aristotle (and particularly his contemporary followers) were brought into question. After he published these views in Aristotelicae animadversiones, he was forbidden by Francis I to teach and publish philosophy. Because of this ban, Ramus turned to the study and teaching of mathematics. He was reinstated in 1547 and thereafter managed to rise swiftly in French academic circles, due in part to the vacancies caused by the plague. He continued to have problems with the authorities because of his views and in 1562 left the Catholic Church and converted to Calvinism. He was killed as part of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, despite having explicit royal protection. There is some reason to believe his death was at the hands of assassins hired by his academic rivals. This book is part of Ramus’ campaign to improve the teaching of science and mathematics. He was of the opinion that science in general, and in particular mathematics, had lost its focus on practical needs. The teaching of the arithmetic of Boethius had concentrated attention on the properties of numbers to such an extent that practical arithmetic and geometric skills had been neglected” Erwin Tomash.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RAMUS, Peter. SNEL, Willebrord","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859650519375,"sku":"L3068b","price":1500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3068b-3.jpg?v=1781793723"},{"product_id":"pliny-2","title":"PLINY","description":"\u003cp\u003eHandsome second edition of Philemon Holland s immensely popular English translation of Pliny s Natural History. .Pliny the Elder (23-79AD) was an administrator for Emperor Vespasian and a prolific author. The  Historia  is a masterful encyclopaedia of theoretical and applied natural sciences detailing all that was known in these fields in the first century AD. Based on hundreds of Greek and Latin sources, its ten books introduce the reader to astronomical questions like the nature of the moon and its distance from the earth; pharmacopoeia, ointments and herbal remedies; natural phenomena including rains of stones; world geography and the ethnographic study of remote  gentes mirabiles ;  extraordinary peoples , descriptions of all animal and tree species, wild and domesticated; horticulture from cultivation to the treatment of plant mutations and illnesses; metals and gold mining; mineralogy and pigments for painting. \u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\nPhilemon Holland was an English schoolmaster and one of the most famed Elizabethan translators of the classics. He brought the works of Livy, Suetonius and Plutarch as well as Pliny the Elder to a wider, English speaking audience. The present was first published in 1601 and was dedicated to Sir Robert Cecil, the prominent statesman and favourite of Elizabeth I. The most popular of Holland's translations, it was published again in this 1634 edition. Prior to Holland s translation, it had never been printed in English, and would not be again for another 250 years. Indeed, even after four centuries,  Holland is still the only translator of this work to attempt to evoke its literary richness and beauty\" (ODNB).\u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\n The importance of Pliny lay not so much that he was an inexhaustible source for monsters, eclipses, and the stranger habits of all created things, but that in the pages of Philemon Holland s translation Shakespeare found that emphasis on Nature which he employed and re-interpreted in the tragedy  (Evans, The Language of Shakespeare s Plays).\u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\n Over and over again it will be found that the source of some ancient piece of wisdom is Pliny.  (Printing and the Mind of Man, 5).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PLINY","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859652288847,"sku":"L3588","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3588-2.jpg?v=1781793722"},{"product_id":"blasius-gerardus","title":"BLASIUS, Gerardus.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.First edition of this curious and beautifully illustrated treatise on anatomical deformities.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .Blasius here presents, like a cabinet of curiosities, almost a hundred among the most uncommon and extraordinary cases    Rariores  ( the rarest ) in the title   that he encountered during his long medical career and clinical teaching. Amsterdam was a key centre for illustrated collections of medical observations, and this is one of the richest. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .A Dutch physician and anatomist, Gerardus Blasius (c. 1627-1682) became the first professor of medicine in Amsterdam in 1660. His  Observationes  (Observations), often ending with the patient s death and post-mortem, represent an unusually rich source of information on medical and anatomical practices in Amsterdam around 1670. The work is divided into in six sections:  diseases involving magnitude, such as tumors, abscesses, hernias, and dropsy; defects of figure, such as cleft palate or closed uterus; defects of the parts contained in a given place, such as prolapsed uterus ( ); diseases related to number, either lack of body parts, such as the hymen, female testicles, or kidney, or presence of extranumerary parts, such as a double stomach or gallbladder; diseases of the union or cohesion of parts, such as caries or ulcers; and lastly the presence of preternatural formations, such as polyps, ossifications, and stone formations.  (Bertoloni Meli). All the engraved plates   here in clear and clean impression   include multiple illustrations of unusual or diseased anatomical structures, as well as bizarre specimens (e.g. stones shaped as spirals and pyramids, a worm found in a kidney). The only exception is Plate II, entirely dedicated to showing the corpse of a woman with an enlarged abdomen. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .Blasius had extensive interests in major congenital malformations (generally referred to as  monsters ) and the study of animal anatomy, on which subjects he wrote separate works. An appendix to this volume includes the illustrated reports of three monstruous births by other contemporary physicians:  Historia infantis monstrosi  by Michael Heiland (fl. 1646-1676), a case of conjoined twins;  Historia agni monstrosi  and  Historia vituli monstrosi  by Moritz Hoffmann (1622-1698), respectively concerning a lamb born with six limbs and a two-headed calf.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BLASIUS, Gerardus.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859655991631,"sku":"L3900","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3900-6.jpg?v=1781793711"},{"product_id":"bartholin-caspar-2","title":"BARTHOLIN, CASPAR.","description":"\u003cp\u003eImportant augmented and enriched edition of Caspar Bartholin’s 1611 anatomical masterpiece, published by his son Thomas Bartholin (1616-1680). The Bartholin family formed an extraordinary medical dynasty, publishing prolifically and contributing vastly to the world of medicine for generations. Bartholinsgade, a street in Copenhagen, is named after the family as well as the Bartholin Institute and a building at the University of Aarhus.\u003c\/p\u003e  \n\n\u003cp\u003eCaspar Bartholin the Elder (1585-1629) was born at Malmø, then a part of Denmark. He was a child prodigy, learning to read aged three and composing Greek and Latin oratory at aged thirteen. He became professor of medicine at the University of Copenhagen, later switching to Theology following a serious illness. His work, Anatomicae Institutiones Corporis Humani, 1611, became the standard textbook on the subject of anatomy in Europe. In this, he was the first to describe the workings of the olefactory nerve. Thomas Bartholin followed his father’s footsteps, becoming a professor at the University of Copenhagen in History. He was also a prolific medical man, best known for the discovery of the lymphatic system in humans and the serious advancements he made in the theory of refrigeration anaesthesia, used when amputating major limbs. Thomas credits the invention of this technique to Marco Aurelio Severino of Naples, who used snow and ice on body parts that required anaesthetic. Thomas learned this on a trip to Naples. He was appointed by King Christian V of Denmark as his personal physician.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis work follows Caspar Bartholin’s original, but Thomas’s own medical discoveries and innovations are added, as well as William Harvey’s theory of blood circulation and Thomas’s work on the lymphatic system. Thomas discovered for the first time the Bartholin-Patau syndrome, a congenital syndrome caused by trisomy 13 (an extra chromosome). Chapters of the work explore musculature, membranes, veins, organs, female and male genitals and bodily fluids as well as a large section on the nervous system. A final section contains letters from Monsieur Jean Walaeus to Thomas Bartholin concerning the movement of blood and chyle through the body. Engravings are numerous and exhibit detailed illustrations of organs, vein, artery and nervous systems and skeletal structure. An impressive and wide ranging masterwork on the human body and its functions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn the 1641 Leiden edition, “The Bartholin family…made many contributions to Danish medicine during the seventeenth century when ducts, glands, and blood vessels were recognised as conduits for body fluids rather than as static tubes or resevoirs” (Heirs of Hippocrates).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDr Eugene Olivier was the author of one of the standard French bibliographies on coats of arms as well as an Olympic fencer, physician and professor. This work must have informed Olivier’s expertise as Professor of Anatomy, as well as his training in surgery and anaesthesia at the Hôpital Saint-Louis. He later was the head of the Paris Faculty in the Anatomy department and published numerous anatomical works. The red morocco binding was probably produced for his library.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BARTHOLIN, CASPAR.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859659891023,"sku":"L3773","price":4750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3773-1.jpg?v=1781793701"},{"product_id":"galen-6","title":"GALEN.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.Completely original copy of this scarce early pocket-size edition of a very popular collection of three works on medicaments, theriacs and antidotes, and one on diagnosis, all attributed to Galen and a fascinating manual of ancient Greek medicine. This Latin translation of  De facile parabilibus , first published by Hubert Barland in 1533, is based on the text of the Colines edition of 1530; though considered imprecise, the latter continued to be used as Barland could not get hold of another Greek ms. in his native Zeeland (Durling, p.238). The work gathers excerpts on remedies easy to prepare for the most diverse conditions, head to foot, from ointments for an itchy anus to gout, vomit, growths on the chin, toothache, and suffocation after eating mushrooms (treated with a drink made from nardus). Translated by Johann Guenther, the second work, in two parts, focuses on the physiology and workings of theriacs, and sundry ways to prepare them, using ingredients spanning herbs, bite of vipers and other snakes, dung and salts. The third, translated by Camerarius, is concerned with remedies for all conditions, approaching panaceas. It provides an account of the making of antidotes, the general effects of specific ingredients - e.g., bitumen, wine, opobalsamum, honey - and in which cases they should be used, focusing on few, wide-reaching and carefully detailed recipes, such as that for  trochisci hedychroi . The fourth,  De Subfiguratione Empirica , is by Galen the Greek original of which has been lost. It is a most important theory of philosophical  induction , i.e., drawing general conclusions from particular cases   a physician s most important skill.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GALEN.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859667001679,"sku":"L3915","price":1250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/20250306_174607-copy.jpg?v=1781793689"},{"product_id":"versor-johannes","title":"VERSOR, Johannes.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.A very good, clean copy of this scarce edition of Johannes Versor s major commentary on Aristotle s books on generation and corruption, and on weather phenomena   an encyclopaedia of natural science, chemistry, physiology, physics, geology, geography and hydrology. Versor (d.1485) was a French Dominican, a Thomist philosopher influenced by Albertus Magnus, and the author of influential commentaries of nearly all Aristotelian works. These were first published in Cologne by Quentell in 1485; the individual works   of which this 1493 edition can have three ‚Äö were sold together or separately (as here, this being the third).  As far as we know, most of these commentaries were written for use in a university setting. As a consequence, the choice of texts commented upon and the degree of detail given to a certain passage is often due, at least in part, to its use in a classroom, a universitarian debate or its relevance for exams  (Stan. Enc. Phil.). Each section of the commentary comprises a quotation from Aristotle s work followed by Versor s commentary. One of Aristotle s most empirical writings,  De generatione et corruptione  examines how natural substances, qua beings and objects, come into being or come to be dissociated\/destroyed. He provides a definition of the Four Elements, which had long-lasting influence on philosophy, astrology, medicine and physiology well into the early modern period. Aristotle also analyses the difference between generation (ex-novo) and alteration (change that transforms one substance into another, without destruction), and substance mixtures. Based on authorities like Plato and Democritus, Versor s commentary employs Aquinas s interpretations and medieval theories on the relationship of form and matter, e.g.,  corruptio unius est generatio alterius . The contemporary annotator of this copy glossed Versor s commentary on the section on the  mixtio  of substances. Aristotle s  Liber Metheororum  (or  Meteora ) focuses on the properties of air and water, and the nature of the earth, with arguments based on the theory of the Four Elements and their interactions. Important topics discussed are water evaporation, earthquakes, weather phenomena, sea flow, how geological formations and hydric resources have a beginning and an end, and (in Book 4, probably spurious) the theory of hylomorphism, i.e., the union of matter and immaterial form. Two most important commentaries in a scarce edition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"VERSOR, Johannes.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859668017487,"sku":"L4054","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L4054-1.jpg?v=1781793685"},{"product_id":"gaietanus-de-thienis-janduno-joannes-de","title":"GAIETANUS de THIENIS; JANDUNO, Joannes de.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.A very good copy of the second edition of this important incunabular collection of three Aristotelian commentaries, the first two being milestones of early psychology. Gaietanus de Thiene (1387-1465?) was professor of philosophy and medicine at Padua, where he introduced, through his commentaries, many philosophical theories from England and France.  As far as we know, most of these commentaries were written for use in a university setting. As a consequence, the choice of texts commented upon and the degree of detail given to a certain passage is often due, at least in part, to its use in a classroom, a universitarian debate or its relevance for exams  (Stan. Enc. Phil.). Gaietanus s commentary on Aristotle s  De anima    which has been called the first book of scientific psychology   was read by medical students to understand how a creature could be defined as  living  or  having a soul , the nature and kinds of soul (vegetative, animal, rational, etc.), reproduction, nutrition, the senses and the concept of sensation, the intellect, and movement according to the number of senses possessed. These fundamental questions were argued by physicians, for instance, when determining whether\/when a foetus was  alive  or how movements are generated through the brain and nerves. Partly influenced by Averroism, Gaietanus provides short Latin excerpts from  De anima , followed by commentary.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n . Quaestiones de sensu agente , was written entirely by Gaietanus. Its subject, clearly inspired by  De anima , is  sensus agens  (active sense), which had been explored by the Scholastics and Averroists alike. Active sense was used to explain the act of cognition and perception through the senses, i.e., how the soul is affected by the external object it perceives (e.g., when it  memorizes  it), and how the soul perceives the object in the first place (e.g., when the eye is filled with light). It is followed by two similar  quaestiones , argued by Gaietanus, on the common senses ( De sensibilibus communibus ) and the intellect ( De intellectu ). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .The third is a commentary on Averroes s treatise on substance that constitutes the earth by Joannes de Janduno (or Jean de Jandun or Johannes de Gandavo) (c.1285-1323), French philosopher and theologian, professor at Paris. The work investigates whether the form and matter of the heavens as a whole is the same as that of terrestrial bodies, discussing the movement and nature of the heavens, whether they are animate or inanimate, corruptible or incorruptible.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .This copy was in two northern Italian convents, one of Augustinian Hermits, the other, Dominican, probably located in Piacenza. The earlier (cursive) annotator   Anselmo Vincetini - was interested in the intellect, glossing a passage, in the commentary to  De anima , with detailed references to interpretations by the medieval Augustinian philosopher Egidio Romano, mentioned by Gaietanus. In  De sensu agente , he glossed two sections on the interaction of the active sense and the soul, with references to the theories of Agostino Nifo. The slightly later annotator glossed passages in Book I on the difference in the soul and intellect of humans and animals, and the  accidents  of knowledge and perception, \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .ISTC dates this to 23 December 1493, following the colophon date  decimo kal. Januarias 1493 , GW suggests 1492. This depends on the reference system, the date in 1493 according to the Julian or 1492 according to the Gregorian calendar.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GAIETANUS de THIENIS; JANDUNO, Joannes de.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859668050255,"sku":"L4011","price":9750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L4011-1-1.jpg?v=1781793685"},{"product_id":"gesner-conrad-5","title":"GESNER, Conrad.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.First printing of the posthumous second part of this most successful, charmingly illustrated  book of secrets , edited by Caspar Wolf. Conrad Gesner (1516-65) studied natural and medical science at Basle, Montpellier, and Zurich. Renowned for his zoological masterpiece,  Historia animalium , he was also an expert on botany and compiler of florilegia on surgery. First published in 1552, under the pseudonym Euonymus Philiatrus, Part I of  De Remediis Secretis  quickly became one of the most popular medico-alchemical books of the time, contributing to the wide diffusion of Paracelsian theories. It reprised the structure of the successful medieval genre of  books of secrets , which provided information and recipes for herbal medicine and the combination of substances useful for domestic management. Part II was similarly popular. It focused however solely on the  chimia  of waters, oils and sauces - substances obtained artificially through distillation - giving precise instructions and detailed illustrations of the equipment required for professional results. For each Gesner lists all the infirmities that can be treated. Chap. 1 is devoted to various distillation techniques (e.g., by exposure to the sun,  per balneum , using a furnace, by filtration), the chemical changes liquids undergo during the process, and special vessels required   some being Gesner s own work. Chap. 2 provides recipes for distillations from wine ( quintessentiae ), herbs or animals and their parts (e.g., capon), as well as composite and metallic waters (e.g.,  aqua forte ), and precipitations produced from Mercury. Chap. III is entirely devoted to oils, including balms, extracted from flowers, seeds, fruit, spices, gum and resin, antimony, as well as from less obvious materials such as paper, cloth, linen and wood. Chap. IV explains the preparation of  aqua vitae , juices, salts and (at length)  drinkable gold  or  gold oil , made from gold leaf and lemon juice, and used  against the plague and many other infirmities . A practical book for everyday consultation.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .A c1700 inquisitor noted on the verso of the front ep that Gesner was a  first-class author , i.e., that his entire works were prohibited by the Church.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GESNER, Conrad.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859669066063,"sku":"L4092","price":2850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_0897-copy.jpg?v=1781793681"},{"product_id":"de-pluvinel-antoine","title":"DE PLUVINEL, ANTOINE.","description":"\u003cp\u003eImpressive, well-margined copy of this important and influential guide to dressage by the French riding master Antoine de Pluvinel (1552-1620), one of the greatest classics of the genre. This is the third edition with French and German text in double columns, in accordance with Pluvinel s original manuscript. A magnificent full page engraved portrait of Pluvinel s student, Louis XIII, follows the double page frontispiece, showing the king surrounded by a dynamic scene of allegorical figures and medallion portraits. Following this are three portraits and 58 exquisite plates demonstrating various equine training methods and accomplishments signed by the famed Dutch engraver Crispijn de Passe the Elder (1564-1637). An excellent copy of this important influence on modern dressage... .\u003c\/p\u003e \n\n\u003cp\u003eAntoine de Pluvinel worked as premier ecuyer to the Duc d Anjou, later Henri III, and was later appointed as tutor to the young Louis XIII, forming a close relationship with the future King. In 1594 Pluvinel founded the Academie d Equitation, where generations of French nobility were trained in horsemanship, as well as dancing, etiquette, and fashionable dress. The work was published posthumously by Crispijn de Passe and was edited by Menou de Charnizay. It was an instant success and was reprinted several times and translated into a number of languages. .\u003c\/p\u003e \n\n\u003cp\u003eThe contents combine extensive textual description with richly illustrative engravings. It is written in the form of a dialogue between the king and the author. Pluvinel was known for his humane training methods, using positive reinforcement rather than punishment to make horses obedient and to encourage mutual trust, predicating modern training practices. He popularised the rise of single and double pillars in training of collection and levade, always insisting that the horse should be taking pleasure in the work; the secret is in  making the horse enjoy whatever it is doing till it does it of its own free will.  Thanks to Pluvinel s work, the harsh Italian training methods of Giovanni Pignatelli became obsolete, and the life span and well-being of his horses increased dramatically. .\u003c\/p\u003e \n\n\u003cp\u003eSauf ces l ég√®res differences, c'est la meme  édon. Dans certains exemplaires, le titre grav é porte 1629 (Mennessier de la Lance).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DE PLUVINEL, ANTOINE.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868671222095,"sku":"L3729","price":9750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3729-2.jpg?v=1781793664"},{"product_id":"herrera-gabriel-alonso-de-1","title":"HERRERA, Gabriel Alonso de.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA good copy of this scarce C16 bestselling manual in Castilian on the best practice and secrets of agriculture—‘one of the fundamental texts of the Spanish Renaissance’ (Rodilla, ‘La Medicina’, 437). Gabriel Alonso de Herrera (1470-1539) was a Franciscan agronomist and brother to the humanist Hernando and the musician Diego Alonso de Herrera. He is most renowned for this ‘Libro de agricultura’, first printed in 1513, which underwent 12 editions in the C16 alone and was translated into Latin, Italian, French and English. It was a compilation based on a variety of agricultural and medical sources, including Greek (Galen and Hippocrates), Arabic (Avenzoar and Avicenna), and Latin ‘De re rustica’ authors (Columella, Cato, Varro and Palladius). Following the classical tradition, Herrera presented a holistic view of the agronomist as knowledgeable in the cultivation of crops and trees, techniques for making soil and water suitable for agriculture and horticulture (how to fix defects in wine), the forecast of adverse weather conditions, farming and herbal medical remedies. He also injected into this solid tradition new ideas—based on contemporary agricultural theories and his own experience—concerning the identification of high-quality seed which should be grown separately from the rest to improve the quality of crops, as well as plant reproductive morphology, i.e., he believed that plants could be masculine or feminine. The intended readership was ‘on the one hand…the more or less rich landlords; but, on the other hand, the medical advice it offers and the therapeutic evaluation it performs of each plant suggest that its interlocutors were the “farmers of towns and villages where the presence of a doctor was inconceivable”’, an illiterate audience to whom this matter was reported orally and whom Herrera sought to reach more easily, for the first time in Europe, by using the vernacular (García, ‘El Libro de Agricultura’, 6, 10). A pioneering, enormously influential agricultural manual.\u003c\/p\u003e \n\n\u003cp\u003eThis copy belonged to D. Francisco de Paula Rojas y Caballero-Infante (1832-1909), a Spanish industrial engineer.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HERRERA, Gabriel Alonso de.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868672696655,"sku":"L2968a","price":6750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_1874-copy.jpg?v=1781793661"},{"product_id":"topsell-edward-1","title":"TOPSELL, Edward.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very good, fresh copy, in a charming contemporary English binding, of the first editions of two attractively illustrated early English works of natural history. They are translations, with significant additions by Edward Topsell (1572-1625), of Books I (on quadrupeds) and V (on snakes and scorpions) of Conrad Gesner’s (1516-65) ‘Historiae animalium’ (1551-87), a very influential compendium of zoology. An epitome of all available knowledge on the animal kingdom, the ‘Historiae’ combined fabulous and real animals, and literary (proverbs, etymology) and scientific (behaviour, physical features, medical uses) material.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n \u003cp\u003eTopsell adapted Gesner’s work to entice a young English readership, becoming a key source for later children’s educational books. It was first and foremost an encyclopaedia of zoology, teaching which animals were useful and friendly to humans, as well as their traditional symbolism (e.g., rats are lustful and much more poisonous during copulation). Each section includes a zoological woodcut, a history of the animal’s name, anecdotes pertaining to its nature, habitat and character, and medical uses. E.g., the dried heart of an ape strengthens the heart; an antidote drawn from beavers helps against epilepsy. Topsell’s chapter on the horse is much longer and more detailed than Gesner’s. The work concludes with useful lexica of Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, German and Greek names for each of the beasts featured. The history of serpents, scorpions, lizards and insects – including spiders and bees, with a long section on their medicinal uses – begins with the ‘Divine, Morall and Naturall’ elements of serpents, acknowledging their problematic place in the history of creation, and moving onto a technical discussion of their anatomy. Topsell’s work improves on Gesner’s in its more consistent (and useful) inclusion of medical authorities and recipes for antidotes, albeit with a looser zoological taxonomy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe handsome illustrations were partly drawn from Gesner’s ‘Historiae’ – especially the famous rhino, after Durer’s woodcut, ‘the outward shape and picture of [which] appeareth rare and admirable […], differing in every part from all other beasts, from the top of his nose to the tip of his tail’. Other sources include Thevet’s ‘Singularitez de la France antartique’ (1557), whence come the description and woodcut of the ‘Su’, ‘a wild beast in the new-found world’ whose skin was employed by the Patagonians. Topsell’s work also includes the first illustrated description of a giraffe in English. Most interesting are the woodcuts of the Crocuta, an Ethiopian quadruped with a human face and a lion’s body, of the sea serpents (with one devouring a ship), and the crocodile. A very good, clean copy of a much-read work, more often found defective or incomplete.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TOPSELL, Edward.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868675547471,"sku":"L3697","price":29500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8806.jpg?v=1781793652"},{"product_id":"falloppio-gabriele-2","title":"FALLOPPIO, Gabriele.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.A very good copy of probably the first edition of these important early works on therapeutic waters and fossils. Gabriele Falloppio (1523-62) was a major physician and anatomist, professor at Ferrara (where he taught Fabricius ab Aquapendente), Pisa and Padua. Several anatomical formations, of which he provided ground-breaking descriptions and studies, are still named after him, e.g., Fallopian tubes,  aquaeductus Fallopii .  As with all of his publications except  Observationes anatomicae\", this work was published posthumously. It consists of two lectures given at Padua in 1556 and 1557 respectively, [...] edited from lecture notes by Andreas Marcolini (fl. 1560), one of Fallopius  friends  (Heirs of Hippocrates). . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n.. De medicatis aquis  is devoted to mineral spring waters and their therapeutic qualities. It introduces the names and nature of various spa waters, and proceeds to discuss why they emerge from the ground at very high temperatures (with a section on the rare instances in which they emerge cold), their metallic and mineral composition and how to investigate it (e.g., through sight and colour, smell, touch and taste), the  lutus thermalis  (the therapeutic essence of spa waters), the application of mud, the medical characteristics of specific spa baths near Padua (e.g., Monte Ortone, San Pietro, Sant Elena and Montegrotto, this last still in use and very popular, in an area named  Terme Euganee ) and in Emilia and Tuscany, and the benefits of spa waters for all kinds of conditions, head to foot.  De medicatis aquis  is considered  the most influential work on solution analysis  of the C16, for its discussion of the chemical composition of water (Debus, p.46). . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n.. De metallis seu fossilibus  is concerned with geology and mineralogy. By  fossils , like Agricola and Gesner, Falloppio meant  everything dug out of the ground or extracted from rocks that showed a distinct form [...]. It included therefore, besides fossils in the modern sense [...], also crystals, stones, minerals and artifacts  (Etter, p.131). Falloppio focuses on stones and minerals to identify their medical properties, defining the types of soil, the nature and properties of stones, and the essence of metals (including less common substances like  chrysocolla ). Two most interesting works by one of the medical authorities of the Renaissance.. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..Another ed. appeared the same year, published by Avanzi with Giordano Ziletti - priority not established..\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FALLOPPIO, Gabriele.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868677120335,"sku":"L4205","price":4750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_3350-2-copy.jpg?v=1781793648"},{"product_id":"dodoens-rembert-7","title":"DODOENS, Rembert.","description":".First edition of this lavishly illustrated pocket manual for physicians and botanists - one of the many superbly illustrated works produced by the Plantin press in Antwerp. Rembert Dodoens (or Dodonaeus, 1517-85) was a Flemish botanist, court physician to the Emperors Maximilian II and Rudolph II, and professor of medicine at Leiden. He is most renowned for his works on herbs and their medicinal properties published in Dutch, French, English and Latin, inspired by the contemporary writings of Leonhart Fuchs and, ultimately, by Dioscorides s  De materia medica . Dedicated to Philip II of Spain, the present is a study of plants and herbs traditionally used to purge and cleanse the body. For each of the over 100 plants discussed, he provides at least one handsome full-page woodcut. These woodcuts were produced by Peter vander Borcht, under the careful supervision of the botanist Charles L Écluse, and were not originally intended for this work (Kusukawa, p.94). The text accompanying each woodcut includes a short description of the plant s appearance, fruit, alternative names in various languages, habitat, smell, taste (e.g., Coriandrus has a  sour and pungent bitterness  to it) and the most effective treatments that can be drawn from it, such as oils, liquors, teas and balms. Among the plants are the cyclamen, many types of valerian, bluebell, liquorice, poppy, sassafras and tarragon. Issued with the first work, the  appendix  depicts over 40 rare herbs and plants, with new woodcuts, never previously seen. The preface provides Dodoens  interesting observations on the process and quality of the illustrations ( icones ) in the previous book, as well as others, as well as the importance of images in herbals. He also specifies botanic gardens where he found specimens he could copy, in Brussels and Antwerp. As always, Dodoens provides general information and at least one woodcut for each, among them being the  Iris Tuboerosa , thistle, absinth, and the Moluccas (named after the islands whence they probably originated).  Included are chapters on  Hyoscyamus Peruvianus  (tobacco) \u0026amp;  Zarsae Parillae  (sarsaparilla), also designated as Peruvian  (Alden). A most interesting, very handsome herbal..","brand":"DODOENS, Rembert.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868677448015,"sku":"L2046","price":2850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_3346-2-copy.jpg?v=1781793648"},{"product_id":"fitzherbert-john-2","title":"FITZHERBERT John.","description":"\u003cp\u003eExtremely rare and early edition of this most important book on husbandry by John Fitzherbert beautifully printed in elegant black letter by Thomas Berthelet. “The importance of the ‘Boke of Husbandry cannot be overestimated. It did more to popularise ideas about husbandry and improvement than any previous work, and the many editions and imitators in the rest of the century attest to its significance throughout society. Fitzherbert’s ‘boke’ was extremely popular and remarkably brief – issues that may well be connected. The 1540 octavo, only ninety pages, is devoted to promoting the efficient use of natural resources. Fitzherbert returns repeatedly to the concept of ‘improvement’, a word he uses in the sense of enclosing, cultivating, and increasing the value of land. Indeed, the verb ‘manure’ was often used to mean ‘improve’, and in the 1500s the primary definition was ‘to till or cultivate land.’ Furthermore, the first meaning of ‘improve’ was to put to profit, to enclose and the bringing into cultivation of wasteland. Fitzherbert was committed to the notion of cultivating waste land in order to ‘improve’it, to make it better to increase its value. The rash of editions that followed into Elizabeth’s reign demonstrates the extent to which these ideas found a captive audience among the literate husbandmen, yeoman and gentry.” John Patrick Montaño. ‘The Roots of English Colonialism in Ireland.’ “The appearance of Fitzherbert’s ‘Bokes’ and subsequent sixteenth-century husbandry manuals marked a watershed in the evolution of a discourse that influenced landowners to improve their land. He was arguably the first to emphasise the role of landowning as an economic activity while promoting the connection between improving, enclosing, and surveying as a path to profit. Before the end of 1500s, Fitzherbert’s ‘Boke of Husbandry’ appeared in seventeen editions. The extensive library of Henry, Lord Stafford, for example contained two copies of Fitzherbert’s’Boke’.”. Gary Fields. ‘Enclosure: Palestinian Landscapes in a Historical Mirror.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFitzherbert does not deal with husbandry only, but breeding and buying horses, laying hedges, the sale of wood and timber, grafting of trees, training of servants, road repair, veterinary medicine, the occupations of a country wife, duties of a neighbour, and relief of the poor. Although primarily dealing with agriculture and animal husbandry it really is a country gentleman’s vade-mecum – how to manage your estate and profit by it. A very good copy of this rare and important work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FITZHERBERT John.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868680298831,"sku":"L4018","price":16500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_4498-copy.jpg?v=1781793643"},{"product_id":"austen-ralph","title":"AUSTEN, Ralph","description":"\u003cp\u003e.An interesting work by a self-taught gardener, Ralph Austen (c.1612-1676), who  devoted most of his time to gardening and the raising of fruit trees . He was admitted to the public library in Oxford, where he sought materials for his book in 1652, publishing the following year. His method can be described as  innovative, experimental, and sceptical of the authority of theorists . The book contains two distinct parts, the first focusing on the practical aspects of gardening, such as preparation of the ground, sewing of seeds, protection from pests, grafting, and inoculation. It then conducts a survey of different trees, their fruits and optimal use in food, drink and medicine: walnuts are said to help digestion, mulberry juice stirs up one s appetite and sharp cherries are good for the blood and kidneys.. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..In the second part, Austen takes a more spiritual approach, explaining in his preface that  the world is a great library, and fruit trees are some of the books, wherein we may read and see plainly the attributes of God . Referring amply to scripture, Austen uses the gardening of fruit trees as an extended metaphor for God s power and influence in the world, explaining the state of the world in terms of God as a gardener. He makes observations from nature and ties each point to a religious parallel. The frontispiece by John Goddard, an early English engraver, is emblematic of this point. The verse refers to the enclosed Garden of the Song of Solomon, but the image also shows gardening tools and a planting plan. The work brings together husbandry and religion in a unique way..\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"AUSTEN, Ralph","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868699599183,"sku":"L4458","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_3765.webp?v=1781793448"},{"product_id":"vesalius-andreas-1","title":"VESALIUS, Andreas.","description":"\u003cp\u003e“It cannot be denied that the Fabrica is the most famous anatomical work ever published, to this day one of the most beautiful in existence and the milestone in all medical history which definitely showed a fresh break from the old traditions”. Heirs of Hippocrates 172.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe De Humani Corporis (Fabrica) is an extraordinarily complete anatomical and physiological study of every part of the human body, based on Vesalius’ first hand examinations and five years’ experience as the public prosector in the medical school at Padua. The five books deal with the bones, muscles, blood vessels, nerves, abdominal viscera, thoracic organs and brain. Although Vesalius’ study of medicine began just after Galen’s anatomical work was becoming known, Vesalius did not just improve it, he superseded it. Subsequently the history of anatomy has been divided into two periods, pre-Vesalius and post-Vesalius.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e“The Fabrica, a handsomely printed folio, as remarkable for its series of magnificent plates which set new technical standards of anatomical illustrations and indeed book illustration in general. They have generally been ascribed to an artist of Titian’s school… Vesalius was the most splendid and most comprehensive of a large number of anatomical treatises of the sixteenth century…. No other work equals it…. It was translated, reissued, copied and plagiarised over and over again and its illustrations were used or copied in other medical works until the end of the eighteenth century.” Printing and the Mind of Man 71.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe stunning blocks for this Basel edition were long attributed to Titian’s pupil, Jan Stephan van Calcar (Mortimer, Harvard C16 IV.It.p733) though this is now disputed, but they were cut at Venice and sent by Vesalius to Oporinus with instructions for printing. “They are famous for their beauty, accuracy and lavishness of detail and number” (Heirs of Hippocrates 172). However more important than their anatomical information was the scientific principle they contained which was fundamental to anatomical research and has remained so. With the publication of the Fabrica all major investigators of anatomy were compelled to recognise that attempts to project the anatomy of animals on the human body (the basis of Galenic anatomy) were flawed and the only true source of human anatomical knowledge was the dissection and observation of the human body.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e“It cannot be emphasised too often that this was an epochal book…. the first edition of the Fabrica is the heart of any medical library.” (Heirs of Hippocrates 172)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e“The founder of modern anatomy… His work is described and illustrated in this epochal publication, one of the most beautiful scientific books ever printed.” Horblit 98\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e“By this epoch-making work Vesalius the ‘Father of Modern Anatomy’ prepared the way for the rebirth of physiology by Harvey and for independent observation in anatomy and clinical medicine. The publication of this book was the greatest event in medical history since Galen.” Garrison. Morton 375\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"VESALIUS, Andreas.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868706021711,"sku":"L4530","price":350000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/20250214_124309-copy.jpg?v=1781793434"},{"product_id":"estienne-charles-with-baif-lazare-de-and-teslio-antonio","title":"ESTIENNE, Charles. [with] BAIF, Lazare de. [and] TESLIO, Antonio.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA charmingly-bound sammelband of four Latin works, in two first and two very scarce editions. Although the first three works may be considered  the first children s books  or  the first books produced specifically for the entertainment (unlike schoolbooks) as well as the edification of a juvenile readership  (Schreiber,  Estiennes , 50, 1535 ed.), they were also read, as here, by adults wishing to know more. The younger brother of the famous printer Robert Estienne, Charles (1504-64) was a physician who made important discoveries in the field of anatomy. Eventually following the family s business, with a focus on popular, didactic works, he became royal printer in 1552. He wrote and edited influential works for the educated middle classes, which appeared in Latin, Italian and French.  De re hortensi , on herbs for vegetable gardens, is concerned with the enclosure of suitable land, the types of herbs which grow spontaneously or need cultivating, ornamental ones used to embellish arbours, and the various garden areas subdivided by kinds of plants (e.g.,  coronalis ,  odorata  or  olitoria ). It concludes with a Latin-French vocabulary. The second and third were written by the humanist Lazare de Ba‚àö√òf (1496-1547).  De re vestiaria  is an entertaining work on countless types of clothing (both civil and military), head- and footwear, each with their Latin and French names and a brief historical context. For instance,  crepida , slippers or sandals, are highlighted for the noise of the heels, like clogs, and are said to be called  pianelle  by Venetian nobles. The subject of  De vasculis  is unusual the meaning and function of vases. It covers their history, materials (e.g., gilt, brass or glass like  the excellent, much celebrated from the city of Murano near Venice ) and functions (for drinking, keeping wine or cooking). The last work, on colours, was written by Antonio Telesio (1482-1534), first published in 1528.  The most extensive lexicon of colour terms of its time, taken from Latin and Greek sources spanning some 1,100 years  (Osborne). It describes 12 basic colours, and for each the work provides a historical account and several related names, which were not always only used for colours (e.g.,  flammeus  was used to describe the sun). \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n.Claude le Roy was probably a young student, as he glossed several Greek words across the four works. Another early annotator, interested in alchemy, wrote a page of text on the scents of the planets, connected to their alchemical symbols (e.g., Venus has a  rosy  scent). The C17 physician Joannes Guenebaldus was the author of  Le R éveil de Chyndonax  (1621), describing a stone he found on his Dijon estate, which he thought of Druidic origin. He also probably wrote the verse  Les Roys, Enfants du Ciel , probably from Jean de la Taille s (d.1607) s  Histoire des singeries de la Ligue .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ESTIENNE, Charles. [with] BAIF, Lazare de. 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