1636 The Herball, John Gerard (edited by Thomas Johnson). Most complete edition.

The celebrated 1636 edition of Gerard's Herbal, with the corrections and updates of the London apothecary and botanist Thomas Johnson; this copy with notable female provenance in the 17th and 20th centuries. Also, a few delightful hand-colored illustrations scattered throughout (see the pictures).

In 1597, John Gerard published the first edition of his Herball. In so doing, he largely plagiarized Rembert Dodoens' continentally printed herbal, translating it into English and not crediting Dodoens. Gerard also borrowed printing plates from European printing houses to accompany the work. Unfortunately, Gerard mis-matched a number of the illustration plates and their text descriptions. There were also other charges of plagiarism from English contemporaries. Still, the book was massively popular.

After Gerard's death, his heirs commissioned Thomas Johnson (a London apothecary and botanist) to correct and enlarge the herbal. Johnson added over 800 new species and 700 figures (Dictionary of National Biography).

This 1636 edition is considered the most complete edition, including the corpus of Johnson's additions.

Provenance -

17th century (1650 or 1658) signature of an Alice Caslock at top of title page. While I can only conjecture without a matching signature, in the 1650s there was an Alice Caslock living in Faversham, married to the successful brewer and town Mayor, John Caslock.

The Caslock name can be found readily, in relation to the brewery, spelled in various ways (typical of that time) but the two did state their name as "Caslock" at their marriage (July 13, 1629, Canterbury Marriage Licences, scanned online to Internet Archive).

John's will may even reference this book, as it stated, "To his wife, Alice... All his books" (Mayors of Faversham, FavershamSociety.org); Alice did outlive John.

In the early 20th century, two celebrated businesswomen of Rhode Island, who in WWII began what would become the country's largest organic herb business, possessed this copy; The Greene Herb Gardens would sell their herbs to bread companies, grocery stores, individuals (by mail) etc.

Founder Margaret E. Thomas signed the front of this book, and a bookplate belonging to her business partner, Mittie Arnold, is found loose within the book. Mittie Arnold's provenance does appear in book auction records in relation to a number of important botanical works.

Bibliographic Details -

Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC) number 3018474, not rare, found in many of the world's finest libraries (Trinity College Library Cambridge, Cambridge University, National Library of Scotland, Royal Botanical Gardens, Wellcome Library, BL, Balliol, Bodleian, The Shakespeare Center Library, Bancroft, Houghton, Huntington, Library of Congress, Folger Shakespeare, among others).

English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) - S122175

Physical Attributes -

Measures approx. 34.5 x 23 x 9 cm. Leather binding. Spine with five raised bands; one compartment with author and title in gilt on black morocco, date at tail of spine in gilt. Richly illustrated throughout.

Collation - Missing first blank leaf. Par2-8, 2par6, 3par6, A-B8, C-Z6, Aa-Dd6, Kkk-Nnn6, Ee-Zz6, Aaa-Iii6, Ooo-Zzz6, Aaaa-Zzzz6, Aaaaa-Zzzzz6, Aaaaaa-Vvvvvv6, Xxxxxx4, Yyyyyy-Zzzzzz6, Aaaaaaa6, Bbbbbbb5 (missing last blank leaf).

Summary of collation - missing first and last blank leaves. Gatherings Kkk-Nnn6, bound out-of-place between Dd and Ee gatherings.

The ESTC listing verifies, "The first and last leaf are blank".

Condition -

See pictures. Leather binding well-worn, with rubs and edge and corner wear; joints cracked but boards holding on. Spine with a little crazing. FEP with various previous owner and bookseller marks. Missing first blank leaf, and last. Signatures Kkk-Nnn6 misbound between Dd6 and Ee6. Text block toned throughout, with occasional page edge chips/tears, dog-eared corners, fox spots, errant ink marks, candle ember marks, etc. Occasional damp mark from bottom corner, worse at front (2nd leaf mainly). Title page mounted, and with several tape marks (now Japanese tissue to rear) where small tears were addressed. 2nd extant leaf loose at gutter for bottom half, and also library impression (unreadable) at bottom of leaf. Graphite "4" at bottom of fourth leaf. 1 cm round hole in pg 1/2. Hyacinth p118 colored. 130-133 flowers colored. Dandelions p290 colored. 2" tear top of Rr3, evidence of tape repair (now gone); 1 cm hole in this leaf also. Moisture mark at fore-edge of Aaaa4 gathering. Flowers from 850-854 colored. Manuscript notes on leaf Nnnn6, clipped by binder. 3" moisture spot at center of leaves from 1025-1065.Heavier thumbing in carrots section. 2" tear from fore-edge Tttt5. Notes and a moisture stain on page 1054. Page 1579 with a remainder corner (not trimmed by binder). Index with a few moisture spots. Last gathering of book with moisture mark from fore-edge.