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Practical encyclopaedia of 420 medicinal plants and their uses

LANGHAM, William.
The garden of health: containing the sundry rare and hidden vertues and properties of all kindes of simples and plants. Together with the manner how they are to bee used and applyed in medicine for the health of mans body, against divers diseases and infirmities most common amongst men. ... The second edition corrected and emended.
London, Thomas Harper, 1633. 4to. Sprinkled calf (ca. 1800?), gold-tooled spine with the (ca. 1835?) WHM monogram of William Henry Miller. [8], 702, [66] pp.
€ 2,850
Second edition of an English encyclopaedia of practical medical botany for household use as well as for doctors and apothecaries, discussing about 420 plants, first published in 1597. It describes the plant's parts and their uses, the preparation of medicines from the plant and their use in treating various ailments, and includes some American plants that had only recently reached Europe when Langham wrote. The books emphasis on common plants that "are gotten without any great cost or labour", suggests it is intended for household use and for those who cared for the poor, but it also gives instructions for distillation and other processes that an amateur would be less likely to attempt than an apothecary. While the title must have been influenced by the 1485 Gart der Gesundheit or 1491 [H]ortus sanitatis, the text is quite independent.
With worm trails slightly affecting the text in about 15 leaves, damage to the lower outside corner of a few leaves, affecting a few words on Z4, a smudge around the date on the title-page and slightly browned, but otherwise in good condition. The spine and hinges show some cracks and the boards a few small worm holes, but otherwise also good. A practical medical encyclopaedia describing about 420 medicinal plants and their uses, intended primarily for poor people. Alden & Landis 633/67; Hunt 224; Krivatsy 6665.
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Related Subjects:

Medicine & pharmacy  >  Herbals & Medical Botany