Culpeper's Complete Herbal: To Which is Added, Upwards of One Hundred Additional Herbs, With a Display of Their Medicinal and Occult Qualities; Physically applied to The Cure of All Disorders Incident to Mankind: To Which are Now First Annexed, The English Physician Enlarged, and Ke
by Nicholas Culpeper
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Addingham, Ilkley, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
4to (28cm), frontispiece + title page + v + dedication page + 398pp + [iv] index pages + [iv] adv. pp. 20 full-page colour plates, all present, each with 9 hand-coloured engravings. Rebound in light brown half calf, gilt lettering and tooling to spine; blue, gold and white marbling to boards. Flyleaves, frontispiece, title page and rear advertisment pages all heavily foxed but text is still legible, bulk of text with light occasional foxing.
A 19th-century unspecified edition of this classic work, dated 1848. The renowned herbalist and astrologer Nicholas Culpeper (1616 - 1664), one of the most (in)famous proponents of herbal treatment, intended this work for commoners, hence how he came to be known as "The People's Herbalist". An audacious character with a strong dislike for authority, Culpeper was initially commissioned to translate into English the ''Pharmocopoeia Londinensis'', the text which all pharmacists were legally required to own and consult since Henry VIII took away the Church's power to regulate medicine in an attempt to crack down on quack doctors prescribing false remedies. However, Culpeper added to his translation recipes for herbal remedies, with the result that public audiences would no longer require to consult the experise of a physician in preparing a remedy. To add insult to injury, Culpeper inserted in the text many of his own amusing and critical remarks directed towards the Royal College. Despite the severe counter-criticisms he received from Royal College physicians, his book became an instant success with the masses, and Culpeper went on to write The English Physitian and the Complete Herbal.
The Complete Herbal was written in informal accessible language, providing a useful index of ailments and making it easy to find the correct herb for a cure. The book was also cheaply priced to make it affordable for commoners. The prose was amusingly irreverent, witty and sometimes fiercely critical towards Culpeper's contemporaries about their herbal methods. One famous phrase in the preface of the work makes this obvious: "This not being pleasing, and less profitable to me, I consulted with my two brothers, Dr. Reason and Dr. Experience, and took a voyage to visit my mother Nature, by whose advice, together with the help of Dr. Diligence, I at last obtained my desire; and, being warned by Mr. Honesty, a stranger in our days, to publish it to the world, I have done it."
Culpeper's Herbal and Complete Physician went on to become one of the most popular and enduring books in publishing history, so much so that it is still in print today.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Speaking Volumes (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 005
- Title
- Culpeper's Complete Herbal
- Author
- Nicholas Culpeper
- Format/Binding
- Half leather
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- Unspecified
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Thomas Kelly
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1848
- Pages
- 398pp
- Size
- 4to (28cm)
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
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Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Rebound
- A book in which the pages have been bound into a covering replacing the original covering issued by the publisher.
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Calf
- Calf or calf hide is a common form of leather binding. Calf binding is naturally a light brown but there are ways to treat the...
- Foxed
- Foxing is the age related browning, or brown-yellowish spots, that can occur to book paper over time. When this aging process...
- Title Page
- A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...