Heading:
Author: Gerard, John
Title: The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. Gathered by John Gerarde of London Master in Chirurgerie. Very much Enlarged and Amended by Thomas Johnson, Citizen and Apothecarye of London
Place Published: London
Publisher:Printed by Adam Islip Ioice Norton and Richard Whitakers
Date Published: 1636
Description:

[38] (incl. engraved title-page), 1630, [2], [44] pp. Illustrated throughout with woodcuts of plants; copper-engraved pictorial title-page. (folio) 33x22 cm (13x8½"), old calf. Third Edition.

Third edition of Gerard's great herbal, which first appeared in 1597; this is basically the same as the second edition, which was the first to be edited by Johnson, noted by David M. Knight, Natural Science Books in English, 1600-1900, as "botanically greatly superior to the first edition." Blunt, in The Art of Botanical Illustration, says "Johnson's scholarly edition of Gerard (1633) was illustrated with 2677 blocks from the collection accumulated by Plantin." The present copy is known to lack the blanks at front and rear, also leaves Vv6 (pp. 519-20), Xx5-6 (pp. 529-532), with an unidentified leaf bound between pp. 544 and 545 (its page number torn off and other marginal loss), apparently few other leaves missing as well, not fully collated.

Covers rubbed and worn, spine strip detached; title page mounted on backing paper, chipped at edges and with some loss to images at corners, etc.; occasional foxing and aging to contents, some light dampstaining to top gutter corners affecting text, two dozen or more leaves with chipping and tears resulting in loss in margins and some text and images; good to very good condition, the main body of text quite presentable, sold as is.