Marrin's Bookshop

Synopsis

Edited with an introduction by richard mabey. the first english gardening book.

Item Description

First edition thus. 4to. 10 x 7.75 inches. 217 + [6] p. index and acknowledgements, etc. Bound in original black cloth, gilt, in unclipped pictorial dust wrapper, which has sunned spine. A few edge stains on first free endpaper, but otherwise a very good copy. Illustrated throughout by colour and black and white text figures, including whole page. Decorated by title page and margin vignettes and by initials. A new edition of the first popular English gardening book by Thomas Hill (c.1528-), first published under a pseudonym in 1577 and based on an earlier 1563 work by him. This lavishly illustrated version is based on the text of the 1652 edition and omits the astrologically based notes on the medicinal uses of specific plants, although it includes the extended table which was a guide and index to these notes. Introduced and edited by Richard Mabey (b.1941), prolific nature writer, and broadcaster.