The Herbalist’s Bible: John Parkinson’s Lost Classic Rediscovered. A Selection and Commentary by Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal

摘要

The herbal in question is the Theatrum Botanicum, a massive tome written in English by John Parkinson (1567-1650), the renowned apothecary and herbalist to Charles I. Published at last in 1640, on the eve of the English Civil War, it was lost in that catastrophe of national strife, like its royal dedicatee Charles who was executed in 1649, and was never republished. Its classic status as one of the great English herbals, if not the greatest, was acknowledged by botanists in the past, and Parkinson’s writings on a selection of herbal medicines still in use today are now made highly accessible in this publication by herbalist Julie Bruton-Seal and her writer and editor husband, Matthew Seal.