[HERBAL]

Los 160
10.12.2025 12:00UTC +00:00
Classic
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
VeranstaltungsortVereinigtes Königreich, London
Aufgeldsee on Website%
ID 1514362
Los 160 | [HERBAL]
Schätzwert
£ 8 000 – 12 000
[HERBAL]
The greate Herball, which geveth parfyte knowledge & understandinge of al maner of herbes, theyr gracious vertues, whiche God hath ordeyned for our prosperous welfare and health, for they heale and cure all maner of disases and sekenesses, that fall or myssfortune to all maner of creatures of God created, practysed by many experte and wyse maysters, as Avicenna, Pandecta, and more other, &c. Newlye corrected and diligently oversene, in the year of our Lord God M.CCCCC.LXI. London: John Kynge, 1561.
Extremely rare 16th-century edition of the ‘most famous of the early printed herbals’ (Rohde, p.65). This is an English translation of the French Le Grant Herbier: ‘Among the earlier English herbals, the highest reputation belongs […] to The grete Herball’ (Arber p.44). Although Arber states ‘The grete Herball is thoroughly mediaeval in nature’ (p.47) and Henrey (I, p.21) posits that it was lagging behind the likes of Brunfels’ Herbarum vivae eicones (see lot 140), the present work is notable for warning against fraudulent herbalists, and being the first to openly doubt the so-called powers of the mandrake: ‘Some say that the male hath figures of shape of a man. And the female of a woman, but that is fals. For nature never gave forme or shape of mankynde to an herbe. But it is of trouthe that some hath shaped such figures by craft’ (N4v). ESTC S120724, recording 11 copies only, 6 in the British Isles (British Library, Cambridge University Library, Edinburgh University, Oxford University Dept of Plant Sciences, Oxford University Taylor Institution Library, Oxford University Wadham College, Royal College of Surgeons of England) and 5 in the USA (Harvard University Arnold Arboretum Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Morgan Library, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Williams College). Agnes Arber, Herbals … second edition (1955); Henrey 171; Eleanour S. Rohde, Old English Herbals (1922); STC 13179.

Small folio (264 x 180mm). Woodcut illustration (130 x 130 mm) on title (lacking 2 leaves Y4-5, final 2 gatherings Aa6-Bb2 comprising index highly defective, repaired and remargined with substantial loss of text, small marginal chip to Q5, light variable staining throughout). Contemporary calf with 19th-century gilt monogram stamp on front cover (rebacked by Sotheran in 1886 [note on front pastedown], extremities heavily rubbed, one corner defective). Provenance: Thomas Coprynton (early ink ownership inscription on title) – further early ink annotations and marginalia – Joseph Cockfield Dimsdale (1849-1912, British banker and Conservative politician who served as Lord Mayor of London 1901-1902; gilt stamp to upper board added at time of rebacking in 1886) – Albert J. Chalmers (1870-1920, pioneer in tropical medicine; armorial bookplate, with additional decorative label from his widow presenting the work to:) – Royal Society of Medicine (stamps on front flyleaf and verso of title).
Adresse der Versteigerung CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
Vereinigtes Königreich
Vorschau
10.12.2025 – 10.12.2025
Telefon +44 (0)20 7839 9060
E-Mail
Aufgeld see on Website
NutzungsbedingungenNutzungsbedingungen

Verwandte Begriffe