Culpeper’s Complete Herbal; and English Physician Enlarged. Containing a Complete Description of All Herbs with Their Medicinal Properties and Directions for Compounding the Medicines Extracted from Them by Nicholas Culpepper
Publishing: 1835 Thomas Kelly; London
Nicholas Culpeper’s Complete Herbal remains one of the most influential and enduring works in English vernacular medicine. First published in the seventeenth century it brought botanical knowledge and medical practice out of Latin and into accessible English making herbal remedies available to ordinary households. Culpepper blends traditional Galenic medicine with astrology and does not treat plants as merely chemical substances but assigns them to planetary rulerships; connecting each herb to celestial influence. Thus making his work not only a cornerstone of herbalist literature but popular among esotercist.
This copy contains an early manuscript inscriptions to the first two blank leaves. The first bears a decorative ink ownership inscription reading “This Book belongs to Richard Hartley,” dated April 18th, 1841, embellished with an elaborate hand-drawn winged motif. The following leaf contains mid-19th-century manuscript family records in period ink, documenting births of members of the Hartley family between 1846 and 1856, including times of birth. A later penciled note references “Woodhouse Church.”
Condition: Large 8vo. Contemporary half calf over green cloth boards. Spine with raised bands, gilt rules, and black morocco title label lettered in gilt, moderate foxing to frontpiece and title page, all 20 color plates present to rear, overall in very good condition