Illumination/Painting
There are no illuminations or paintings. As noted above, the second edition of the Herball was produced in under a year in order to preempt the publication of a potential rival. The process of illuminating the edition could have been done privately, but in the case of this copy was not.
Binding
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| Cover on 1633 edition housed at SDSU |
The binding of the book is leather bound with an emblazoned flower and a debossed boarder on the cover. The spine contains the title also in gold debossing. Based on the condition of the binding as well as materials used for the boards and the paste down end paper, the cover appears to be from the turn of the nineteenth century. Bernard Middleton (1963) notes that by the late eighteenth century England had begun to produce high quality pasteboard, which was being used in place of wood for the binding of books. The end pages of the book are a design known as Dutch marble; a style that was popular from the 1650s though the 1840s.
The binding of the book shows definite signs of age. The corners of the boards are worn through, exposing the pasteboard. The leather is cracked and broken in places and the headcaps are detaching from the spine. The broken headcaps are not a total loss however as they allow for the headbands to be counted. There are a total of 39 headbands, meaning that each signature contain roughly 21 folios.
Endleaves and flyleaves
The book contains two heavy gauge flyleaves. As with the binding, these materials are not original to the book. The flyleaf paper was clearly produced at a date after the rest of the book.
Conclusion/summary
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| List of mistakes and misprints on final page of 1633 edition |
The Herball contains no conclusion or summary. The descriptive text ends and is followed immediately by the beginning of the indexes. There is, however, a printed note on the final page of the book containing a list of errors and apologies. Produced by Johnson, the list includes “Faults in Figures transposed,” or errors by the printer, and “Faults in words and marks,” or errors by the author. The section notes the mistake and on which page it can be found.
Reference Page(s) topic must have its own heading followed by the pertinent information.
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| First page of the "table of Virteus" |
There are numerous reference sections to be found in the 1633 Herball.
The first set of reference information is a list of the Latin names of each plant contained within the text. This section, which includes page references, shows clear signs of use. Many of the pages contain post production ink spots and there are clear wear patterns along the edges as if they had been handled indelicately.
The next section contains a list of archaic English names that were used in previous texts (Pavord, 2005). It is not an exhaustive list, but does contain page numbers for quick reference. It was supplemented with an additional two sections; one containing additional names noted by Thomas Johnson in his travels, and the other a catalog of British names sent to Johnson by fellow botanist Robert Davies. Neither of the two supplemental sections contain page references.
The final reference section is “A TABLE WHEREIN IS CONTAINED THE NATURE AND VERTUES OF ALL THE Herbs, Trees, and Plants described in this Present Herball (Gerard and Johnson, 1633, unnumbered page).” This section contains an alphabetical listing of ailments and the plants that can be used to cure them. Through consultation of this section, a reader could determine which plant or herb would best ease their current discomfort. Pavord (2005) makes the argument, echoed by previous authors, that this section was largely responsible for the success of the book with the increasingly literate middle classes. It is therefore unsurprising to see that this section, like the Latin Index before it, shows signs of regular use.
Items of Note
There are a number of important impacts to come from the publication of the 1597 Herball; one that I find interesting comes from Gerard’s refutation of a common superstition (Rohde, 1971). The mandrake plant, known best to modern readers as the plant with the deadly roots from the Harry Potter series, was a common English plant at the time of the books production. The belief, stemming from the human appearance of the root ball, that the uprooting of a mandrake can be fatal was so widely held that early herbals contained both a warning about and a solution for uprooting the plant. The suggestion was to tie the plant to a hungry dog and throw some meat out of reach. When the dog ran for the meat it would uproot the plant and the animal, not the human, would take the fatal blow. Gerard noted that he had repotted many mandrakes himself and there was no danger in doing so.
Other interesting aspects of the 1633 edition include its suggestions for medical treatments of the time. The Herball contains a page and a half section about the medical benefits of tobacco. These include brewing a pot of tobacco tea and drinking it to cure morning sickness brought on by pregnancy.
Conclusion
Both the 1597 and the 1633 editions of Gerard’s Herball were significant works in the history of English botany. While numerous charges have been leveled against Gerard’s character and ability as an author, there is no question that what he produced held a lasting place in a society that valued plants as both food and medicine. Johnson’s role as the great amender was equally as vital. Without the modifications and additions he provided before his untimely death, there is a very real possibility that the Herball would not have survived as the standard bearer of seventeenth century English herbals.
Work cited
Anderson, F. J. (1977). An Illustrated history of the herbals. New York, NY: Columbia University
Press.
Arber, A. (1938). Herbals their origin and evolution: a Chapter in the history of botany 1470-
1670. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Carter, J. & Baker, N. (2006). ABC of book collecting (8th ed.). New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll
Press.
Daiches, D. (1974) Presenting Shakespeare. In Briggs, A. (Ed.), Essays in the history of publishing
in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the house of longman 1724-1974. (pp. 61-113) London, England: Longman.
Gerard, J. (1597). the Herabll: or a Generall historie of plantes. London: John Norton.
Gerard, J. & Johnson, T (1633) the Herabll: or a Generall historie of plantes. London: John
Norton.
Harkins, D. E. (2007). The Jewel house: London and the scientific revolution. Binghamton, New
York: Vail-Ballou Press.
Middleton, B.C. (1963). A History of English craft bookbinding technique. New York: Hafner
Publishing Company.
Pavord, A. (2005). The Naming of names the search for order in the world of plants.
New York, NY: Bloomsbury
Raphael, S. (1986). Herbal. In Goode, P., Lancaster, M., Jellicoe, S., & Jellicoe, G. (Ed). The Oxford
Companion to Gardens. (pp. 249–252). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rohde, E. S. (1971). The Old English herbals. New York, NY: Dover Publications, Inc.
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