Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 402.2

PARKINSON, JOHN (1567-1650) Theatrum botanicum : The theater of plants, or An herball of a large extent : containing therein a more ample and exact history and declaration of the physicall herbs and plants that are in other authours, encreased by the accesse of many hundreds of new, rare, and strange plants from all the parts of the world ... : shewing vvithall the many errors, differences, and oversights of sundry authors that have formerly written of them ... : distributed into sundry classes or tribes, for the more easie knowledge of the many herbes of one nature and property, with the chiefe notes of Dr. Lobel, Dr. Bonham, and others inserted therein / collected by the many yeares travaile, industry, and experience in this subject, by John Parkinson Printed by Tho. Cotes 1640 [10], 1755, [3] pp.: illus. 35 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 402.1

The Theatrum describes some 3800 plants, divided into seventeen “tribes”, based partly on their medicinal qualities and partly on habitat. It describes twenty-eight new species never previously mentioned before, two of the more famous being the strawberry tree and the lady’s slipper orchid. Parkinson’s is the most complete and authoritative English herbal of its era, superior to Johnson’s edition of Gerald’s Herbal; of particular value is the almost entire incorporation of Caspar Bauhin’s Pinax, for its synonyms. John Ray termed it “the most full and comprehensive book of that subject extant” (Raven, 272), and frequently quoted from it.

See Related Record(s): 402.1

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 1822; Wellcome 4833

John Martin, M.D. Endowment