The Herbals are listed according to authors, or, in the case of anonymous works, according to the names by which they are usually known, and all known editions are given. In cases where only one copy of an edition is known the library where it is to be found is indicated. Editions mentioned in Ames, Hazlitt, etc., but of which no copies are now known, are listed, but in each case the fact that the only mention of them is to be found in one of the above is stated. [] indicates books which are not strictly herbals, but whose omission would make any bibliography of herbals incomplete.
Bartholomæus Anglicus.
1495. [Bartholomæus Anglicus. De proprietatibus rerum.] The seventeenth book of the above—containing nineteen chapters—is on herbs. It was the first original work on plants by an English writer to be printed, and the woodcut at the beginning of the book was probably the first botanical illustration to be printed in an English book.
There is the following note on a slip in the copy of this edition in the British Museum. “This is generally considered to be the finest copy known of a work which is certainly the chef d’œuvre of Winkin de Worde’s press. The paper on which it is printed is said to be the first ever made in England for the press. See Douce, ii. 278. Dibdin, Typt. Ant. ii. 310.”
1535. Bartholomeus de Proprietatibus Rerum. Londini in Aedibus Thomæ Berthelete. Regii Impressoris.
1582. Batman uppon Barthōlome His Booke De Proprietatibus Rerum. Newly corrected, enlarged and amended: with such Additions as are requisite unto every seuerall Booke: Taken foorth of the most approved Authors, the like heretofore not translated in English. Profitable for all Estates as well for the benefite of the Mind as the Bodie. London. Imprinted by Thomas East, dwelling by Paules Wharfe.
(For foreign editions, French, Dutch and Spanish translations, see [Bibliography of Foreign Printed Herbals], p. [225].)
Banckes’s Herbal.
1525. ¶ Here begynnyth a new mater / the whiche sheweth and | treateth of ye vertues & proprytes of her- | bes / the whiche is called | an Herball | ˙.˙ | ¶ Cum gratia & priuilegio | a rege indulto |
Colophon. ¶ Imprynted by me Rycharde Banckes / dwellynge in | Lōdō / a lytel fro ye Stockes in ye Pultry / ye xxv day of | Marche. The yere of our Lorde, M.CCCCC. & XXV. Black-letter 4to.