Old English herbals 1525-1640 / by Horace Mallinson Barlow.

  • Barlow, Horace Mallinson, 1884-
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Old English herbals 1525-1640 / by Horace Mallinson Barlow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    spelling, is found to be identical. Similar variations are noticed in the two colophons. As regards the text of the later edition, I am unable to say whether the same characteristics prevail, as I have not examined the copy personally, and am indebted to the kindness of Mr. H. G. Aldis, M.A., of the Cambridge University Library, where the work is to be found, for supplying the title and colophon. Title.—CL Here begynneth a newe marer / ye whiche sheweth and | treateth of the vertues & propertes of her- | bes / the whiche is callyd | an Herball. II c. Cum priuilegio. | [Borderpieces and other ornaments in lower part of page.] Colophon.—CL Imprynted by me Rycharde Banckes / dwellynge in | Lodo / a lytell fro ye Stockes in ye Pultry / ye. xxv. daye of June. The yere of our Lorde, M.CCCCC. & XXVI. Black letter, 4to, A—l4. The work contains 206 chapters, each containing an account of a herb, and arranged in the order of the alphabet. Concerning its author- ship, nothing definite is known. According to the late Dr. Payne, it had “ no connection with any herbal printed on the Continent, and was probably an abridgment of some mediaeval English manuscript on herbs.” Manuscripts of this kind were numerous in England during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and some are still preserved in a few of the more important libraries. This subject will be referred to later in the remarks concerning Wyer’s editions. The next in order of date was probably that printed by Robert Redman. Title.— : A boke of | the propertyes | of herbes the | whiche is | called an | Herbal | | [Small woodcut.] Colophon.—Imprynted at | London in Fletestrete at | the sygne of the George by | me Robert Red- | man .'. | ►£> | [Printer's mark.'] Black letter, 8vo, A—I8, K4. The approximate date assigned in the British Museum catalogue is 1530. This cannot be far wrong. It could not have been printed earlier than 1530, and might possibly be attributed to 1531—32. “ Fletestrete at the sygne of the George ” was the address until his death of Richard Pynson (Redman’s rival printer), who died between November 18, 1529, and February 18, 1530, the dates of the making and the proving of his will. Redman succeeded Pynson at the above address, and was established there in 1530, as he began to use Pynson’s device in that year. On account of the popular nature of the herbal, we might expect it to be one of the first works to which Redman would turn his attention, although he was printing from 1525 to 1530 at another address, and