CULPEPER, Nicholas. The English Physitian: or an astrologo-physical discourse of the vulgar herbs of this nation. Being a compleat method of physick, whereby a man may preserve his body in health; or cure himself, being sick, for three pence charge, with such things only as grow in England, they being most fit for English bodies. London: Peter Cole. 1652.
Small folio. Contemporay full brown calf boards, twentieth century rebacking, spine with raised bands and red morocco gilt lettering piece; pp. [xii], 255, [5, index and ads], frontispiece portrait of Culpeper; extensive paper repairs to frontispiece and title page, f. G2 rougly opened with portion torn from margin affecting text, toned throughout, a very good example of an extremely rare book.
First edition. Better known in its later incarnations simply as Culpeper's Herbal, this was a highly popular work, combining astrology with herbalism to create an oddly coherent medical system. The book itself is more a digest of the work of other physicians made affordable by the omission of illustrations and accessible by a focus on medicinal plants available in England.
Culpeper was regarded as something of a quack even in his own day, but his significance in being among the first British physicians to work with the plants being discovered in the New World and in, for instance, identifying the foxglove, or digitalis, as a treatment for heart conditions should not be underestimated. Certainly, his name has become synonymous with herbal medicine to this day.
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