EVELYN, John. Sylva, Or a Discourse of Forest-Trees … Terra, a Philosophical Essay of Earth … which is annexed Pomona: Or, an Appendix concerning Fruit-Trees in relation to Cider … Also Kalendarium Hortense … In this Third Edition much Inlarged, and Impr…

‘We Had Better Be without Gold, than without Timber’

EVELYN, John. Sylva, Or a Discourse of Forest-Trees … Terra, a Philosophical Essay of Earth … which is annexed Pomona: Or, an Appendix concerning Fruit-Trees in relation to Cider … Also Kalendarium Hortense … In this Third Edition much Inlarged, and Improved. London: John Martyn. 1679.

Folio. Contemporary speckled calf, modern rebacking and recornering by Blair Jeary of Stamford with original gilt red morocco lettering-piece relaid, spine ruled and decorated in gilt, edges speckled red; pp. [70], 412; 38, [2 (errata, blank)]; bound without initial blank; 5 copper engravings in the text (of which one full-page), woodcut illustration to p. 399, woodcut initials; general title and title of Kalendarium printed in red and black; boards lightly rubbed; light marginal dampstaining to first 14 ff. (heavier to title), variable browning, occasional light spotting; a very good copy; scattered early annotations and underlining.

Third edition of this work on trees and timber, the last printed in Evelyn’s lifetime. It was also the last before the title was changed to Silva and the first to include the geological treatise Terra.

Diarist, government official, landowner, and gardener John Evelyn (1620–1706) was a founding member of the Royal Society, established in 1660 and granted a Royal Charter with the right to publish in 1662. The 1664 first edition of Sylva – first delivered as a paper to the Royal Society – was the first book published by the Royal Society under its new charter, followed in 1665 by Hooke’s Micrographia.

Sylva was born out of a Royal Society commission to investigate the terrible shortage of wood for the Navy’s shipbuilding programme. Evelyn’s estate, Sayes Court in Deptford, was next to the naval dockyard, from where he was able to take receipt of exotic plant specimens from around the world. It also made him uniquely placed to apply his agricultural knowledge to the observations gained from his maritime neighbours. The lack of timber was caused by the failure to replant trees being felled to fuel the growing glass and iron industries.

Evelyn’s response balanced an in-depth guide to the propagation of trees with a polemic on the importance of forestry to the future of the nation: ‘We had better be without Gold, than without Timber’ (p. 197). His campaign succeeded as wealthy landowners across England – including King Charles II, to whom the book was dedicated – followed his advice of, for example, growing grand avenues of oak trees.

The appearance of the British landscape, especially on the great estates, was profoundly influenced by Evelyn’s work, and the Navy once again had timber for its ships, cementing Evelyn’s prestige as well as that of the Royal Society. One more edition edited by Evelyn himself, retitled Silva to bring the spelling into line with the standard Latin, was printed just after his death in 1706, and it was revived in a series of lavishly illustrated editions by Alexander Hunter between 1776 and 1825. In this edition it is presented alongside Terra, originally published by the Royal Society in 1676 as A Philosophical Discourse of Earth, which is a pioneering analysis of the characteristics of different soils, drawing on Evelyn’s experience as a gardener. This expertise is also shown in Pomona and Kalendariurm Hortense, both first published as appendices to Sylva in the 1664 edition. Pomona is an extensive collection of essays on cider making, while the Kalendarium takes the gentleman gardener through the entire gardening year. The works taken together were intended by the Royal Society to promote domestic agriculture just as Sylva was aimed at the public realm.

ESTC R5987; Keynes 47.

SKU: 2126354