GRETE HERBAL.

      - London, Peter Treveris, 1526. FIRST EDITION, sm. Folio. ff. 158 of 174 ll. A2, 5, B-Z6, Aa-Bb6, Dd-Ee6, lacking t-p and prelims (6 ll.), 4 ll. from gathering A, and the whole of Cc. Double column black letter, elaborate woodcut initials with flourishes and human and animal figures, some unusually large; 316 c. 6 x 6.5cm woodcut illustrations, mostly of medicinal plants, distillery processes, pharmaceutical equipment and minerals, 4 charming white on black borders depicting the return from the staghunt, or wild men pursued by fire-breathing dragon, wild men also repeated on elaborate naturalist border surrounding Treveris' device on last. Minor stain, mostly marginal to head of a few ll, couple of lower outer corners torn affecting the odd letter, several ll. in gatherings A, T, V, Y & Dd frayed and repaired at foreedge sometimes affecting text, printer's ink a bit smudged on one cut, a little browning and occasional small blemish. A remarkably complete and good copy in C19 vellum over boards, presentation bookplate of the Hartland library, Gloucestershire 1936 on fly, C17 autograph of John Colins in one lower margin, C17 "Thomas Woodruff not his book" "Hertes Tonge" (referring to picture beneath) in upper, extensive bibliographical notes on feps. A substantially complete copy of the first edition of Treveris' herbal, "the most famous of all the early printed herbals" (Rohde, 65), the only important botanical work printed in Henrician England and the first to contain illustrations. Like all illustrated books from the earliest English presses, it is now extremely rare. It was largely based upon Le grant Herbier (Paris: Jacques Nyverd, 1520 - Renouard III, 124); both works owe much to the Herbarius zu Teutsch (Mainz 1485). The Grete Herball contains remedies for everything from melancholy to baldness, invoking God and the Virgin Mary alongside Diana and the Centaurs. It is profoundly utilitarian in approach, and designed to be accessible to a relatively broad public, as may be seen from its publication in English rather than Latin; accordingly copies have always suffered heavy use. The Herball "contains much that is curious, especially in relation to medical matters. Bathing was evidently regarded as a strange fad. Water drinking seems to have been thought almost equally pernicious" (Arber, Herbalis, 42). The descriptions of less common remedies, such as the lodestone, often incorporate vivid travellers' tales. The author displays pride and integrity in his profession, warning against peddlers of harmful fake remedies. The book contains a glossary, and a self-consciously useful index: "There after followeth a table very utyll and profytable for them that desyre to fynde quyckely a remedy agaynst all maner of dyseases & they be marked by the letters of the A.B.C. in every chapter"."The most famous production of Treveris's press is the Grete herball to modern eyes one of the most satisfactory examples of early English book illustration. The plants, well drawn in outline with only a touch of shading here and there, decorate the two column folio pages at the same time that they supplement the text" (Hodnett, 63; cf 452-455, Figs. 217, 218). The work, one of the earliest English illustrated books, contained 481 splendid small illustrations, the record for an English press. As well as depictions of the plants discussed - some of which, such as the date palm, were presumably little known in England - there also appear illustrations of such activities as examining a patient, grinding pharmaceutical products and operating a lime kiln. STC 13176 (Bodleian, NLS & Yale copies imperfect); Lowndes III, 1047; Wellcome I, 3114; Ames III, 32-33; Henrey 15-18; Arber, Herbals, 40-45; Rohde, The Old English Herbals, 65-74, and cat. no. 59 "complete copies are extremely rare" (1925). L1032