HERB - Period Gardening books was Re: Paradisi in Sole

[Jenne Heise]

> Jadwiga Zajaczkowa gave us a nice evaluation of the work, and certainly 
> Paradisi in Sole is the first book on flower gardening.  But there are at 
> least two fully period works on gardening.   Of these the most 
> approachable, and actually useful has been recently edited and reprinted:
> Hill, Thomas: The Gardener's Labyrinth by Thomas Hill, edited by
Richard
> Mabey, Oxford University Press, 1987. [first published in 1577, although
> the text which has been reproduced is the 1652 edition.] 

Unfortunately, just so you know... Gardener's Labryrinth is out of print.
(Which is why I haven't posted a review of it, because I was hoping to get
a copy before y'all raided the used booksellers for the affordable copies.
Note that Garland press did a reprint of it also, in 1992, and that's out
of print too. The edition that I've seen is the Oxford University press,
and it's excellent, having additional illustrations, both color and black
and white, from books and paintings from about 1400 to about 1799. Also
included is a glossary that explains the various confusing words (Hill
uses 'battle' for instance, as in 'battle field', to mean _fertile_.)
However, there's a sad lack of footnotes, so you may want to get one of
the older secondary sources to keep on hand to explain the sources that
Hill is quoting.
 
It differs from 'modern' gardening books, in that the first part (the part
published in 1577) doesn't divide up information by plant. The second part
(which was definitely written after 1600) covers how to prepare the ground
for each different type of plant.

> The second one tends to be a bit harder to find and to read.  It is written 
> in sometimes rather forced rhyming couplets!  Tusser gives us pointers on 
> may things in addition to plants, (such as the duties of a good-wife.)  And 
> he reorganized and republished his work a number or times with slightly 
> different titles.
> Tusser, Thomas: Fiue Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. Edited (with 
> introduction, notes, and glossary) by W. Payne, Esq., and Sidney J. 
> Herrtage, ESQ., B.A., Trübner & Co., London, 1878  [1557, multiple editions 
> were produced]

This is one of the classics of early agricultural writing. It is heavy
going, not just because of the rhyming couplets but because of the way it
is laid out, as a calendar for the year. But it's very worth looking at.

The other book by him that I've been able to lay hands on is:  _Thomas
Tusser, 1557 floruit, his Good points of husbandry_, collated and edited
by Dorothy Hartley. (London, Country life limited, [1931]). "In this 1931
reprint the text of the 1571 edition has been followed. Verses from other
editions have been inserted when they show changes. The original edition,
1557, with title "A hundreth good pointes of husbandrie", is reproduced in
facsimile (p. 25-48)." 
A much smaller book, of course.

By the way, Worldcat shows that Oxford University Press came out with an
edition of the _Five hundred points of good husbandry _ in 1984, also, but
I can'd find any good library holdings of it.

Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
	"You wake up to realize your only friend... has never been 
         yourself or anyone who cared in the end..." -- Jewel Kilcher

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