CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL, CIRCA 1950

CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL,  Nicholas Culpeper.

A COMPREHENSIVE DESCRIPTION of nearly all herbs, with their MEDICINAL PROPERTIES and directions for COMPOUNDING THE MEDICINES extracted from them.

Published by W. Foulsham and Co. No date given, but probably around 1950. Hardcover, green boards with gilt title on spine. Very Good, clean condition, with minimal foxing to page edges. No inscriptions. 23 pages of coloured plant illustrations.

The Original Culpeper's Herbal was published in 1653.

Nicholas Culpeper, botanist, herbalist, physician and astrologer, (1616 - 1654) was the son of an English clergyman  He studied at Cambridge and was then apprenticed to an apothecary. He married the daughter of a wealthy merchant and set up a pharmacy at Spitalfields, London,. Obtaining his herbal supplies from the nearby countryside, he provided his services for free, using a combination of experience, herbalism, and astrology. He believed that medicine was a public asset rather than a commercial secret, and the charges of the physicians were exorbitant, compared to the easy availability of nature's medicines. He aimed to make medical treatment more accessible to the common folk by educating them about maintaining their health through the use of natural remedies.  Culpeper was a widely read source for medical treatment in his time.