Eden: Or A Compleat Body Of Gardening. Containing Plain and Familiar Directions for Raising the several useful Products of a Garden, Fruits, Root, and Herbage... together with The Culture of all Kinds of Flower, according to the Methods of the English, French, and Dutch Florists. And. The knowledge of Curious Plants, after the System of Linnaeus. With Figures and Descriptions of the Flowers and plants proper for a Garden, Includingthe Care and Culture of the Pleasure-Garden… Compiled And Digested From The Papers Of The Late Celebrated Mr Hale

Book Description

London: : Printed for T. Osborne, T. Tyre, S. Crowder, H. Woodgate, , [1756]-1757. . Half Calf. Very Good +. 1st Edition. Folio (42 x 26 cm). Original marble boards with new calf spine. Collation: [2] I-iii, iv, I ii, [1] 2-174 + 60 engraved plates and engraved frontispiece by Grignio after Wale. It is entitled: “The Genius of Botany explaining to the gardener the characters of plats, while Flora & Pomona offer him their choicest products as rewards of his labour” (Henrey II, p. 95). The binding has been expertly repaired. Text and plates in very good condition. There are a few manuscript notes in the margins of a few leaves, particularly 6K2. This is a very bright and clean complete copy. Johnston provides a good analysis of this work: “Despite the celebrity implied by the title page, nothing appears to be known about Thomas Hale except that his papers are also supposed to be the source of The comleat body of husbandry published in 1756. It is believed that Hill was actually responsible for the work since the dedication of the present edition bears his signature and his name stands alone as author in the 1773 edition. The work is a gardener’s calendar beginning with the last week in August of one year and running through the last week of October in the second year. According to Miss Henrey, it was published in 60 numbers between August 28, 1756, and November 8, 1757. Each calendar section is divided into four main parts detailing what should be done during that period in 1. the flower garden, 2. The nursery, 3. the fruit garden, and 4. the kitchen garden… 13 plates are signed by Hill as engraver, 12 of these after his own drawings, and the other after a painting by Vanhuysum. Boyce engraved four plates and C. Edwards and Darley engraved another after drawings by William H. Camden Edwards. Ed. Alton, B. Cole, and Jan Caspar Philips are each responsible for one engraving. A number of engravings are copied from van de Pass’s Hortus Floridus. (Cleveland Herbal 442) (Dunthorne 129; Henrey 776; Hunt 559; Nissen BBI 880; Stafleu TL2 2770).

Not sure what some of these terms mean? Look it up in our glossary.