A Book of the Arte and manner how to Plant and Graffe all sorts of Trees, how to set Stones and sow Pepins, to make wilde Trees to graffe on, as also remedies and medecines. With diuers other new practises, by one of the Abbey of S. Vincent in France, practised with his own hands, devided into vij. Chapters, as heereafter more plainely shall appeare, with an addition in the end of this booke, of certain Dutch practises, set foorth and Englished by Leonard Mascall
London: T. Este for Thomas Wight, 1599.
Octavo in 4s (7 ¼” x 5 ¼”, 184mm x 134mm): binder’s blank, A-O4 P4(–P4), binder’s blank [$3 signed; C: 1, 4, 2, 3]. 59 leaves, pp. [24] (title, to the reader, 5pp. epistle, blank, 2pp. to the reader, 8pp. table, plate of tools, blank, 4pp. “exhortation to the Planter and Graffer”), 1-84, [10] (10pp. index (“Table”)). With a woodcut plate and several head- and tail-pieces.
Bound in XIXc calf by Rivière & Son (signed at the lower edge of the verso of the first free end-paper). Double blind fillet border with rosettes at the corner, with a double blind fillet set in an inch from the spine-edge border. On the spine, two raised bands. Title gilt to red morocco in the second panel. Marbled end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt.
Rubbing to the edges. Lacking final blank. Some tanning throughout but altogether a nice copy. A few old and faint pencil manicules in the margins. On the recto of the second free end-paper, a beautifully-written gift inscription: “Robert Huey/ from/ Geo C Thomas/ Christmas/ 1906”
Leonard Mascall (d. 1589) is, properly, a translator-editor; Brossard’s 1530’s (pace Henrey) L’art et maniere de semer et faire pepinieres... is the foundation of the text. The translation, however, is the first English orchard manual. Although Mascall is sometimes credited with introducing the pippin apple (the most famous modern cultivar being Cox’s orange pippin) to England, there is evidence for its introduction as early as 1500.
The first edition in English appeared in 1569 (per the Stationer’s Register), and was published again in 1572, 1575, 1582, 1590 and 1596 before our edition; it would continue to be republished until 1656. This multiplication of editions speaks to the demand for works in English on the practical aspects of gardening, including grafting, ringing and other means of management, especially of fruit trees.
George C. Thomas (1873–1932) was a botanist better known as a golf-course architect; he designed the original Whitemarsh Valley Country Club course outside of Philadelphia, and published the seminal work on the subject, Golf Course Architecture in America (1926). His twin passion was roses, and his most successful cultivar was “Dr. Huey,” named for his great friend Dr. Robert Huey, a Philadelphia Civil War veteran who had been a prisoner of war. Huey set off off Thomas’s passion for roses with a gift of rose-bushes in 1905; by 1912 Thomas was breeding and developing a great many hybrids. This volume commemorates that vital connection in the history of American roses.
Henrey I:22, ESTC S2810.
Item #6JLR0164
Price: $6,250