Folio (334 x 204 mm). Woodcut title with a Garden of Eden scene signed "A Switzer" (remargined with minor losses); woodcut portrait; one full-page garden design woodcut; 109 full-page woodcuts, one small orchard plan woodcut; one small woodcut of tools and methods of grafting. (Index leaves laid in at end, a few leaves supplied, a few leaves remargined or repaired, some browning or soiling). Contemporary blind-tooled calf gilt, red morocco lettering-piece gilt (rebacked, some light wear). 

FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST IMPORTANT ENGLISH TREATISE ON HORTICULTURE, PRESUMABLY SIGNED BY JOHN PARKINSON

Parkinson was apothecary to James I, and later Royal Botanist to Charles I. He was a founding member of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in December 1617. One of the most eminent gardeners of the day, he kept a botanical garden at Long Acre in Covent Garden, close to present-day Trafalgar Square.  The presumed signatures of Parkinson occur on the verso of the engraved title (along with the note "Natury Secretarie"), and on the dedication leaf. 

Parkinson commissioned specially cut woodblocks copied from drawings in other Latin herbals for his work, rather than rely on specialist printers who owned a set of illustrations to be used in multiple works.  "Since each block was the size of a full page and contained images of up to ten plants, the entire block had to be cut again if there were any mistakes...His books of plants would be the last to appear with wooden cuts, soon to be replaced by copperplate engravings...Yet the illustrations in the Paradisus are part of its charms" (A. Parkinson Nature's Alchemist, p.105). his work remains one of the best single sources of information on early 17th-century gardening practices and styles in England, "in such a delightful, homey style that gardeners cherish it to the present day" (Hunt).  Henrey 282; Hunt 215; Nissen BBI 1489; Pritzel 6933.