Herbal.- Parkinson (John) Theatricum Botanicum: The Theater of Plants, or, an Herball of a Large Extent, first edition, hand-coloured engraved title and over 2000 woodcut botanical illustrations in the text, additional printed title, lacks ?preliminary leaf (20 only of 22pp., ?blank), text 3I3 (supplied in manuscript) and index and errata at end, engraved title small tear with loss, trimmed, laid down and with a later border (partially removed), printed title timmed and laid down, hand-coloured engraved plate from another work bound in among preliminary ff., tears in 2Y4, 3I4 (with small loss), 4Q2 and 6G6, other smaller tears in numerous margins, browned, some foxing, new endpapers, modern morocco, gilt spine, pencil note on lower pastedown "1978 - This Book rebound in Oxford - RI & MW", [Blanche Henrey 286; STC 19302], folio, by Tho. Cotes, 1640; sold not subject to return.*** "Parkinson's second work, which occupied him for many years, was Theatrum botanicum (1640), with more than 1700 pages. This described some 3800 plants and showed his extensive reading of the period's authorities; of particular value was the almost entire incorporation of Caspar Bauhin's Pinax, for its synonyms. Parkinson divided plants into seventeen ‘tribes’, based partly on their medicinal qualities and partly on habitat. William How in 1655 roundly accused him of plagiarizing the work of Matthias L'Obel, but Parkinson had acknowledged his debt to him, and as one historian wrote, 'He has taken very little, for the simple reason that very little was worth taking' (Raven, 268). Certainly John Ray did not despise the work, for he termed it 'the most full and comprehensive book of that subject extant' (Raven, 272), and frequently quoted from it." - Oxford DNB.Provenance: Roger Warner (1913-2008), antiques dealer and collector.