"Herbalist to King Charles I, John Parkinson (1567-1650) was a master apothecary, herbalist, and gardener. Famous in his own lifetime for his influential books, his magnum opus, the Theatrum Botanicum, was published in 1640 and ran to 1,766 large pages. The sheer scope and size was perhaps to prove the book's downfall, because while it was much revered--and plagiarized--it was never reprinted and, centuries later, has attained the status of an extremely rare and valuable book ... Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal have ... combined selections from Parkinson's book with their own modern commentary on how each plant is used today"--Back cover.