This publication emerges from Uriel Orlow's Theatrum Botanicum (2015-18), a multi-faceted project encompassing film, sound, photography, and installation, which looks to the botanical world as a stage for politics. Working from the dual vantage points of South Africa and Europe, the project considers plants as both witnesses to, and dynamic agents in, history. It links nature and humans, rural and cosmopolitan medicine, tradition and modernity across different geographies, histories, and systems of knowledge--exploring the variety of curative, spiritual, and economic powers of plants. The project addresses "botanical nationalism" and "flower diplomacy" during apartheid; plant migration; the role and legacies of the imperial classification and naming of plants; bioprospecting and biopiracy; and the garden planted by Nelson Mandela and his fellow inmates at Robben Island prison. This publication is made up of two intertwining books: one documents the works of Theatrum Botanicum, including the scripts for two films; the second is a compendium of brief, commissioned essays that aims to offer an accessible snapshot of the complex and multifaceted issues that inform and are raised by the artworks. The independent but interrelated essays, which either speak directly to the artworks or follow lines of inquiry alongside them, cover perspectives from postcolonial cultural studies; art criticism and art history; natural history, botany (including ethnobotany and economic botany), and conservation; jurisprudence and critical legal studies; and critical race studies.

A lost classic of Western herbalism—rediscovered and restored with 200 full-color images. 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. Parkinson was writing at a time when Western herbalism was at its zenith, and his skills as a gardener (from his grounds in Covent Garden) combined perfectly with his passion for science, observation, and historical scholarship. In the The Herbalist’s Bible, Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal have beautifully combined selections from Parkinson’s book with their own modern commentary on how each plant is used today to create a truly one-of-a-kind, comprehensive collection of herbal information old and new. Parkinson’s clear and lively description of a chosen plant’s “vertues” or healing properties side-by-side with the editors’ notes—including copious herbal recipes—make this the perfect book for students and practitioners of herbalism, historians, and gardeners, all of whom will welcome this restoration of Parkinson’s lost classic.

A beautifully illustrated, informative, and engaging guide to 100 plants used for medicinal purposes. Remedies derived from plants are the world's oldest medicines. Used extensively in China, India, and many African countries, herbal medicine has become increasingly popular in the West along with other holistic and alternative therapies. Botanicum Medicinale offers a modern guide to 100 medicinal plants, featuring beautiful, full-color botanical illustrations and informative, engaging text. Each entry describes the plant's classification and habitat, traditional and current medicinal uses, and an interesting fact or two. Readers will learn, for example, that absinthe, the highly alcoholic, vividly green potable, was traditionally flavored with bitter wormwood (Artemesia absinthium); that cannabis may have been used by Queen Victoria for menstrual pain; and that willow bark contains a chemical similar to aspirin. Detailed and striking artwork depicts each plant. The entries are arranged alphabetically—from Adonis vernalis (a perennial in the buttercup family) to Vinca minor (also known as the common periwinkle). The 100 plants featured in the book all have a long history of medicinal use or are the subject of new medical research. Many treat a range of conditions, from insomnia to indigestion. Some plants are lovely enough to be in a bridal bouquet; others are considered weeds. Cross-reference features at the end of the book connect specific medical conditions and the plants used to treat them.

"To All Ingeniously Elaborate Students, In the most Divine Mysteries of Hermetique Learning." Or so British politician and Freemason ELIAS ASHMOLE (1617-1692) dedicated this curious artifact of the esoteric and spiritual philosophy of alchemy. An avid collector of antiquaries and other oddities (they were, upon his death, bequeathed to Oxford University, which used them to found the Ashmolean Museum), Ashmole counted among his treasures volumes of metaphysical poems available only in private, and fiercely guarded, manuscripts. In 1652, though, he collected many of these writings in this hefty tome, annotated with his own comments. Included are: . "The Ordinall of Alchimy" by Thomas Norton . "The Compound of Alchymie" by Sir George Ripley . "Liber Patris Sapientiae" . "The Tale of the Chanons Yeoman" by Geoffry Chaucer . "The Worke of John Dastin" . "The Hunting of the Greene Lyon" by the Viccar of Malden . "Bloomsfields Blossoms: Or, The Campe of Philosophy" . "Sir Ed Kelley Concerning the Philosopher's Stone" . and much more. Once a resource for such natural philosophers as Isaac Newton, the Theatrum Chemicum Brittannicum remains an astonishing album of arcania.