Paradisi in sole paradisus terrestris.

An attractive copy of Parkinson's first and best-loved book, the first work published on English gardening, with descriptions of almost 1000 plants.

'The Paradisus is divided into three parts dealing respectively with the flower garden, the kitchen garden, and the orchard ... Regarding the section on flowers, Parkinson confesses that he had seen many divers books on flowers but no work devoted exclusively to the description of plants suitable for 'a garden of delight and pleasure'. He therefore undertook the Paradisus in which he here 'selected and set forth a garden of all the chiefest for choyce, and fairest for shew, from among all the severall tribes and kindreds of natures beauty'. Part of the charm of the Paradisus lies in the author's love of plants and his sensibility of their beauty, feeling strongly reflected throughout his writing. His book is of interest and value as a record of the state horticulture in England at the beginning of the seventeenth century' (Henrey).

'Parkinson (1566 7–1650), apothecary and herbalist, was apprenticed from Christmas 1585 for eight years to a London apothecary, Francis Slater, a member of the Grocers' Company; he gained his freedom in 1593. Like many apothecaries in the Grocers' Company, Parkinson felt the importance of his work was given insufficient recognition and that he and others had not enough power within the company. Consequently he supported those who wished to form their own separate company, and joined the Society of Apothecaries when it was established in December 1617; he was a member of its first court of assistants.

Parkinson became so well respected in his profession that he was one of the five apothecaries who were consulted by the College of Physicians during the compilation of the first Pharmacopoeia Londinensis. He was also actively involved in obtaining for the new society a grant of arms and in drawing up a schedule of all medicines which should be stocked by an apothecary. In August 1620 he was elected junior warden, but he was not interested in climbing higher up the administrative tree and in the new year of 1622 he asked for permission to leave the court of assistants. In view of the help he had given to the Society of Apothecaries this was, most unusually, granted.

This left Parkinson free not only from committees but also to work at what was now his consuming interest—that of tending his garden in Long Acre, whence he had moved from Ludgate Hill some years earlier' (ODNB).