A Shakespearean Botanical

Margaret Willes

$27.99

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Bodleian Library
10 December 2015

Literature, Poetry & Criticism; Gift books

When Falstaff calls upon the sky to rain potatoes in The Merry Wives of Windsor, he is highlighting the late sixteenth-century belief that the exotic vegetable, recently introduced to England from the Americas, was an aphrodisiac.

In Romeo and Juliet, Lady Capulet calls for quinces to make pies for the marriage feast of her daughter. This fruit was traditionally connected with weddings and fertility, as echoed by John Gerard in his herbal where he also explained that eating quinces would 'bring forth wise children, and of good understanding'.

Taking fifty quotations centring on flowers, herbs, fruit and vegetables, Margaret Willes gives these botanical references their social context to provide an intriguing and original focus on daily life in Tudor and Jacobean England, looking in particular at medicine, cookery, gardening and folklore traditions.

Exquisitely illustrated with unique hand-painted engravings from the Bodleian Library's copy of John Gerard's herbal of 1597, this book marries the beauty of Shakespeare's lines with charming contemporary renderings of the plants he described so vividly.

By: Margaret Willes
Imprint: Bodleian Library
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 184mm, Width: 118mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 390g
ISBN: 9781851244379
ISBN 10: 1851244379
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 10 December 2015
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Margaret Willes is a former publisher and author of several books including, 'Pick of the Bunch: The Story of Twelve Treasured Flowers', Bodleian Library Publishing (2009) and 'The Making of the English Gardener: Plants, Books and Inspiration 1560-1660', Yale University Press (2011).