permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

[I knew someone who owned a copy of Paradisi In Sole, W.L. Hunt, N.C.,
horticulturist, author, member RHS]

John Parkinson (botanist) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_(botanist)

Parkinson, born in 1567, spent his early life in
Yorkshire<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorkshire>.
He moved to London at the age of 14 years to become an apprentice
apothecary<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apothecary>
.[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-Telegraph:_Christmas_Reads-1>Rising
through the ranks, he eventually achieved the position of
apothecary <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apothecary> to James
I<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_I_of_England>,
and a founding member of the Worshipful Society of
Apothecaries<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worshipful_Society_of_Apothecaries>in
December 1617; until 1622 he also served on the Court of Assistants,
the
Society's governing body. In addition, he assisted the Society in obtaining
a grant of arms <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms> and in
preparing a list of all medicines that should be stocked by an apothecary.[2
]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-KCL-2>He
was on the committee that published their *Pharmacopœia
Londinensis* (*London Pharmacopœia
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmacopoeia>*) in
1618.[3]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-3>

Then, on the cusp of a new science, he became
botanist<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botanist>to Charles
I 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England>.[4]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-TAMU-4>Anna
Parkinson, a "distant descendant"
[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-Telegraph:_Christmas_Reads-1>of
Parkinson and the author of a new popular biography of him, asserts
that
in 1625 when Charles I's bride, Henrietta Maria of
France<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Maria_of_France>,
came at the age of 15 years to live at St. James's
Palace<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._James%27s_Palace>,
"he took on the role of introducing the young queen to
horticulturally<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horticulture>sophisticated
circles."
[5]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-Telegraph-5>When
he summed up his experience in writing *Paradisi
in Sole Paradisus Terrestris* (*Park-in-Sun's Terrestrial Paradise*, 1629 –
"Park-in-Sun" is a pun on "Parkinson"), with the explanatory subtitle *A
Garden of all sorts of pleasant flowers which our English ayre will permit
to be noursed up*, it was natural that he dedicated this work, which he
called his "Speaking
Garden",[2]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-KCL-2>to
the queen.
[5]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-Telegraph-5>Blanche
Henrey called the work the "earliest important treatise on
horticulture published in
England",[6]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-6>while
the Hunt catalogue described it as "a very complete picture of the
English garden at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and in such
delightful, homely, literary style that gardeners cherish it even to the
present 
day."[7]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-7>

The work, which describes the proper cultivation of plants in general, was
in three sections: the flower garden, the kitchen garden, and the orchard
garden. It did not include specific growing instructions for each type of
plant, but at the start of each main section Parkinson provided
instructions on "ordering" each type of garden, advising on situating and
laying out a garden, tools, soil improvement, grafting, planting and sowing
and the types of plants that should be included in each type of garden. It
contained illustrations of almost 800 plants in 108 full-page plates. Most
of these were original woodcuts <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodcut> made
by the German artist Christopher Switzer, but others appear to have been
copied from the works of Matthias de
Lobel<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_de_Lobel>,
Charles de 
l'Écluse<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_l%27%C3%89cluse>and
the *Hortus
Floridus*[8]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-8>of
Crispijn
van de Passe the Elder <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispijn_van_de_Passe>.
[2]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-KCL-2>

In *Paradisi in Sole* Parkinson hinted that he hoped to add a fourth
section, a garden of simples (medicinal
herbs).[2]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-KCL-2>He
delivered the promise in his other great book, the monumental
*Theatrum
Botanicum* (*The Botanical Theatre* or *Theatre of Plants*) which he
published in 1640 at the age of 73 years. The release of this work was
delayed due to the popularity of Thomas Johnson's edition of John
Gerard<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gerard>'s
book *The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes*
(1597).[9]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-9>
*Theatrum
Botanicum*, with 1,688 pages of
text,[10]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-Telegraph:_True_to_his_roots-10>describes
over 3,800 plants and was the most complete and beautifully
presented English treatise on plants of its day. It was the first work to
describe 33 native plants, 13 of which grew near Parkinson's
Middlesex<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middlesex>home. Some of these
plants, such as the Welsh
poppy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_poppy>, the Strawberry
Tree<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbutus_unedo>and the Lady's
Slipper <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady%27s_Slipper>, were very common
but had gone unnoticed or at least
unrecorded.[2]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-KCL-2>He
intended the book to be a reliable guide for apothecaries, and it
remained so for more than a hundred years after his
death.[5]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-Telegraph-5>Parkinson
presented the work to Charles I, who conferred on him the title
"*Botanicus
Regis Primarius*" ("Royal Botanist of the First Rank") though this came
without a 
salary.[10]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-Telegraph:_True_to_his_roots-10>

Parkinson actively sought new varieties of plants through his contacts
abroad and by financing William Boel's plant-hunting expedition to
Iberia<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iberian_Peninsula>and North
Africa <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Africa> in 1607–1608. He
introduced seven new plants into England and was the first gardener in
England to grow the great double yellow Spanish
daffodil<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissus_%28genus%29>
.[2]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-KCL-2>

His piety as a Roman
Catholic<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Church>is evident
from *Paradisi
in Sole*. In his introduction, Parkinson saw the botanical world as an
expression of divine creation, and believed that through gardens man could
recapture something of Eden <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_of_Eden>.
Nonetheless, a short French
poem[11]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-11>at
the foot of the title page warned the gardener against
hubris <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubris> and in having excessive regard
for his efforts, for whoever tries to compare Art with Nature and gardens
with Eden "measures the stride of the elephant by the stride of the mite
and the flight of the eagle by that of the
gnat".[2]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-KCL-2>However,
struggles between
Protestants <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestantism> and Catholics
compelled Parkinson to keep a low
profile.[5]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-Telegraph-5>He
did not attend any parish church.
[10]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-Telegraph:_True_to_his_roots-10>At
the height of his success, the English
Civil War <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Civil_War> (1642–1651) tore
his family 
apart.[5]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-Telegraph-5>

Parkinson's London house was in Ludgate
Hill<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludgate_Hill>,
but his botanical garden was in suburban Long Acre in Covent
Garden<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covent_Garden>
,[5]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-Telegraph-5>a
district of
market-gardens <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_gardening>, today close
to Trafalgar Square <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trafalgar_Square>. Not
much is known about the garden, but based on a study of the writings of
Parkinson and others, John Riddell has
suggested[12]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-12>that
it was at least 2 acres (8,100 m
2) in size and probably surrounded by a wall. Four hundred and eighty-four
types of plant are recorded as having been grown in the
garden.[2]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-KCL-2>Thomas
Johnson and the
Hampshire <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampshire> botanist, John
Goodyer<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Goodyer>,
both gathered seeds
there.[4]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-TAMU-4>

Parkinson has been called one of the most eminent gardeners of his day. He
maintained close relations with other important English and
Continental<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainland_Europe>botanists,
herbalists and
plantsmen <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantsman> such as William Coys, John
Gerard <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gerard>, John Tradescant the
elder<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tradescant_the_elder>(who was
a close friend), Vespasian Robin, and the
Frenchman <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France> Matthias de
Lobel<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_de_Lobel>(also known as
Matthias de L'Obel or Matthaeus Lobelius). Together, they
belonged to the generation that began to see extraordinary new plants
coming from the Levant <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levant> and from
Virginia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia>, broadly speaking. In his
writings, de Lobel frequently mentioned the Long Acre garden and praised
Parkinson's abilities. Parkinson, on his part, edited and presented in
*Theatrum
Botanicum* the papers of de Lobel, who had spent the final years of his
life in Highgate <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highgate> supervising the
gardens of Edward la Zouche, the 11th Baron
Zouche<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_la_Zouche,_11th_Baron_Zouche>
.[2]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parkinson_%28botanist%29#cite_note-KCL-2>