Culpeper's Complete Herbal & English Physician

by Nicholas Culpeper

Book Overview

Nicholas Culpeper was a seventeenth-century English botanist, herbalist, physician, and astrologer. Published over 350 years ago as a practical health guide, The Complete Herbal (1653), is still the most complete and definitive herbal available today. It contains a rich store of pharmaceutical and herbal knowledge, including herbs and where to find them, herb preparation, plasters, and much more.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1557090807
• ISBN13: 9781557090805
• Release Date: December 2007
• Publisher: Applewood Books
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.9" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Great person to buy from

I ordered this item for my father in law. I asked that it be shipped to him. The item was returned to the seller and she promptly refunded my money back with out my even knowing!!! THAT IS WHAT I CALL GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE.

17th Century Herbal Remedies

This book played an important and yet controversial role between formal medicine and herbalism. Nicholas Culpeper(1616-1654) studied medicine at Cambridge, but gave up his studies when his fiancée was killed in a thunderstorm. Culpeper eventually set up his own healing practice near London. He was moved by the suffering of the poor and decided to help the them by selling medicines to them at a very cheap price and encouraged them to use local species. In the 17th century, the physicians were leaning more toward non-botanical medications such as mercury, arsenic iron and sulfur etc. It is most likely that the physicians of that day resented Culpeper's popularity and considered him a threat, since be made their secrets accessible to the common person--therefore they tried to discredit him. The people of England due to his genuine concern for them loved Culpeper. The colonist took his herbal to the New World as a medical reference and guide of when to plant and harvest these medical plants. His mistake was he threatening the near monopoly on medical knowledge that the College of Physicians enjoyed. This book contains a comprehensive description of nearly all herbs along with descriptions of their medicinal properties and instructions on preparing and using them to treat many different illnesses. It also included precise botanical illustrations. For 300 years this book was the standard for herbal remedies.

Culpeper's Complete Herbal

If you have an interest in Herbs and their culinary, mystic and medicinal usages, both modern and historical, then this IS the book for you. It is beautifully illustrated and text is written in both medieval English and modern English.Each plant (it includes some fruits and trees as well) is pictured and the habitat is described. Along with each description is any affinity to a ruling planet as well.My only critisism is that it contains a great deal of jargon, you will need to read up on herbalism per se to understand how to make tinctures etc. That said the book is a reference to the plants not the art.I have had my (well thumbed copy)for over 10 years now and it is a constant companion to my interests in the natural power of the Earth and her fruits.

a classic book for the student of holistic health!

This is a great book with wonderful color illustrations by one of the master practitioners of our Western Medical Tradition. This is one of the few books that identifies each herb with its planet association. This relationship is an important element to an holistic approach to health. "As above so below". "

An Valuable and Even Charming Reference for Herbs

It is rare to find an herbal reference guide to herbs so charmingly and exactly illustrated. Gardeners will find the illustrations helpful to see what less familiar herbs look like. But Culpeper's Color Herbal offers much more. Each herb is listed individually with a color illustration, a description, other information, specific exerpts from 16th century herbalist Nicholas Culpepper, and description of modern medicinal uses. This allows the reader, or the herbalist, the unique opportunity to compare traditional uses of the past with modern uses and current scientific research on active compounds. It is interesting to see which herbs science has proven to have medicinal value similar to the old uses. I was surprised, for instance, to find that Culpepper's old remedy for bronchitis, Colt's Foot (a familiar garden weed), is actually the source for a substance used in modern over the counter cough remedies! I was even more surprised when an Eyebright solution stopped a case of conjunctivitis - my first venture into herbal treatments! Descriptions are given for which parts of the herbs are useful medicinally. Appendixes I have not seen elsewhere provide 1) definitions of old time ailments, like the agues, for which old Culpepper prescribed, 2) a listing by ailment which herbs old Cullpepper used for which ailments and 3)a modern listing by ailment of which herbs are considered useful now. All of this information is presented extremely clearly and concisely - about half a page is devoted to each herb - making it an easy reference in a world of complicated herbals. I would not say this is THE total, definitive guide to herbs. It IS an herbal to come back to time and again in my library for reference and just plain pleasure. I recommend it for beginner through intermediate herbalist, those who want to venture into / expand their herb garden into specifics, the history lover and to the curious. A keeper.