CHAPTER VIII 
ELIZABETHAN GARDEN LITERATURE 
“ Bring hether the Pinke and purple Cullambine 
With gelliflowers, 
Bring Coronations, and Sops in wine, 
Worne of Par amour es; 
Strowe me the ground with Daffadowndillies 
And cowslips and Kingcups and loved Lillies, 
The pretty Pawnee 
And the Chevisaunce 
Shall match with the fayre flowre Delice.” 
Spenser. 
W HILE Henry VIII. was reigning in England, great im¬ 
provements were being made on the Continent in the 
science of Botany. The Botanic Garden at Padua was founded 
in 1545, and was quickly followed by one at Pisa. But it was 
nearly a century later before England could boast of one. The 
rest of Europe was in advance also in Botanical literature. 
The Aggregator Pradieus di Simplicibus was probably printed by 
Schoeffer between 1475 -80. The \H]Ortus Sanitatis was printed 
in 1485, and was the basis of all the botanical works that 
immediately followed it. It was also the foundation of the 
English Grete Herb all. This book was printed by Peter 
Treveris, and several editions of it appeared. The first of 
these is said to have been printed in 1516, but the existence of 
a copy of this issue seems somewhat doubtful, the earliest 
edition, of which many copies are extant, being that of 1526. 
A translation of Macer’s Herbal was printed about 1530, but 
it was William Turner who produced the first really English 
Herbal. Herbal literature has perhaps more in common with 
botanical researches than gardening, but by studying the early 
Herbals much knowledge can be gained from the sidelights 
