Culpeper’s Complete Herbal (Black Cover): A Compendium of Herbs and Their Uses, Annotated for Modern Herbalists, Healers, and Witches

Description of Microcosm’s Fall 2022 edition: For the last 350 years, since the reign of Elizabeth I, Nicholas Culpeper’s encyclopedic compendium of the uses and properties of medicinal herbs has been unrivaled in completeness or charm. From Adder’s Tongue to Yellow Loosestrife, each of the 316 herbs is described in detail, along with its ＂government and virtues,＂ remedies and cautions--much of which has held up remarkably well through many advancements in scientific understanding. This new edition has been updated and annotated by Dr. J.J. Pursell, author of The Herbal Apothecary. Dr. Pursell has added modern scientific names, usage notes and contraindications, and a fascinating new introduction that frames Culpeper’s remarkable life and work through a modern lens. This timely upgrade to a classic work retains the brilliance of the original while making its valuable information available to new generations of herbalists, house witches, students, and anyone who wants to know more about the plants growing in their backyard.

Nicholas Culpeper (18 October 1616 - 10 January 1654) was an English botanist, herbalist, physician and astrologer. His book, The English Physician (1652, later Complete Herbal, 1653 ff.), is a source of pharmaceutical and herbal lore of the time, and Astrological Judgement of Diseases from the Decumbiture of the Sick (1655) was one of the most detailed works on medical astrology in Early Modern Europe. (*Bio from Wikipedia)