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3 volumes, 4to (23.5 x 19 cm.): vol. I: xiv, 182, [2] pages, 65 leaves of plates; vol. II: xii, 183-368, [2] pages, 66-135 leaves of plates; vol. III: viii, 369-578, xii pages, 136-210 leaves of plates (lacking plate 158); total of 209 (of 210) numbered hand-colored engravings of plants, flowers, and trees by James Sowerby (identified as the artist on the preface to vol. I, p. vi). All three volumes uniformly bound in full contemporary speckled calf, gilt-tooled labels on the spines; some protective tissue overlays with spots, not affecting the plates or text. PROVENANCE: contemporary ink signature of "Wm Paine MD" on title page of all three volumes, possibly Dr. William Paine (1750-1833), a native of Worcester, Massachusetts, who was a loyalist during the Revolutionary War, serving as physician to British forces in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Paine returned to Massachusetts after the war and and became active in civic life, becoming an honorary member of the Massachusetts Medical Society and a founding member of the American Antiquarian Society. FIRST EDITION SET OF WOODVILLE S INFLUENTIAL PHARMACOLOGICAL WORK, WITH HAND-COLORED ENGRAVINGS BY JAMES SOWERBY. First compiled by William Woodville (1752-1805), a Quaker physician and botanist, first compiled this work and issued in monthly parts from 1790 to 1795 (cf. Henrey). Medical Botany remained the standard illustrated book of plants of the British pharmacopoeia until the publication of Bentley and Trimen s Medicinal Plants in 1875-1880. In 1795 Woodville issued another volume, A Supplement to Medical Botany (lacking in this set), and Dr. William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865), who was responsible for Royal Botanic Gardens, edited and expanded the work in 1832. REFERENCES: ESTC T84361; Henrey 1521-1522; Hunt 716; Johnston, Cleveland Herbal, Botanical and Horticultural Collections (1992), 603; Nissen, BBI 2183; Pritzel 10398; Stafleu/Cowan 18727. Seller Inventory # 72JFP030
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