Item ID: 6549 The new and admirable Arte of setting of Corne: with all the necessaries Tooles and other Circumstances belonging to the same: the particular titles whereof, are set down in the Page following. Hugh PLAT, Sir, or PLATT or PLATTE.

One of Plat’s Rarest Books

The new and admirable Arte of setting of Corne: with all the necessaries Tooles and other Circumstances belonging to the same: the particular titles whereof, are set down in the Page following.

Fine woodcut vignette on title (see below). [32] pp. Small 4to, early 20th-cent. calf, double gilt fillet round sides, a.e.g. London: P. Short, 1600.

First edition and of the greatest rarity, this is the first of three issues as described by ESTC (which locates only two copies of all the issues in North America). “Sir Hugh Platt (1552-1608), held by Richard Weston to be ‘the most ingenious husbandman of the age he lived in’…was admitted at Lincoln’s Inn. Much of his life was devoted to literary work and to the study of husbandry and gardening. He was also interested in all kinds of inventions and experiments…In 1600 appeared Platt’s New and admirable arte of setting of corne, a treatise in which this author advocates growing corn by setting the seed at regular distances apart, the usual method of sowing corn at that time being by broadcast. On the title-page of this small quarto volume is a woodcut of a growing plant of corn, over which is a spade lying in a scroll bearing the words ‘Adam’s toole revived’.”–Henrey, I, p. 155 & no. 301.

The book is divided into eight chapters and is signed by Plat at end.

Fine copy. Natural marginal paper flaw to D2 carefully repaired.

❧ ESTC S122434. Fussell, I, p. 15–“Deals with the then new idea of setting corn seed at equal distances apart, both in the row and between the rows, so that seed might be conserved and the crop enhanced.” McDonald, Agricultural Writers, from Sir Walter of Henley to Arthur Young, 1200-1800, p. 58.

Price: $18,500.00

Item ID: 6549

See all items in Agriculture, Bridges
See all items by , ,