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Shown in this series of three books are the complete and original pattern hand-colored engravings plates from the artist James Sowerby's medical plants present in the great work of William Woodville: Medical botany (London : Printed and sold for the author, by James Phillips, 1790-1793). Medical Botany, William Woodville's three volume work of materia medica, was published in monthly installments between 1790 and 1793. A third edition of five volumes (the same used in our reproduction) was presented in 1832, twenty-seven years after Woodville's death. This publication added descriptions of thirty-nine new plants and was edited and revised by the eminent botanist, William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865). With this work, Woodville intended to educate medical practitioners about the plants they prescribe and improve upon preceding works by introducing new plants and more detail.
