The John Tradescants: Gardeners to the Rose and Lily Queen
This is the definitive study of John Tradescant the elder and his son, two remarkable men who traveled to new or little-known lands in search of botanical treasures—John the elder to Russia, the Near East, and North Africa, and John the younger to the new colony of Virginia. They worked for a series of eminent patrons including Robert Cecil, the Duke of Buckingham, and Charles I, for whom they supervised the creation of some of the great gardens of the period. Identifying the varieties...
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"The John Tradescants, father (1570-1638) and son (1608-1662), were two of the most remarkable and significant gardeners in British history. Working for a series of eminent patrons, including Robert Cecil, Charles I and the Duke of Buckingham, they supervised the creation of some of the greatest gardens of the seventeenth century. Their own botanic garden in Lambeth, south London, became the centre of horticultural interest in Britain. They travelled widely in pursuit of exotic plants, as far as Russia, Algiers and Virginia, and imported many exotic species now commonplace. Keen collectors, their museum of books, coins, weapons, costumes, stuffed animals and curiosities from all over the world, known as The Ark, was the first public museum in Britain and was to form the basis of the Ashmolean in Oxford after the widow of John Tradescant the younger was cheated out of her inheritance." As well as charting the lives and achievements of the Tradescants and providing a vivid picture of this age of enterprise and exploration, the book discusses the plants introduced by the pair and features substantial appendices reproducing their original plant lists, with the addition of the modern botanical names. This definitive biography is essential reading for all those interested in the history of the garden and of European plants.
List of Illustrations7Preface9Acknowledgements10Introduction131Tradescant's Early Life212Plantsman at Hatfield283The Old Monastery Garden444The Earliest Russian Flora525Off to Quell the Barbary Pirates696The Duke's Right-Hand Man737The Ark868Royal Appointment939A Burial and a Marriage9910In Place of His Father10611Adapting to the Times11412Enter Ashmole11813The Deed of Gift12614Hester Acquires a New Neighbour13415'My Rarities'14216The Museum Collection15217The 'Principal Benefactors'16318The Tradescants' Plant Introductions181App. IList of Plants Received by John Tradescant 1629-1633197App. IIPlantarum in Horto, John Tradescant's Plant List of 1634205App. IIIMusaeum Tradescantianum225References294Family Tree310Addenda313Index321
