Medicina Britannica: A Treatise on Such Physical Plants

"The copy text for the Franklin and Hall printing was the London 'Second edition' of 1747, in fact a reissue of the sheets of the original 1746 London printing with a new title-page and an added appendix which appeared also in the Phila. edition" (Miller). The noted Philadelphia botanist John Bartram (1699-1777) added his preface (pp. vxii-xx), American notes (interspersed throughout), and a second appendix (pp. 1-7) to the London text. Bartram's contributions make this one of the earliest American botanical works. Bartram describes where medicinal plants may be found in America and how they differed from the European varieties. Bartram's appendix describes a number of plants and their uses.

This work is very rare in the trade. Auction records show only four copies sold: the Brinley sale of 1880, two copies in the Pennypacker sale of 1903 (both with some damage), and one other. Besides these Rosenbach offered a copy in 1917 and Goodspeed in the 1930s. Though Hildeburn and Campbell note a variant edition of this work without "Medicina Britannica: or" at the head of the title page, but this was based on a damaged leaf that was skillfully repaired. This is the sole edition of this work printed by Franklin and Hall.

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