The gardeners dictionary : containing the methods of cultivating and improving the kitchen, fruit and flower garden; as also the physick garden, wilderness, conservatory and vineyard according to the practice of the most experienced gardeners of the present age

London: Printed for the Author and sold by C. Rivington, 1731. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Very Good. Large 4to, xvi + 4 pages subscribers names, unpaginated pp860 with 5 b/w engravings (including frontis) and other charts and illustrations throughout. Hardcover no dust jacket. Rebound in brown cloth with 5 raised bands to spine and original blind stamped leather binding re-laid to boards in good condition with some shelf wear and rubbing to tips and edges of boards. Inside in very good clean condition with no foxing or aging to pages, with 10 pages that have old tape repairs to edges. In 1730 Philip Miller was asked by Nathan Bailey, the English lexicographer, to write the botanical entries for the Dictionarium Britannicum. With this prior experience Miller decided to produce his own Gardeners Dictionary (1731), a work that rivaled Bailey's in size, and covered all aspects of gardening (in kitchen- and flower-garden, orchard, greenhouse, and tree plantations), together with descriptions of plants, and essays on horticultural 'science'. Miller's Gardeners Dictionary (1731) was the first comprehensive garden dictionary in English, and was written just before he became Curator of the Chelsea Physic Garden. It was the most influential gardening book of the 18th century, with readership aimed at the gentry and their head gardeners, clergy, academics and fellow members of the Royal Society. Eight up-dated editions were published before Miller's death in 1771. An exceptional copy of this scarce 1st Edition.