Pomona's Harvest : An Illustrated Chronicle of Antiquarian Fruit Literature

Timber Press, Portland, first edition, 1996. Cloth, 8vo,. 433 pp, 8 pp colour plates. Over 600 entries in bibliography. A fascinating and well-illustrated study of the literature (especially European) of fruit from antiquity to the early 19th century, coupled with a detailed bibliography of over 600 fruit-related works. The author, a lifelong expert in the field, surveys the history of fruit cultivation and its literature in 17 broadly chronological chapters covering: fruit texts of antiquity and the Middle Ages; organizing fruit literature; Renaissance printings of old and new fruit texts; literary reflections of a growing fruit interest; early books with woodcuts of fruit; emergence of literary fruit fanciers; fruit literature following the thirty-years war; orchardist-authors to Louis XIV; fruit books generated by Commonwealth and Restoration; fruit - a topic of connoisseurs, clerics and gardeners; the Jeffersonian literary approach to fruit; writings about unusual and special fruit aspects; fruit literature of the enlightenment and revolution; ushering in scientific fruit literature; evolution and masters of fruit illustration; and fruit books for the bourgeoisie. This highly readable conspectus is followed by a valuable 100 page bibliography, arranged alphabetically by author, which details some 600 important books on fruit and describes their contents. With an index of names. Top edge of textblock smokestained, with minor staining to top edges of a few leaves otherwise Near Very Good in Near Very Good dustwrapper.