Nicholas Culpeper’s The Complete Herbal – Thomas Kelly Edition of 1750
In 1750, London printer Thomas Kelly issued an illustrated edition of Nicholas Culpeper’s The Complete Herbal: To Which Is Now Added, Upwards of One Hundred Additional Herbs — a book that, by then, had already been in circulation for nearly a century. Kelly’s edition included a series of engraved plates that gave readers visual access to the medicinal plants described in the text. It was not just a medical manual; it was a bridge between learned medicine, folk practice, and the common household.
Who Was Nicholas Culpeper?
Nicholas Culpeper (1616–1654) was an English physician, herbalist, and astrologer. Born into a family of modest means, he trained briefly at Cambridge before abandoning a formal clerical path. Instead, he apprenticed with an apothecary in London, where he gained firsthand knowledge of medical practice and herbal remedies.
Culpeper lived during a period of deep social and medical inequality. The practice of medicine was dominated by the College of Physicians, whose treatments were expensive and inaccessible to common people. Motivated by compassion, reformist zeal, and sometimes outright defiance, Culpeper sought to make medical knowledge freely available. He translated the Pharmacopoeia Londinensis — the official Latin text of the College — into English so that ordinary men and women could read it. This act, considered radical (and even seditious) in its time, democratized medicine.
Why Did He Write The Complete Herbal?
Culpeper’s Herbal, first published in 1653, combined descriptions of English plants with their medicinal virtues, astrological correspondences, and recipes for use. He believed that God had provided a remedy for every human ailment in nature and that access to these remedies should not be limited to the wealthy.
By writing in plain English and including plants readily found in fields, gardens, and hedgerows, Culpeper made medicine practical for everyday people. The Thomas Kelly edition of 1750 preserved this mission while adding engraved illustrations, making the book even more approachable for readers who needed to identify herbs in the wild.
Culpeper’s Influence in Botany and Medicine
Culpeper’s work spread widely across Britain, Europe, and eventually the American colonies. Farmers, midwives, country healers, and householders relied on his Herbal as a reference book. Its mixture of folklore, observation, and prescription influenced folk medicine well into the 19th century.
Botanically, Culpeper encouraged the careful observation of native plants. Medically, he insisted that healing was not the sole property of elites but a communal inheritance. His integration of astrology into medicine may seem quaint to modern readers, but in his day it was part of a larger worldview in which the cosmos and the body were deeply connected.
Culpeper’s Relevance Today
Four centuries later, Culpeper remains a cultural touchstone. His work speaks to:
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Accessibility: Making medicine understandable and affordable.
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Holism: Treating the patient as a whole person rather than a set of symptoms.
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Natural Remedies: Renewed interest in herbalism and plant-based medicine.
Modern science has indeed validated some of his observations. For example:
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Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), which Culpeper recommended for certain heart conditions, later gave rise to the drug digitalis.
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Willow bark, a traditional remedy for fevers and pain, became the basis for aspirin.
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Milk thistle (Silybum marianum), which Culpeper prescribed for liver complaints, has shown promise in modern hepatology.
Not all of Culpeper’s prescriptions hold up under scrutiny, and some of his recommended herbs (like hemlock and henbane) are dangerously toxic. Yet his belief that many common plants contain genuine healing properties has proven true in case after case.
Will Modern Medicine Return to Culpeper?
While medicine today rests on clinical trials and biochemistry rather than astrology and folk knowledge, researchers are increasingly re-evaluating traditional remedies. Ethnobotany, pharmacognosy, and integrative medicine all look back to herbal traditions for leads on new treatments. Culpeper’s Herbal provides a window into centuries of empirical observation — notes gathered long before randomized trials but rich with potential insights.
It is unlikely that modern medicine will adopt Culpeper wholesale, but it may continue to mine his observations for inspiration. His legacy remains: that the green world around us holds secrets worth studying, that healing belongs to all, and that knowledge should never be hoarded by the few.
Nicholas Culpeper’s The Complete Herbal — Thomas Kelly’s 1750 edition — stands as both a work of science and a work of justice. It is a reminder that medicine grows not only in laboratories but also in the hedgerows, gardens, and meadows of daily life.
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