Free Resources for Herbal & Apothecary

About Herbals:

A Nievve Herball, Or Historie of Plantes: Wherein is Contayned the Whole Discourse and Perfect Description of All Sortes of Herbes and Plantes : Their Divers & Sundry Kindes ... and that Not Onely of Those Whiche are Here Growyng in this Our Countrie of Englande, But of All Others Also of Forrayne Realmes Commonly Used in Physicke ; First Set Foorth in the Doutche Or Almaigne Tongue, by Garrat D'Ewes (Gerard Dewes), dwelling in Pawles Churchyarde at the signe of the Swanne, 1578 (779 pages) - has a great chapter on hops.

Free download at:
https://books.google.com/books?id=nrspQgAACAAJ&dq=A_Nievve_Herball_Or_Historie_of_Plantes&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiZ4KO978vOAhVLVWMKHVKMD7gQ6AEILDAC


The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes (1597) John Gerarde, London
http://caliban.mpipz.mpg.de/gerarde/index.html (high resolution images)
Free download of the pdf (medium resolution images):
http://caliban.mpipz.mpg.de/gerarde/gerarde_herball.pdf



About medical concoctions:

Culpeper's English Physician and complete Herbal, a good resource to check herbal ingredients for middle English recipes, in mostly modern English. The book is from the 18something, but the info is reprinted from an earlier manuscript. Nicolas Culpeper lived and died from 1616 to 1654.

this is the free eBook, there are also modern reprints which are not free. It says volume one, not sure if there is a (free) volume two.
https://books.google.com/books?id=0QpbAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=culpepers+english+physician&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiq0bv3mvjMAhVMzmMKHWoDDtUQ6AEIJTAB#v=onepage&q=culpepers%20english%20physician&f=false


Natural Magick (Magiae naturalis) by John Baptista Porta (Giambattista della Porta), 1535-1615. The Latin version was published in 1558, the English translation a hunderd years later in 1658.
http://www.mindserpent.com/American_History/books/Porta/jportap1.html
Also listed (sometimes incomplety):
http://www.faculty.umb.edu/gary_zabel/Courses/Phil%20281b/Philosophy%20of%20Magic/Natural_Magic/jportat5.html


About Distillation and Cordials:

The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened by Kenelm Digby, 1669.
Free download at:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16441



Countrey Contentments, or the English Huswife: containing the Inward and Outward Vertues which ought to be in a Compleate Woman by Gervase Markham, 1623. This is a slightly past period book with recipes for (medicinal) cordials, and more on brewing and cooking.
only available online in a viewing mode, not as a pdf:
http://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/objects/lse:heh898zor


The Art of Distillation. Or, A Treatise of the Choicest Spagyrical Preparations Performed by Way o£ Distillation, Being Partly Taken Out of the Most Select Chemical Authors of the Diverse I,anguages and Partly Out of the Author's Manual Experience together with, The Description of the Chiefest Furnaces and Vessels Used by Ancient and Modern Chemists also A Discourse on Diverse Spagyrical Experiments and Curiosities, and of the Anatomy of Gold and Silver, with The Chiefest Preparations and Curiosities Thereof, and Virtues of Them All. All Which Are Contained In Six Books Composed By John French, Dr. of Physick, London.  Printed by Richard Cotes and are to sold by Thomas Williams at the Bible in Little-Britain without Aldersgate, 1651.

Information available from the Alchemy Web Site:
http://www.levity.com/alchemy/jfren_ar.html


Lee's Priceless Recipes: A Valuable Collection of Tried Formulas and Simple Methods, compiled by Dr N.T. Oliver, Chicago, 1895. Free Download from:
https://books.google.com/books?id=caFEAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=lee%27s+priceless+recipes&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj1tqy9lNbOAhXECMAKHRwHA1AQ6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=lee%27s%20priceless%20recipes&f=false