VERMIS SERICUS: A COMPENDIOUS ACCOUNT OF THE WHOLE ART OF BREEDING, NURSING, AND THE RIGHT ORDERING OF THE SILK-WORM. de STRADANUS, Ioannes - 1733

London, printed for John Worrall; Olive Payne; Thomas Boreman; and Thomas Game, at the Bible facing the East End of the New Church in the Strand, 1733.. TITLE CONTINUED: Illustrated with figures engraven on copper: whereon is curiously exhibited the whole management of this profitable insect. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, 1773, pamphlet, stab holes in inner margins. Small 4to, approximately 205 x 165 mm, 8 x 6¼ inches, 5 only of 6 fine folding engraved plates, lacks plate 2 which in the earlier editions is the engraved title page, now supplied in facsimile on 19th century paper, taken from an earlier engraved plate with Latin text, (the plates were copied from plates done in the 16th century after Joannes Stradanu), plate 5 signed "Geo. Child sculp", pages: [4], iv, [1], 10-32, bound in plain drab grey-blue wrappers, later linen spine, no label or lettering. Covers slightly marked, 3 small light brown stains to frontispiece, top outer corner of title page slightly creased, corners of early pages slightly dog-eared, 2 leaves have pale stain in fore-edge margin, small pale stain to 2 inner margins, 2 neat corrections to text, 1 plate dusty in top margin, last plate has 2 small repairs to blank side of top margin, no loss to image. A good copy of a scarce item (lacking engraved title as noted, now supplied in facsimile). This work is generally attributed to Thomas Boreman the bookseller and author of the famous children's book, Description of Three Hundred Animals. The Dedication and the Introduction are signed T. B. and his name is in the list of publishers on the title page. The first interest in silk culture in colonial America stemmed from the discovery of native mulberry trees growing in Virginia. King James I, seeking a way to avoid the heavy importation charges, promoted the development of sericulture in Virginia and sent the colonists detailed instructions and materials for silk cultivation. The attempt was not successful, but it did not discourage other colonies from undertaking this unfamiliar and labour-intensive process. Silk culture was one of the main considerations in the settlement of Georgia, and Boreman dedicates his Compendious Account to the "trustees for establishing the colony of Georgia in America". Boreman's instructions described the more elaborate methods then used in European silk-making. Two years after the publication of this book, Georgia exported eight pounds of silk and over a thousand pounds in 1759. Although advocates of the Georgia colony predicted that it was the ideal place for the silk culture to thrive, the lack of skilled labour thwarted the dream of huge savings on silk imports. Plates copied from Vermis Sericus by Stradanus. The frontispiece, Plate 1, with the men on horseback, recounts the story of the Nestorian monks who (according to legend) smuggled silkworm eggs out of China in their hollow walking sticks, and brought them to Emperor Justinian; Plate 2, the facsimile plate, shows the stages in the life cycle of the Silk-worm; Plate 3: the incubation of the silkworm eggs; Plates 4 & 5: the worms being fed and cared for and the spinning, Plate 6 represents the machine to wind off the silk from the cods, with furnaces and cauldrons for that purpose. ESTC 71473. MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE. FURTHER IMAGES ON