Butler (Charles) The Feminine Monarchie: or The

Butler (Charles) The Feminine Monarchie: or The Historie of Bees, second edition, woodcut frontispiece, woodcut illustrations, initials and decorations, 4pp. musical notation, sig. A with 6ff., final blank leaf present, foot of K4 trimmed with slight loss of last line of text, hole in Y3 with loss to a few words on both sides, [British Bee Books 18; STC 4193; Walker Catalogue p.11], Printed by John Haviland for Roger Jackson, 1623; bound after Lawson (William) A New Orchard and Garden, 4 parts in 1, largely printed in black letter, woodcut illustration on title, woodcut illustrations including 10 of knot gardens, final blank leaf present, lower edge of G1 slightly defective with loss to one word of text, C2 side-notes shaved with slight loss, [STC 15330], Printed...by I. H. for Roger Jackson, 1623; bound after [i.e. part 4 of] Markham's The Way to Get Wealth, 1623, substantially complete but lacking general title-page, parts misbound and with some defective leaves, together in 1 vol., contemporary limp vellum, binding almost detached, soiled and lacking ties, 4to

⁂ A good collection of works on husbandry and bee-keeping. The Butler is particularly important, being "...the greatest early British bee book and contains the best account of skep beekeeping which is available today" (British Bee Books). It is the first edition to contain both the woodcut frontispiece and the 4-part madrigal which was an attempt to capture the piping of the queen at swarming time. The Walker catalogue calls it "the most readable Edn.".