Nicholas Culpeper (1616 - 1654), is best known today for his English Physician, a comprehensive guide to the medicinal uses of native plants and herbs, the first such book published in English. Culpeper, a Puritan, was the son of a clergyman. In 1634 he spent a year at Cambridge, where he learned Greek and Latin, which enabled him to study old medical texts. He was apprenticed to an apothecary and started his formal practice in Spitalfields, London, around 1640. Culpeper supported the Parliamentary side in the English Civil War, suffering a severe chest wound in 1643. After recovering he returned to his medical practice in London, where he established a reputation as an outstanding healer. War wounds combined with overwork led to his death by exhaustion in 1654, aged 37. According to his widow, he left behind some 70 unfinished manuscripts. Astrological Judgement of Diseases from the Decumbiture of the Sick, was published posthumously. This book is the astrological companion to his better-known English Physician. In this book is the distilled experience of a very busy practitioner. The text, while newly reset, retains the spelling and punctuation of the original.
