Richard Bradley’s A Short Historical Account of Coffee (1715) and The Virtue and Use of Coffee (1721)

Fernando  E. Vega

doi:10.37819/biosis.002.02.0123

Richard Bradley’s A Short Historical Account of Coffee (1715) and The Virtue and Use of Coffee (1721)

Fernando E. Vega

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Abstract

Richard Bradley published A Short Historical Account of Coffee in 1715, an extremely rare book of which only three copies are known. A revised version of the book, entitled The Virtue and Use of Coffee, was published in 1721. Bradley’s 1714 trip to the Physic Garden in Amsterdam, where he examined two coffee trees, led to his two coffee books, whose similarities and differences, including the evolution of the two different coffee engravings, are discussed in detail. This article reveals insights into the milieu in which Bradley lived, his interactions with other members of the Royal Society, and the reasons why his 1715 book is so rare. The various introductions of coffee plants to England in the late 17^th and early 18^th century are discussed, as well as Bradley’s skirmish with James Douglas, who was critical of Bradley’s coffee work.

Keywords: Amsterdam Botany Coffea James Douglas James Petiver Royal Society

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References

Aitken, G. A. (1898). The Spectator. Volume the first. J. C. Nimmo, London.
Anonymous (1715). The Present State of Great-Britain and Ireland (Third edition). London.
Anonymous (1732). The Gentleman’s Magazine. 2(23), 1082.
Anonymous (1857). Catalogue de la Bibliothèque Scientifique de MM. de Jussieu. Paris.
Anonymous (1892). The Publishers’ Circular, 57(1375).
Anonymous (1914). Catalogue Général des Manuscrits des Bibliothèques Publiques de France. Paris.
Anonymous (1954). Maggs Bros. Ltd., Early Medicine, Science, Witchcraft and Magic. Catalogue No. 822. Lot 132. London.
Anonymous (1960). Maggs Bros. Ltd., Old Medicine & Science. A Catalogue of MSS., Books, & Autograph Letters from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century. Catalogue No. 869. Lot 263, p. 55. London.
Besant, W. (1903). London in the Time of the Stuarts. London.
Bradley, R. (1715). A Short Historical Account of Coffee; Containing the Most Remarkable Observations of the Greatest Men in Europe Concerning it, from the First Knowledge of it Down to this Present Time; with a More Accurate Description of the Coffee-Tree than has yet to be Publish’d. To which is Prefix’d, an Exact Figure of the Tree, Flower and Fruit, taken from the Life; done at Amsterdam. London.
Bradley, R. (1716-1727). Historia Plantarum Succulentarum. London.
Bradley, R. (1718). New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, both Philosophical and Practical. W. Mears, London.
Bradley, R. (1721a). The Virtue and Use of Coffee, with Regard to the Plague, and other Infectious Distempers: Containing the Most Remarkable Observations of the Greatest Men in Europe Concerning it, from the First Knowledge of it, Down to this Present Time. To which is Prefix’d, an Exact Figure of the Tree, Flower, and Fruit, taken from the Life. London.
Bradley, R. (1721b). The Plague at Marseilles Consider’d. London.
Bradley, R. (1721c). A Philosophical Account of the Works of Nature. London.
Bradley, R. (1724). A General Treatise of Husbandry and Gardening (Vol. III). London.
Bradley, R. (1726). New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, both Philosophical and Practical. Fifth edition. London.
Brock, C. H. (1979). James Douglas (1675–1742), Botanist. Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, 9, 137–145.
Clark, J. W. (1904). Endowments of the University of Cambridge. Cambridge.
Coulton, R. (2005). Curiosity, Commerce, and Conversation in the Writing of London Horticulturists during the Early-Eighteenth Century (PhD Dissertation). University of London.
De La Roque, J. (1715). Voyage de l’Arabie Heureuse. Paris.
Douglas, J. (1725). Lilium Sarniense: or, a Description of the Guernsay-Lilly. To Which is Added the Botanical Dissection of the Coffee Berry. London.
Douglas, J. (1727a). Arbor Yemensis fructum cofè ferens: or, a Description and History of the Coffee Tree. London.
Douglas, J. (1727b). A Supplement to the Description of the Coffee-Tree, Lately Published by Dr. Douglas. London. [According to von Hünnersdorff and Hasenkamp (2002) this publication was issued “both separately and together” with Douglas 1727a].
Dufour, P. S. (1671). De L’Usage du Caphe’, dv The, et Dv Chocolat. Lyon.
Edmondson, J. (2002). Richard Bradley (c. 1688–1732): An annotated bibliography, 1710–1818. Archives of Natural History, 29(2), 177–212. https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2002.29.2.177
Egerton III, F. N. (1970a). Richard Bradley’s illicit excursion into medical practice in 1714. Medical History, 14(1), 53–62. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300015131
Egerton III, F. N. (1970b). Richard Bradley’s relationship with Sir Hans Sloane. Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 25(1), 59 –77. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.1970.0005
Egerton, F. N. (2006). A history of the ecological sciences, Part 20: Richard Bradley, entrepreneurial naturalist. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, 87(2), 117–127. https://doi.org/10.1890/0012-9623(2006)87[117:AHOTES]2.0.CO;2
Ellis, J. (1774). An Historical Account of Coffee. With an Engraving, and Botanical Description of the Tree. London.
Ellis, M. (2006). Eighteenth-Century Coffee-House Culture. Vol. 4. Science and History Writings. London.
Freer, S. (2005). Linnaeus’ Philosophia Botanica. Oxford.
Harmer, T. (1767). Remarks on the very different accounts that have been given of the fecundity of fishes, with fresh observations on that subject. Philosophical Transactions, 57, 280–292. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1767.0032
Henrey, B. (1975). British Botanical and Horticultural Literature before 1800. Vol. II. Oxford.
Henrey, B. (1986). No Ordinary Gardener. Thomas Knowlton, 1691–1781. London.
Hünnersdorff, r. Von. & hasenkamp, H. G. (2002). Coffee: A Bibliography. A Guide to the Literature on Coffee. Vols. I and II. Hünnersdorff, London.
Journal Book, (1715). Journal Book of the Royal Society, Vol. 12, 1714 - 1720. JBO/12/31; 28 April 1715, p. 56.
Jussieu, A. DE., (1715). Histoire du café. Histoire de l’Académie Royale des Sciences. Année M. DCCXIII avec les Mémoires de Mathématique & de Physique, pour la même Année. Paris.
Smith, L. (1832). Memoir and Correspondence of the Late Sir. James Edward Smith, M.D. Vol. II. London.
Lindeboom, G. A. (editor), (1962). Analecta Boerhaaviana. Vol. III. Leiden.
Linnaeus, C. (1751). Philosophia Botanica. Amsterdam and Stockholm.
Miller, P. (1737). The Gardeners Dictionary. Third Edition. London.
Miller, P. (1754). The Gardeners Dictionary. Fourth Edition, Vol. II. London.
Mcdonald, D. (1908). Agricultural Writers, from Sir Walter of Henley to Arthur Young, 1200–1800. London.
Nichols, J. (1812). Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century. Vol. I.
Petiver, J. (1767). Jacobi Petiveri Opera. London.
Pomet, P. (1737). A Compleat History of Druggs. Third Edition. London.
Raven, J. (2007). The Business of Books: Booksellers and the English Book Trade, 1450–1850. New Haven.
Ray, J. (1693). Historiæ Plantarum. Vol. II. London.
Robinson, E. F. (1893). The Early History of Coffee Houses in England. London.
Rowley, G. (1983). Dedication to Richard Bradley, F.R.S. Bradleya, 1, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.25223/brad.n1.1983.a1
Royal Society, (1718). A List of the Royal Society of London Instituted by His Majesty King Charles II. For the Advancement of Natural Knowledge. With the Places of Abode of most of its Member. As Also an Advertisement, shewing what Subjects seem most suitable to the Ends of its Institution. London.
Sloane, H. (1694). An account of a prodigiously large feather of the bird cuntur, brought from Chili, and supposed to be a kind of vultur; and of the coffee-shrub. Philosophical Transactions, 18(208), 61–64. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1694.0016
Stephen, L. (editor), 1921–1922. Dictionary of National Biography 2: 1080.
Thomas, H. H. (1952). Richard Bradley, an early eighteenth century biologist. Bulletin of the British Society for the History of Science, 1(7), 176–178. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950563600000634
Thomson, T. (1812). History of the Royal Society, from its Institution to the End of the Eighteenth Century. London.
Ukers, W. H. (1922). All About Coffee. New York.
Vega, F. E. (2008). The rise of coffee. American Scientist 96: 138–145.
Walters, S. M. (1981). The Shaping of Cambridge Botany. Cambridge.
Wellman, F. L. (1961). Coffee: Botany, Cultivation, and Utilization. London.
Wirth, B. (2007). Maria Sibylla Merian, Baltasar Scheid und Richard Bradley–Die Künstlerin und Naturforscherin, ein Kaufmann und ein Botaniker. Annals of the History of Philosophy and Biology 12: 115–153.
Wirth, B. (2014). Maria Sibylla Merian, Baltasar Scheid and Richard Bradley – some remarks on their letters and on incorrect transcriptions and translations of Merian letters. Exploring Maria Sibylla Merian Symposium, University of Amsterdam, May 2014.
Wulf, A. (2008). The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire, and the Birth of an Obsession. New York.

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Richard Bradley’s A Short Historical Account of Coffee (1715) and The Virtue and Use of Coffee (1721). (2021). Biosis: Biological Systems, 2(3), 315-328. https://doi.org/10.37819/biosis.002.02.0123

How to Cite

Richard Bradley’s A Short Historical Account of Coffee (1715) and The Virtue and Use of Coffee (1721). (2021). Biosis: Biological Systems, 2(3), 315-328. https://doi.org/10.37819/biosis.002.02.0123

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[1] Aitken, G. A. (1898). The Spectator. Volume the first. J. C. Nimmo, London.

[2] Anonymous (1715). The Present State of Great-Britain and Ireland (Third edition). London.

[3] Anonymous (1732). The Gentleman’s Magazine. 2(23), 1082.

[4] Anonymous (1857). Catalogue de la Bibliothèque Scientifique de MM. de Jussieu. Paris.

[5] Anonymous (1892). The Publishers’ Circular, 57(1375).

[6] Anonymous (1914). Catalogue Général des Manuscrits des Bibliothèques Publiques de France. Paris.

[7] Anonymous (1954). Maggs Bros. Ltd., Early Medicine, Science, Witchcraft and Magic. Catalogue No. 822. Lot 132. London.

[8] Anonymous (1960). Maggs Bros. Ltd., Old Medicine & Science. A Catalogue of MSS., Books, & Autograph Letters from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century. Catalogue No. 869. Lot 263, p. 55. London.

[9] Besant, W. (1903). London in the Time of the Stuarts. London.

[10] Bradley, R. (1715). A Short Historical Account of Coffee; Containing the Most Remarkable Observations of the Greatest Men in Europe Concerning it, from the First Knowledge of it Down to this Present Time; with a More Accurate Description of the Coffee-Tree than has yet to be Publish’d. To which is Prefix’d, an Exact Figure of the Tree, Flower and Fruit, taken from the Life; done at Amsterdam. London.

[11] Bradley, R. (1716-1727). Historia Plantarum Succulentarum. London.

[12] Bradley, R. (1718). New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, both Philosophical and Practical. W. Mears, London.

[13] Bradley, R. (1721a). The Virtue and Use of Coffee, with Regard to the Plague, and other Infectious Distempers: Containing the Most Remarkable Observations of the Greatest Men in Europe Concerning it, from the First Knowledge of it, Down to this Present Time. To which is Prefix’d, an Exact Figure of the Tree, Flower, and Fruit, taken from the Life. London.

[14] Bradley, R. (1721b). The Plague at Marseilles Consider’d. London.

[15] Bradley, R. (1721c). A Philosophical Account of the Works of Nature. London.

[16] Bradley, R. (1724). A General Treatise of Husbandry and Gardening (Vol. III). London.

[17] Bradley, R. (1726). New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, both Philosophical and Practical. Fifth edition. London.

[18] Brock, C. H. (1979). James Douglas (1675–1742), Botanist. Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, 9, 137–145.

[19] Clark, J. W. (1904). Endowments of the University of Cambridge. Cambridge.

[20] Coulton, R. (2005). Curiosity, Commerce, and Conversation in the Writing of London Horticulturists during the Early-Eighteenth Century (PhD Dissertation). University of London.

[21] De La Roque, J. (1715). Voyage de l’Arabie Heureuse. Paris.

[22] Douglas, J. (1725). Lilium Sarniense: or, a Description of the Guernsay-Lilly. To Which is Added the Botanical Dissection of the Coffee Berry. London.

[23] Douglas, J. (1727a). Arbor Yemensis fructum cofè ferens: or, a Description and History of the Coffee Tree. London.

[24] Douglas, J. (1727b). A Supplement to the Description of the Coffee-Tree, Lately Published by Dr. Douglas. London. [According to von Hünnersdorff and Hasenkamp (2002) this publication was issued “both separately and together” with Douglas 1727a].

[25] Dufour, P. S. (1671). De L’Usage du Caphe’, dv The, et Dv Chocolat. Lyon.

[26] Edmondson, J. (2002). Richard Bradley (c. 1688–1732): An annotated bibliography, 1710–1818. Archives of Natural History, 29(2), 177–212. https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2002.29.2.177

[27] Egerton III, F. N. (1970a). Richard Bradley’s illicit excursion into medical practice in 1714. Medical History, 14(1), 53–62. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300015131

[28] Egerton III, F. N. (1970b). Richard Bradley’s relationship with Sir Hans Sloane. Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 25(1), 59 –77. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.1970.0005

[29] Egerton, F. N. (2006). A history of the ecological sciences, Part 20: Richard Bradley, entrepreneurial naturalist. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, 87(2), 117–127. https://doi.org/10.1890/0012-9623(2006)87[117:AHOTES]2.0.CO;2

[30] Ellis, J. (1774). An Historical Account of Coffee. With an Engraving, and Botanical Description of the Tree. London.

[31] Ellis, M. (2006). Eighteenth-Century Coffee-House Culture. Vol. 4. Science and History Writings. London.

[32] Freer, S. (2005). Linnaeus’ Philosophia Botanica. Oxford.

[33] Harmer, T. (1767). Remarks on the very different accounts that have been given of the fecundity of fishes, with fresh observations on that subject. Philosophical Transactions, 57, 280–292. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1767.0032

[34] Henrey, B. (1975). British Botanical and Horticultural Literature before 1800. Vol. II. Oxford.

[35] Henrey, B. (1986). No Ordinary Gardener. Thomas Knowlton, 1691–1781. London.

[36] Hünnersdorff, r. Von. & hasenkamp, H. G. (2002). Coffee: A Bibliography. A Guide to the Literature on Coffee. Vols. I and II. Hünnersdorff, London.

[37] Journal Book, (1715). Journal Book of the Royal Society, Vol. 12, 1714 - 1720. JBO/12/31; 28 April 1715, p. 56.

[38] Jussieu, A. DE., (1715). Histoire du café. Histoire de l’Académie Royale des Sciences. Année M. DCCXIII avec les Mémoires de Mathématique & de Physique, pour la même Année. Paris.

[39] Smith, L. (1832). Memoir and Correspondence of the Late Sir. James Edward Smith, M.D. Vol. II. London.

[40] Lindeboom, G. A. (editor), (1962). Analecta Boerhaaviana. Vol. III. Leiden.

[41] Linnaeus, C. (1751). Philosophia Botanica. Amsterdam and Stockholm.

[42] Miller, P. (1737). The Gardeners Dictionary. Third Edition. London.

[43] Miller, P. (1754). The Gardeners Dictionary. Fourth Edition, Vol. II. London.

[44] Mcdonald, D. (1908). Agricultural Writers, from Sir Walter of Henley to Arthur Young, 1200–1800. London.

[45] Nichols, J. (1812). Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century. Vol. I.

[46] Petiver, J. (1767). Jacobi Petiveri Opera. London.

[47] Pomet, P. (1737). A Compleat History of Druggs. Third Edition. London.

[48] Raven, J. (2007). The Business of Books: Booksellers and the English Book Trade, 1450–1850. New Haven.

[49] Ray, J. (1693). Historiæ Plantarum. Vol. II. London.

[50] Robinson, E. F. (1893). The Early History of Coffee Houses in England. London.

[51] Rowley, G. (1983). Dedication to Richard Bradley, F.R.S. Bradleya, 1, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.25223/brad.n1.1983.a1

[52] Royal Society, (1718). A List of the Royal Society of London Instituted by His Majesty King Charles II. For the Advancement of Natural Knowledge. With the Places of Abode of most of its Member. As Also an Advertisement, shewing what Subjects seem most suitable to the Ends of its Institution. London.

[53] Sloane, H. (1694). An account of a prodigiously large feather of the bird cuntur, brought from Chili, and supposed to be a kind of vultur; and of the coffee-shrub. Philosophical Transactions, 18(208), 61–64. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1694.0016

[54] Stephen, L. (editor), 1921–1922. Dictionary of National Biography 2: 1080.

[55] Thomas, H. H. (1952). Richard Bradley, an early eighteenth century biologist. Bulletin of the British Society for the History of Science, 1(7), 176–178. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950563600000634

[56] Thomson, T. (1812). History of the Royal Society, from its Institution to the End of the Eighteenth Century. London.

[57] Ukers, W. H. (1922). All About Coffee. New York.

[58] Vega, F. E. (2008). The rise of coffee. American Scientist 96: 138–145.

[59] Walters, S. M. (1981). The Shaping of Cambridge Botany. Cambridge.

[60] Wellman, F. L. (1961). Coffee: Botany, Cultivation, and Utilization. London.

[61] Wirth, B. (2007). Maria Sibylla Merian, Baltasar Scheid und Richard Bradley–Die Künstlerin und Naturforscherin, ein Kaufmann und ein Botaniker. Annals of the History of Philosophy and Biology 12: 115–153.

[62] Wirth, B. (2014). Maria Sibylla Merian, Baltasar Scheid and Richard Bradley – some remarks on their letters and on incorrect transcriptions and translations of Merian letters. Exploring Maria Sibylla Merian Symposium, University of Amsterdam, May 2014.

[63] Wulf, A. (2008). The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire, and the Birth of an Obsession. New York.