[56] Titles and dates of the subsequent editions issued by Thomas Gibson (1539) and Jhon Kynge (1561) will be found in the Bibliography of English Herbals.
[57] Treveris had his printing office in Southwark, at the sign of the “Wodows.”
[58] The use of “mummy” is not only mentioned by all the later herbalists up to the end of the seventeenth century, but is even to be found in MS. still-room books. In the Fairfax still-room book a recipe for wounds said to have been procured from “Rodolphus Goclerius, professor of Phisicke in Wittenburghe,” begins thus: “Take of the moss of a strangled man 2 ounces, of the mumia of man’s blood, one ounce and a halfe of earth-worms washed in water or wine and dyed,” etc.
CHAPTER III
TURNER’S HERBAL AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE FOREIGN HERBALISTS
“In the beginning of winter the Goldfinches use muche to haunte this herbe [teazle] for the sedes sake whereof they are very desyrous.”—Turner’s Herbal, 1551.
Like so many sixteenth-century notabilities, William Turner, commonly known as the father of English botany, was remarkably versatile, for he was a divine, a physician and a botanist. He was a native of Morpeth, Northumberland, and was born in Henry VIII.’s reign: the exact date is unknown. His father is supposed to have been a tanner. We know nothing of his early education, but he entered what is now Pembroke College,[59] Cambridge, under the patronage of Thomas Lord Wentworth. This he himself tells us in the preface to the second part of his herbal, which is dedicated to Lord Wentworth of the next generation. “And who hath deserved better to have my booke of herbs to be given to him, than he, whose father with his yearly exhibition did helpe me, beying student in Cambridge of Physik and philosophy? Whereby with some further help and study am commed to this pore knowledge of herbes and other simples that I have. Wherefore I dedicate unto you this my litle boke, desyring you to defende it against the envious evil speakers, which can alow nothing but that they do themselves: and the same I give unto your Lordship, beseeching to take it in the stede of a better thyng, and for a token of my good will toward you, and all your father’s houshold, which thing if ye do, as sonne as I shall have convenient lesure, ye shall have the third and last parte of my herball also. Almighty God kepe you and all youres. Amen.”
At Cambridge Turner was intimate with Nicholas Ridley (afterwards the famous Bishop of London), and though it is interesting to know that Ridley instructed him in Greek, it is even more attractive to learn that the future bishop also initiated him into the mysteries of tennis and archery. Turner did well at the university, for he was elected Junior Fellow of his college in 1531 and Joint Treasurer in 1532, and he had a title for Orders in 1537. Throughout his life he was a staunch Protestant and at Cambridge he used to attend the preachings of Hugh Latimer. We do not know how long Turner held his fellowship, possibly till his marriage with Jane, daughter of George Ander, Alderman of Cambridge. He left Cambridge in 1540 and travelled about, preaching in various places. In Wood’s Athenæ Oxonienses we read, “In his rambles he settled for a time in Oxon among several of his countrymen that he found there, purposely for the conversation of men and books.... At the same time and after, following his old trade of preaching without a call, he was imprisoned for a considerable time.”[60] On his release he left England and travelled in Italy, Germany and Holland. He tells us in his herbal that he visited Cremona, Como, Milan, Venice and Chiavenna, and at Bologna[61] he studied botany under Luca Ghini. Either there or at Ferrara he took his M.D. degree. From Italy he went to Zurich, where he formed his intimate and lifelong friendship with Conrad Gesner,[62] the famous Swiss naturalist.
He subsequently visited Basle and Cologne, and it was in these two cities that his small religious books upholding the Protestant cause were printed. They were very popular in England, so much so that in the last year of Henry VIII.’s reign they were prohibited. Turner spent some time botanising in the Rhine country: in his herbal he speaks of different plants which he collected at Bonn, Basel, Bingen, Cologne, “Erenffelde” and “Sieburg.” Then he went to Holland and East Friesland—the latter he frequently mentions—and became physician to the “Erle of Emden.” It was probably at this time that he explored the islands off the mainland. He was in correspondence with “Maister Riche and maister Morgan, Apotecaries of London,” two names which, it is interesting to note, occur also in de l’Obel’s works and in Gerard’s Herbal.