FOOTNOTES:

“There be two maners the male and the female, the female hath sharpe leves. Some say that it is better for medycyne than the male but we use of bothe. Some say that the male hath figure of shape of a man. And the female of a woman but that is fals. For Nature never gaue forme or shape of mākynde to an herbe. But it is of troughe that some hath shaped suche fygures by craft as we have fortyme herde say of labourers in the feldes.”

TheGrete Herballends thus—

“O ye worthy reders or practicyens to whome this noble volume is presēt. I beseche you take intellygence and beholde ye workes and operacyōs of almighty god which hath endewed his symple creature mankynde with the graces of ye holy goost to have parfyte knowlege and understandynge of the vertue of all manner of herbes and trees in this booke comprehendyed and everyche of them chaptred by hymselfe and in every chaptre dyuers clauses where is shewed dyuers maner of medycunes in one herbe comprehended whiche ought to be notyfyed and marked for the helth of man in whom is repended ye hevenly gyftes by the eternall Kynge to whom be laude and prayse everlastynge. Amen.”

The only important books Treveris published besides theGrete Herballwere the two English translations of Hieronymus Braunschweig’s works (The noble experyence of the virtuous Handy-worke of SurgeriandThe vertuouse Book of the Dystillacion of the Waters of all maner of Herbes) and the handsome edition of Trevisa’s translation of Higden’sPolychronicon.The vertuouse Book of the Dystillacion of the Waters of all maner of Herbesis well printed, but the illustrations are from the same inferior German cuts as those in theGrete Herball. The book was translated into English by Laurence Andrew and, though strictly it does not come within the category of herbals, part of the preface is too beautiful to omit. “Lerne the hygh and meruelous vertue of herbes. Knowe how inestimable a preservative to the helth of man god hath provyded growying euery daye at our hande, use the effectes with reverence, and give thankes to the maker celestyall. Beholde how moch it excedeth to use medecyne of efycacye naturall by God ordeyned then wicked wordes or charmes of efycacye unnaturall by the dyuell enuented, whiche yf thou doste well marke, thou shalt have occasyon to gyue the more louynges and praise to oure sauyour, by redynge this boke and knowlegying his benyfites innumerable. To whose prayse, and helthe of all my crysten bretherne, I have taken upon me this symple translacyon, with all humble reverence ever redy to submit me to the correccion of the lerned reder.”

FOOTNOTES:[38]SeeBibliography of English MS. Herbals.[39]He is sometimes erroneously called Bartholomew de Glanville. Leland, without citing any authority, called him de Glanville. Bale copied Leland in 1557 and added a list of writings wrongly attributed to Bartholomew. Quétif and Echard give detailed reasons in pointing out Leland’s error. The Parmese chronicler, Salimbene, writing in 1283, refers to him as Bartholomæus Anglicus, and John de Trittenheim, Abbot of Sparheim (end of fifteenth century), speaks of him as “Bartholomeus natione Anglicus.” M. Leopold Delisle endeavoured to claim him as a Frenchman, but although he spent the greater part of his life abroad, he was always distinguished as “Bartholomæus Anglicus.” That he was a Minorite “de provincia Francia” is no proof that he was a Frenchman. Batman (1582), on the authority of Bale, describes Bartholomæus as being “of the noble familie of the Earles of Suffolk.”[40]John de Trevisa, a Cornishman, was a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and subsequently of Queen’s College. He afterwards became chaplain to Lord Berkeley and vicar of Berkeley.[41]Wynkyn de Worde’s real name was Jan van Wynkyn (de Worde being merely a place-name), and in the sacrist’s rolls of Westminster Abbey, 1491-1500, he figures as Johannes Wynkyn.[42]“The rind thereof medled with wine ... gene to them to drink that shall be cut in their body for they should slepe and not fele the sore knitting.”[43]Under “Birch” there is another touch of life in the woods in the Middle Ages. “Wylde men of wodes and forestes useth that sede instede of breede [bread]. And this tree hath moche soure juys and somwhat bytynge. And men useth therfore in spryngynge tyme and in haruest to slyt the ryndes and to gader ye humour that comyth oute therof and drynkyth in stede of wyn. And such drynke quencheth thurste. But it fedyth not nother nourryssheth not, nother makyth men dronke.”[44]In regard to this paper (probably the first made in England for printing) seeBibliography, p.204.[45]For dates, full titles, etc., of all the editions ofBanckes’s HerbalseeBibliography of English Herbals.[46]See p.44.[47]SeeBibliography of English Herbals.[48]Robert Wyer was one of the most famous printers of the early sixteenth century. He came of a Buckinghamshire family and was probably a near relation of John Wyer, also a printer who lived in Fleet Street, for both of them used the device of St. John the Evangelist. He served his apprenticeship to Richard Pynson, whose printing press was in the rentals of Norwich House near the site of the present Villiers Street, and on Pynson’s death succeeded to the business. In both his editions of the herbal there is his well-known device of St. John the Evangelist bareheaded and dressed in a flowing robe, sitting under a tree on an island and writing on a scroll spread over his right knee. At his right hand is an eagle with outstretched wings holding an inkwell in its beak, and in the background are the towers and spires of a great city.[49]Ames catalogues two other editions of the herbal by “W. C.,” one published by Anthony Kitson and the other by Richard Kele, but no known copies of these exist.[50]Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1913.[51]The popular belief in the power of sweet-smelling herbs to ward off infection of the much-dreaded plague rose to its height in Charles II.’s reign, when bunches of rosemary were sold for six and eightpence. Till recently there were at least two survivals of this belief in herbal scents—the doctor’s gold-headed cane (formerly a pomander carried at the end of a cane) and the little bouquets carried by the clergy at the distribution of the Maundy Money in Westminster Abbey.[52]For dates of later editions seeBibliography of English Herbals.[53]For fuller bibliographical details of theHerbarius zu Teutschand theOrtus SanitatisseeBibliography of Foreign Herbals.[54]Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine.[55]The illustrations in the second and later editions of theHerbarius zu Teutschare very inferior to those in the first, which are beautiful.The vertuose boke of Distillacyon of the waters of all maner of Herbes(1527), translated by Laurence Andrew from theLiber de arte distillandiby Hieronymus Braunschweig, is illustrated with cuts from the same wood-blocks as theGrete Herball.[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.

[38]SeeBibliography of English MS. Herbals.

[39]He is sometimes erroneously called Bartholomew de Glanville. Leland, without citing any authority, called him de Glanville. Bale copied Leland in 1557 and added a list of writings wrongly attributed to Bartholomew. Quétif and Echard give detailed reasons in pointing out Leland’s error. The Parmese chronicler, Salimbene, writing in 1283, refers to him as Bartholomæus Anglicus, and John de Trittenheim, Abbot of Sparheim (end of fifteenth century), speaks of him as “Bartholomeus natione Anglicus.” M. Leopold Delisle endeavoured to claim him as a Frenchman, but although he spent the greater part of his life abroad, he was always distinguished as “Bartholomæus Anglicus.” That he was a Minorite “de provincia Francia” is no proof that he was a Frenchman. Batman (1582), on the authority of Bale, describes Bartholomæus as being “of the noble familie of the Earles of Suffolk.”

[40]John de Trevisa, a Cornishman, was a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and subsequently of Queen’s College. He afterwards became chaplain to Lord Berkeley and vicar of Berkeley.

[41]Wynkyn de Worde’s real name was Jan van Wynkyn (de Worde being merely a place-name), and in the sacrist’s rolls of Westminster Abbey, 1491-1500, he figures as Johannes Wynkyn.

[42]“The rind thereof medled with wine ... gene to them to drink that shall be cut in their body for they should slepe and not fele the sore knitting.”

[43]Under “Birch” there is another touch of life in the woods in the Middle Ages. “Wylde men of wodes and forestes useth that sede instede of breede [bread]. And this tree hath moche soure juys and somwhat bytynge. And men useth therfore in spryngynge tyme and in haruest to slyt the ryndes and to gader ye humour that comyth oute therof and drynkyth in stede of wyn. And such drynke quencheth thurste. But it fedyth not nother nourryssheth not, nother makyth men dronke.”

[44]In regard to this paper (probably the first made in England for printing) seeBibliography, p.204.

[45]For dates, full titles, etc., of all the editions ofBanckes’s HerbalseeBibliography of English Herbals.

[46]See p.44.

[47]SeeBibliography of English Herbals.

[48]Robert Wyer was one of the most famous printers of the early sixteenth century. He came of a Buckinghamshire family and was probably a near relation of John Wyer, also a printer who lived in Fleet Street, for both of them used the device of St. John the Evangelist. He served his apprenticeship to Richard Pynson, whose printing press was in the rentals of Norwich House near the site of the present Villiers Street, and on Pynson’s death succeeded to the business. In both his editions of the herbal there is his well-known device of St. John the Evangelist bareheaded and dressed in a flowing robe, sitting under a tree on an island and writing on a scroll spread over his right knee. At his right hand is an eagle with outstretched wings holding an inkwell in its beak, and in the background are the towers and spires of a great city.

[49]Ames catalogues two other editions of the herbal by “W. C.,” one published by Anthony Kitson and the other by Richard Kele, but no known copies of these exist.

[50]Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1913.

[51]The popular belief in the power of sweet-smelling herbs to ward off infection of the much-dreaded plague rose to its height in Charles II.’s reign, when bunches of rosemary were sold for six and eightpence. Till recently there were at least two survivals of this belief in herbal scents—the doctor’s gold-headed cane (formerly a pomander carried at the end of a cane) and the little bouquets carried by the clergy at the distribution of the Maundy Money in Westminster Abbey.

[52]For dates of later editions seeBibliography of English Herbals.

[53]For fuller bibliographical details of theHerbarius zu Teutschand theOrtus SanitatisseeBibliography of Foreign Herbals.

[54]Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine.

[55]The illustrations in the second and later editions of theHerbarius zu Teutschare very inferior to those in the first, which are beautiful.The vertuose boke of Distillacyon of the waters of all maner of Herbes(1527), translated by Laurence Andrew from theLiber de arte distillandiby Hieronymus Braunschweig, is illustrated with cuts from the same wood-blocks as theGrete Herball.

[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.

“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 yedo, 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’sAthenæ Oxonienseswe 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, wherehe 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.

Turner wrote the first part of his Herbal when he wasabroad, but he delayed publication until the conclusion of his wanderings. On his return to England he became chaplain and physician to the Duke of Somerset, and it is generally believed that he sat in the House of Commons.[63]He was promised the prebend of Botevant in York, and in a letter written to thank Cecil for the promise we find the remark, “My chylder have bene fed so long with hope that they are very leane, i wold fayne have thē fatter if it were possible.”

Turner held this appointment for little more than two years, and after failing to obtain either the provostship of Oriel College, Oxford, or the presidency of Magdalen, he seems to have become despondent. He wanted a house “where i may studie in and have sū place to lay my bookes in,” and in another letter he complains of “being pened up in a chamber with all my ho[use] holde seruantes and children as shepe in a pyndfolde.... i can not go to my booke for ye crying of childer and noyse yt is made in my chamber.” Finally he begged leave to go abroad, “where I will also finishe my great herball and my bookes of fishes, stones and metalles if God send me lyfe and helthe.” He was subsequently made Dean of Wells, but he lost this office on the accession of Mary, and, like so many of the Protestant divines, he went abroad. He stayed at Bonn, Frankfort, Freiburg, Lauterburg [? Lauenburg], Mainz, Rodekirche, Strasburg, Speyer, Worms, Cologne and Weissenburg. At Cologne and Weissenburg he had gardens, and it was from Cologne that he published the second part of his Herbal. His works were proclaimed heretical for the second time in 1555, and the Wardens of every Company had to give notice of any copy they had in order that they might be destroyed. It is not surprising that Turner’s works are rare!

On the accession of Elizabeth he returned to England andwas reinstated in the deanery of Wells.[64]His diocesan seems to have found him troublesome, for in 1559 the Bishop of Bath and Wells wrote:

“I am much encombred with mr. Doctor Turner Deane of Welles for his indiscreete behavior in the pulpit where he medleth wthall matters.... I have advertised him by wrytynges and have admonished secretly by his owne frendes: notwithstanding he persisteth still in his follie: he conten̄eth all Bishopps and calleth thē white coats, typpett gentlemē, with other wordes of reproche [mu]che more unsemlie and asketh ‘who gave them autoritie more ouer me then I ouer them’?“Gilbert Bath and Wells.”January 24,1559-60.

“Gilbert Bath and Wells.”

January 24,1559-60.

There is a story told that Turner trained his dog at a given sign to snatch the bishop’s square cap off his head when the prelate was dining with him. If this is true, possibly it accounts for the fact that he was subsequently suspended for Nonconformity, after which, being precluded from clerical duties, he left Wells and returned to London. He lived in Crutched Friars and, like the two other Elizabethan herbalists, had a famous garden. He was in failing health when he completed his herbal, and there is extant a pathetic letter (the greater part of it written by an amanuensis) to his staunch patron Lord Burleigh, which is signed “Your old and seikly client

wllm turner doctor of physic.”

Turner died in 1568, and was buried in S. Olave’s, Crutched Friars, where the tablet to his memory can still be seen.

CLARISSIMO . DOCTISSIMO . FORTISSIMOQUE . VIRO | GULIELMO .

TURNERO . MEDICO . AC . THEOLOGICO . PERITISSI | MO .DECANO . WELLENSI . PER . ANNOS . TRIGINTA . IN . VTRAQUE |SCIENTIA . EXERCITATISSIMVS . ECCLESIAE . ET . REI . PUBLICAE |PROFVIT . ET . CONTRA . VTRIVSQUE . PERNITIOSISSIMOS . HOS |TES . MAXIME . VERO . ROMANUM . ANTICHRISTVM . FORTISSIMUS |JESU . CHRISTI . MILES . ACERRIME . DIMICAVIT . AC . TANDEM .COR | PUS . SENIO . ET . LABORIBUS . CONFECTVM . IN . SPEM .BEATISSIM : |

RESVRRECTIONIS . HIC . DEPOSVIT . ANIMAM . IMMORTALEM |CHARISSIMO . EIVSQUE . SANCTISSIMO . DEO . REDDIDIT . ET .DEVICTIS . CHRISTI . VIRTUTE . MVNDI . CARNISQUE . VIRIBUS .TRIUMPHAT IN AETERNUM .

MAGNVS . APOLLINEA . QVONDAM . TVRNERVS . IN . ARTEMAGNUS . ET . IN . VERA . RELIGIONE . FVIT .MORS . TAMEN . OBREPENS . MAIOREM . REDDIDIT ILLVM .CIVIS . ENIM . CAELI . REGNA . SVPERNA . TENETOBIIT . 7 DIE . IVLII . AN . DOM . 1568 .

In his will, which is too long to quote here, Turner bequeathed to his wife[65]“his best pece or syluer vessell and halfe dozen of syluer spones,” and to his nephew “my lyttell furred gowne.” Peter, the son to whom he left “all my writen bookes and if he be a preacher all my diuinitie bookes, & yf he practise Phisicke all my physicke bookes,” had some knowledge of plants, for in a copy of Turner’s Herbal in the Linnean Society’s Library there is a long list of errata for which Peter Turner apologised in an Address to the Reader. There is something very naïve and charming about Peter’s admiration for his father’s “fame and estimation.” He tells us that he has diligently compared the printed book with his father’s “owne hande copie,” and refrains from having the whole book printed again because “Ishould have done against Charitie to have caused the Printer by that meanes to lose all his labor and cost which he hath bestowed in printing hereof. Wherefore, gentle Reader, beare a little with the Printer that never was much accustomed to the printing of Englishe and afore thou reade over this booke correct it as I haue appointed and then the profit thereof will abundantly recompense thy paynes. In the meane time vse this Herbale in stede of a better and give all laude and prayse unto the Lorde.”

Turner was the first Englishman who studied plants scientifically, and his herbal marks the beginning of the science of botany in England. Like most writers of any value, he impressed his personality upon his books, and these show him to have been a man of indomitable character, caustic wit and independent thought. “Vir solidae eruditionis judicii” he is called by John Ray. His first botanical work was theLibellus de re herbaria novus(1538), printed by John Byddell in London. This little book is particularly interesting, because it is the first in which localities of native British plants are given. In 1548 he published another small book entitledThe names of herbes in Greke, Latin, Englishe, Duche, and Frenche wyth the commone names that Herbaries and Apotecaries use, gathered by William Turner. In the preface he tells us that he had begun to “set furth an herbal in latyn,” but that when he asked the advice of physicians, “their advise was that I shoulde cease from settynge out of this boke in latin till I had sene those places of Englande, wherein is moste plentie of herbes, that I might in my herbal declare to the greate honoure of our countre what numbre of sovereine and strang herbes were in England, that were not in other nations, whose counsell I have folowed, deferrying to set out my herbal in latyn, tyl that I have sene the west countrey, which I never sawe yet in al my lyfe, which countrey of al places of England, as I heare say, is moste richely replenished wyth al kindes of straunge and wonderfull workes and giftes of nature as are stones, herbes,fishes and metalles, when as they that moued me to the settyng furth of my latin herbal, hearde this so reasonable an excuse, they moved me to set out an herbal in Englishe as Fuchsius dyd in latine wyth the discriptions, figures and properties of as many herbes, as I had sene and knewe, to whom I could make no other answere but that I had no such leasure in this vocation and place that I am nowe in, as is neccessary for a man that shoulde take in hande suche an interprise. But thys excuse coulde not be admitted for both certeine scholars, poticaries, and also surgeons, required of me if that I woulde not set furth my latin herbal, before I have sene the west partes, and have no leasure in thys place and vocation to write so great a worke, at the least to set furth my judgement of the names of so many herbes as I knew, whose request I have accomplished, and have made a litle boke, which is no more but a table or regestre of suche bokes as I intende by the grace of God to set furth hereafter; if that I may obteine by your graces healp such libertie and leasure with convenient place, as shall be necessary for suche a purpose.”

Turner’s notable work, his Herbal, is the only original work on botany written by any Englishman in the sixteenth century. The first part of it was printed in London by Steven Mierdman, a Protestant refugee from Antwerp, in 1551. The second part was printed by Arnold Birckman, at Cologne, in 1561, during Turner’s enforced exile. Birckman also printed the edition of 1568, which contained all three parts. (For the full title, etc., seeBibliography of Herbals, p.208.)

One of the most attractive features of this Herbal is the number of beautiful woodcuts with which it is illustrated. A few were specially drawn and cut for the author, but the great majority are reproductions of the exquisite drawings in Fuchs’s herbals (De historia Stirpium, 1545; andNeue Kreüterbuch, 1543). Nearly all the illustrations in the famous sixteenth-century Flemish, English and Swiss herbals were printed from the actual wood-blocks or copied from the illustrations in Fuchs’sworks. Notably in Hieronymus Bock’sKreüter Buch(1546), Rembert Dodoens’sCruÿdtboeck(1554), Henry Lyte’sNiewe Herball(1578), and Jean Bauhin’sHistoria plantarum universalis(1651). It is a remarkable fact that so far as wood-engraving is concerned this country has contributed nothing to the art of plant illustration. In the first English illustrated Herbal, theGrete Herballof 1526, the figures are merely copies of the inferior cuts in the later editions of theHerbarius zu Teutsch, and, with the exception of Parkinson’sParadisus, all the English sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century herbals borrowed their illustrations from Flemish or German sources. Fuchs had two sets of blocks for his Herbal, one for the folio edition of 1542 and the other for the octavo edition of 1545. It was the blocks for the latter which were borrowed by Turner’s printer, and it has been suggested that it was his desire to secure these beautiful illustrations which led him to have his herbal printed at Cologne.[66]Over 400 of Fuchs’s blocks were used in the complete edition of Turner’s Herbal, and, of the rest, some are copied from the smaller figures in Mattioli’s[67]commentary on Dioscorides.

Turner dedicated the first part of his Herbal (1551) to the Duke of Somerset, uncle to Edward VI., and at that time Lord Protector. The preface is delightful and I quote a part of it:—

“To the mighty and christiane Prince Edward, Duke of Summerset, Erle of Herford, Lorde Beauchampe, and Uncle unto the Kynges maiesty, Wyllyam Turner his servant wysheth increase in the knowledge of Goddes holy worde and grace to lyue thereafter. Although (most myghty and Christian Prince) there be many noble and excellent actes and sciences, which noman douteth but that almyghty God, the author of all goodness, hath gyuen unto us by the hands of the Hethen, as necessary unto the use of Mankynd: yet is there none among them all, whych is so openly cōmended by the verdit of any holy writer in the Bible, as is ye knowledge of plantes, herbes, and trees and of Phisick. I do not remembre that I have red anye expressed commendations of Grammer, Logick, Philosophie, naturall or morall, Astronomie, Arithmetyke, Geometry, Cosmographie, Musycke, Perspectiue or any other such lyke science. But I rede amonge the commendatyons and prayses of Kyng Salomon, that he was sene in herbes shrubbes and trees and so perfectly that he disputed wysely of them from the hyghest to the lowest, that is from the Cedre tre in Mount Liban unto the Hysop that groweth furth of the wall. If the Knowledge of Herbes, shrubbes and trees which is not the lest necessary thynge unto the knowledge of Phisicke were not greatly commendable it shulde never have bene set among Salomon’s commendacyons and amongst the singular giftes of God. Therefor whereas Salomon was commended for the Knowledge of Herbes the same Knowledge was expressedly ynough com̄ended there also.” Continuing, he speaks of learned Englishmen “Doctor Clement, Doctor Wendy and Doctor Owen, Doctor Wolton and Maister Falconer”[68]which “have as much knowledge in herbes yea and more than diuerse Italianes and Germanes whyche have set forth in prynte Herballes and bokes of simples. Yet hath none of al these set furth any thyng other to the generall profit of hole Christendome in latin and to the honor of thys realme, nether in Englysh to the proper profit of their naturall countre.” After slyly observing that perhaps they do not care to jeopardise their estimation, he compares himself, for having ventured to write this book, with the soldier “who is more frendly unto the commonwealth, which adventurously runneth among themyddes of hys enemyes, both gyuyng and takyng blowes, then he that, whilse other men feight, standeth in the top of a tre iudging how other men do, he beynge without the danger of gonne shot himself.”

To those who may object that it is too small, he explains that he will write more fully when he has “travelled diverse shyres in England to learn more of the herbs that grow there.” Others may condemn him for writing in English, “for now (say they) every man without any study of necessary artes unto the knowledge of Phisick will become a Phisician ... euery man nay euery old wyfe will presume, not without the mordre of many, to practyse Phisick.” To these he succinctly replies, “How many surgianes and apothecaries are there in England which can understand Plini in Latin or Galen and Dioscorides?” The English physicians, he says, rely on the apothecaries, and they in turn on the old wives who gather the herbs. Moreover, since the physicians are not present when their prescriptions are made up, “many a good mā by ignorance is put in jeopardy of his life, or good medecine is marred to the great dishonesty both of the Phisician and of Goddes worthy creatures.” All this can be avoided by having a herbal written in English. Dioscorides and Galen, he points out, wrote in their native tongue, Greek. “Dyd Dioscorides and Galen give occasion for every old wyfe to take in hād the practise of Phisick? Did they giue any iust occasion of murther? If they gaue no occasyon unto every old wyfe to practise physike then give I none. If they gave no occasion of murther then gyue I none ... then am I no hynderer wryting unto the English my countremen an English herball.”

The second part of Turner’s Herbal is dedicated to his old patron, Thomas Lord Wentworth, and the complete work, including the third part, to Queen Elizabeth.[69]In the prefaceto this last he reminds the queen of a conversation he had had with her in Latin eighteen years before, at the Duke of Somerset’s house, when he was physician to that nobleman. It is in this preface also that he criticises the foreign herbalists; though he has learnt much from them, they had much to learn from him, “as their second editions maye testifye.” He claims that in the first part of his herbal he taught “the truth of certeyne plants which these above-named writers (Matthiolus, Fuchsius, Tragus and Dodoneus) either knew not at al or ellis erred in them greatlye.... And because I would not be lyke unto a cryer yt cryeth a loste horse in the marketh, and telleth all the markes and tokens that he hath, and yet never sawe the horse, nether coulde knowe the horse if he sawe him: I wente into Italye and into diverse partes of Germany, to knowe and se the herbes my selfe.”

The book owes much of its charm to its vivid descriptions of the plants, and the fascinating and unexpected details he gives us about them. The comparison of dodder, for instance, to “a great red harpe strynge,” is a happy touch which it is impossible to forget. “Doder groweth out of herbes and small bushes as miscelto groweth out of trees. Doder is lyke a great red harpe strynge and it wyndeth about herbes foldyng mych about them and hath floures and knoppes one from an other a good space.... The herbes that I have marked doder to growe most in are flax and tares.”

These accurate observations and careful descriptions are characteristic of the writer, and recall similar touches in the Saxon herbals. For example, he records that the stamens of the Madonna lily have a different smell from the flower itself, and that the berries of the bay tree are almost, but not quite, round. There is only space to quote the following:—

“The lily hath a long stalk and seldom more than one, howbeit it hath somtyme II. It is II or III cubites hyghe. It hath long leves and somthyng of the fashion of the great satyrion. The flour is excedyng white and it hath the forme orfashion of a long quiver, that is to say, smal at the one end and byg at the other. The leves of the floures are full of crestes, and the overmost ends of the leves bowe a little backwarde and from the lowest parte within come forth long small yelow thynges lyke thredes of another smelle than the floures are of. The roote is round and one pece groweth hard to another allmoste after the maner of the roote of Garleke, but that the clowes in the lily are broder.”“The leaves of the Bay tree are alwayes grene and in figure and fashion they are lyke unto periwincle. They are long and brodest in the middest of the lefe. They are blackishe grene namely when they are olde. They are curled about the edges, they smell well. And when they are casten into the fyre they crake wonderfully. The tre in England is no great tre, but it thryveth there many partes better and is lustier than in Germany. The berries are allmoste round but not altogether. The kirnell is covered with a thick black barke which may well be parted from the kirnell.”“Blewbottel groweth in ye corne, it hath a stalke full of corners, a narrow and long leefe. In the top of the stalke is a knoppy head whereupon growe bleweflowers about midsummer. The chylder use to make garlandes of the floure. It groweth much amonge Rye wherefore I thinke that good ry in an evell and unseasonable yere doth go out of kinde in to this wede.”“Pennyroyal.—It crepeth much upon the ground and hath many lytle round leves not unlyke unto the leves of merierum gentil but that they are a little longer and sharper and also litle indented rounde about, and grener than the leves of meriurum ar. The leves grow in litle branches even from the roote of certayn ioyntes by equall spaces one devyded from an other. Where as the leves grow in litle tuftes upon the over partes of the braunches.... Pennyroyal groweth much, without any setting, besyd hundsley [Hounslow] upon the heth beside a watery place.”Of camomile he writes: “It hath floures wonderfully shynynge yellow and resemblynge the appell of an eye ... the herbe may be called in English, golden floure. It will restore a man to hys color shortly yf a man after the longe use of the bathe drynke of it after he is come forthe oute of the bath. This herbe is scarce in Germany but in England it is so plenteous that it groweth not only in gardynes but also VIII mile above London, it groweth in the wylde felde, in Rychmonde grene, in Brantfurde grene.... Thys herb was consecrated by the wyse men of Egypt unto the sonne and was rekened to be the only remedy of all agues.”

“The leaves of the Bay tree are alwayes grene and in figure and fashion they are lyke unto periwincle. They are long and brodest in the middest of the lefe. They are blackishe grene namely when they are olde. They are curled about the edges, they smell well. And when they are casten into the fyre they crake wonderfully. The tre in England is no great tre, but it thryveth there many partes better and is lustier than in Germany. The berries are allmoste round but not altogether. The kirnell is covered with a thick black barke which may well be parted from the kirnell.”

“Blewbottel groweth in ye corne, it hath a stalke full of corners, a narrow and long leefe. In the top of the stalke is a knoppy head whereupon growe bleweflowers about midsummer. The chylder use to make garlandes of the floure. It groweth much amonge Rye wherefore I thinke that good ry in an evell and unseasonable yere doth go out of kinde in to this wede.”

“Pennyroyal.—It crepeth much upon the ground and hath many lytle round leves not unlyke unto the leves of merierum gentil but that they are a little longer and sharper and also litle indented rounde about, and grener than the leves of meriurum ar. The leves grow in litle branches even from the roote of certayn ioyntes by equall spaces one devyded from an other. Where as the leves grow in litle tuftes upon the over partes of the braunches.... Pennyroyal groweth much, without any setting, besyd hundsley [Hounslow] upon the heth beside a watery place.”

Of camomile he writes: “It hath floures wonderfully shynynge yellow and resemblynge the appell of an eye ... the herbe may be called in English, golden floure. It will restore a man to hys color shortly yf a man after the longe use of the bathe drynke of it after he is come forthe oute of the bath. This herbe is scarce in Germany but in England it is so plenteous that it groweth not only in gardynes but also VIII mile above London, it groweth in the wylde felde, in Rychmonde grene, in Brantfurde grene.... Thys herb was consecrated by the wyse men of Egypt unto the sonne and was rekened to be the only remedy of all agues.”

Unlike modern authorities, Turner contends that our English hyssop is the same plant as that mentioned in the Bible, and he also describes a species which does not now exist. “We have in Sumershire beside ye cōmē Hysop that groweth in all other places of Englande a kinde of Hysop that is al roughe and hory and it is greater muche and stronger then the cōmen Hysop is, som call it rough Hysop.” Another plant which seems to have disappeared and which, he states, no other writer describes, is “the wonderful great cole with leaves thrise as thike as ever I saw any other cole have. It hath whyte floures and round berryes lyke yvy. This herbe groweth at douer harde by the Sea-syde. I name it the Douer cole because I founde it first besyde Douer.” Incidentally he mentions samphire also as growing at Dover.

It is interesting to find that Turner identifies theHerba Britannicaof Dioscorides and Pliny (famed for having cured the soldiers of Julius Cæsar of scurvy in the Rhine country) withPolygonum bistorta, which he observed plentifully in Friesland, the scene of Pliny’s observations. This herb is held by more modern authorities to beRumex aquations(great water dock).

Drawings of cucumber, dog rose, pea and teazle plants

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM TURNER’S “HERBAL”

Throughout the Herbal there are recollections of the north of England, where the author spent his boyhood. Of heath, for instance, he tells us: “The hyest hethe that ever I sawgroweth in Northumberland, which is so hyghe that a man may hyde himself in.” Of the wild hyacinth he writes: “The boyes in Northūberland scrape the roote of the herbe and glew theyr arrowes and bokes wyth that slyme that they scrape of.” Of sea-wrake (seaweed) he tells us: “In the Bishopriche of Durham the housbandmen of the countie that dwel by the sea syde use to fate [fatten,i. e.manure] their lande with seawrake.” Under “birch” we find: “Fisherers in Northumberland pyll off the uttermost barke and put it in the clyft of a sticke and set in fyre and hold it at the water syde and make fish come thether, whiche if they se they stryke with theyr leysters or sammon speres. The same,” he continues, “is good to make hoopes of and twigges for baskettes, it is so bowinge. It serveth for many good uses and for none better then for betinge of stubborne boyes that ether lye or will not learne.”

Cudweed “is called in Northumberland chafwede because it is thought to be good for chafyng of any man’s fleshe wyth goynge or rydynge.” And it would be interesting to know if the daisy is still called banwurt in the north. “The Northern men call thys herbe banwurt because it helpeth bones to knyt agayne.... Plinie writeth that the dasey hath III and sometimes IV little whyte leves whiche go about the yelow knope, it appereth that the double Daseys were not founde in plinies tyme whych have a greate dele mo then Plini maketh mention of.”

There are other country customs which he records. “Shepherds use clivers [goosegrass] in stede of a strayner to pull out here of the mylke;” “birderers [bird-catchers] take bowes of birch and lime the twigges and go a bat folinge with them;” “som make a lee [lye] or an ashy water of the rotes of gentian wherwyth they toke out spottes very well out of cloth.” He mentions woad as “trimmed wyth mannes labor in dyenge and wull and clothe,” and teazle “which the fullers dresse their cloth wtall.” Apparently Turner gave the spindle tree its name, for he says: “I coulde never learne an Englishename for it. The Duche men call it in Netherlande, spilboome, that is, spindel tree, because they use to make spindels of it in that countrey, and me thynke it maye be so well named in English seying we have no other name.... I know no good propertie that this tree hath, saving only it is good to make spindels and brid of cages” [bird cages].

The use of complexion washes was a custom on which Turner was alarmingly severe. There are fewer beauty recipes in his herbal than in any other—only four altogether. “Some weomen,” we find, “sprinkle ye floures of cowslip wtwhyte wine and after still it and wash their faces wtthat water to drive wrinkles away and to make them fayre in the eyes of the worlde rather then in the eyes of God, whom they are not afrayd to offend.” And of marygold we learn that “Summe use to make theyr here yelow with the floure of this herbe, not beyng contēt with the naturall colour which God hath geven thē.”

There is curiously little folk lore in this herbal, and most of it is guarded by “some do say” or “some hold.” Nevertheless, with this qualification, Turner gives us fragments of folk lore not to be found in other herbals. For instance, that nutshells burnt and bound to the back of a child’s head will make grey eyes black, and that parsley thrown into fish ponds will heal the sick fishes therein. Again, this is the first herbal in which any account is to be found of the very old custom of curing disease in cattle by boring a hole in the ear and inserting the herb bearfoot.[70]

“They say it should be used thus. The brodest part of the ear must have a round circle made about it wtthe blood that rinneth furth with a brasen botken and the same circle must be round lyke unto the letter O, and when this is done without and in the higher part of the ear the halfe of the foresaid circle is to be bored thorowe with the foresaid botken and the roote of the herbe is to be put in at the hole, when ytnewe wounde that hath receyued it holdeth it so fast, that it willnot let it go furth, then all the mighte and pestilent poison of the disease is brought so into the eare. And whilse the part which is circled aboute dyeth and falleth awaye ythole beast is saved with the lose of a very small parte.”

Another piece of folk lore is remarkable because it is the only instance in an English herbal of a belief in the effect of a human being on a plant: “If ye woulde fayne have very large and greate gourdes, then take sedes that growe there [in the sides].... And let weomen nether touche the yonge gourdes nor loke upon them, for the only touchinge and sighte of weomen kille the yonge gourdes.” This belief he quotes from Pliny.

Turner, again, is the only old herbalist who refers to the old and widespread belief that larch was fire-proof. It was largely used, he tells us, for laying under the tiles of newly-built houses, as “a sure defence against burning,” and he narrates at length how Julius Cæsar was unable to burn a tower built with larch. On the old mandrake legend he is scathing. “The rootes which are counterfited and made like litle puppettes and mammettes which come to be sold in England in boxes with heir [hair] and such forme as man hath, are nothyng elles but folishe fened trifles and not naturall. For they are so trymmed of crafty theves to mocke the poore people withall and to rob them both of theyr wit and theyr money. I have in my tyme at diverse tymes takē up the rootes of mandrake out of the grounde but I never saw any such thyng upon or in them as are in and upon the pedlers rootes that are comenly to be solde in boxes. It groweth not under galloses [gallows] as a certayn doting doctor of Colon in his physick lecture dyd teach hys auditors.” But he accepts without question the belief in its efficacy as an anæsthetic: “It is given to those who must be burned or cut in some place that they should not fele the burning or cuttyng.” Of wine made of it, he says: “If they drynk thys drynke they shall fele no payne, but they shall fall into a forgetfull and slepishe drowsiness. Of the apples of mandrake, if a man smell of them thei will make hym slepe and also if they be eaten.But they that smell to muche of the apples become dum ... thys herbe diverse wayes taken is very jepardus for a man and may kill hym if he eat it or drynk it out of measure and have no remedy from it.... If mandragora be taken out of measure by and by slepe ensueth and a great lousing of the streyngthe with a forgetfulness.”

Turner is one of the few herbalists who cautions against the excessive use of any herb. “Onions eaten in meat largely make the head ake, they make them forgetfull whiche in the tyme of syknes use them out of mesure.” “Cole engendreth euell and melancholie juice. It dulleth the syght and it troubleth the slepe wyth contrary thynges which are sene in the dreme.” Of nigella he writes: “Take hede that ye take not to muche of this herbe, for if ye go beyonde the mesure it bryngeth deth.” “Hemp seed,” he says, “if it be taken out of measure taketh men’s wyttes from thē as coriander doth.” “If any person use saffron measurably it maketh in them a good colour, but if thei use it out of mesure it maketh hym loke pale, and maketh the hede ache and hurteth the appetite.” For those who have taken an overdose of opium there is a surprising remedy. “If the pacient be to much slepi put stynkynge thynges unto hys nose to waken hym therewith.” As in all herbals of this period, there are an astonishing number of remedies against melancholy and suggestions for those whose weak brains will not stand much strong drink; but, while remedies for broken heads, so common in the older herbals, are conspicuously absent, we find that walnuts are recommended “for the bytings both of men and dogges”!

As in theGrete Herball, there are many descriptions of other substances besides herbs, some of the longest being of dates, rice, olives, citron, pomegranates and lentils. The account of citron it would be pleasant to transcribe in full, not for the sake of the story but for the manner of the telling. One could listen to a sermon of considerable length from a divine who, in a book intended for grown-ups, has a tale of “two naughty murthering robbers, condemned for theyr murder and robery to be flayn andpoysoned to deth of serpentes, and such venemous bestes,” and of the one who, owing to having eaten “a pece of citron,” remained, Daniel-like, unhurt by the poison of the snakes, whilst the other who had not taken this precaution “fell down sterk dede.” And finally, the moral—“Wherefore it were wisdome that noblemen and other that are bydden to dynner of theyr enemies or suspected frendes before they eat any other thyng should take a pece of citron.”

The later sixteenth-century herbalists owed much to the famous herbalists of the Netherlands, and above all to that prince amongst publishers, Christophe Plantin of Antwerp, whose personality secured him a unique place in the literary world. Indeed, there is a splendour about the works of the Flemish herbalists unequalled by any others of this period, with the exception of the Bavarian doctor Leonhard Fuchs. There is no comparison between them and the Italian herbalists of the Renaissance, who, for the greater part, devoted themselves to studying the classical writers and identifying the plants mentioned by the old authorities. France, curiously enough, contributed comparatively little when the herbal was at its zenith, though it must of course be remembered that the Bauhins, who rank as Swiss herbalists, were of French extraction. But it is difficult to estimate the influence of the works of those three notable friends, Rembert Dodoens, Charles de l’Escluse and Matthias de l’Obel, particularly on the English herbalists. The most famous English herbal—Gerard’s—is virtually a translation of thePemptadesof Dodoens. Lyte’s translation of theCruÿdtboeckwas the standard work on herbs during the latter part of the century, and Parkinson incorporated a large part of de l’Obel’s unfinished book in hisTheatrum Botanicum.

De l’Obel, after whom the little garden flower—lobelia—is named, spent the greater part of his life in England. He was a Fleming by birth and a doctor by profession,[71]and he wasphysician to William the Silent until his assassination. About 1569 he came over to England (with his friend Pena, who at one time was physician to Louis XIII.) and lived at Highgate with his son-in-law. He superintended Lord Zouche’s garden at Hackney, and later was given the title of botanist to James I. L’Obel’s great work, written in collaboration with Pena, was theStirpium Adversaria Nova, printed in London by Thomas Purfoot in 1571.[72]Pulteney, in hisBiographical Sketches(1790), makes the extraordinary statement that Christophe Plantin of Antwerp was the real printer. It has, however, been pointed out by modern authorities that the archives of the Plantin Museum show that Plantin bought 800 copies of Purfoot’s edition, with the wood blocks, for 1320 florins. In 1576 Plantin published de l’Obel’sPlantarum seu Stirpium historia, and to this he appended the first part of theAdversaria, keeping Purfoot’s original colophon.

Although Dodoens neither lived in England nor had any of his works printed here, hisCruÿdtboeckbecame one of the standard works in this country through Lyte’s translation. Dodoens was born at Malines about 1517 and, after studying at Louvain, visited the universities and medical schools of France, Italy and Germany, graduated M.D., and was appointed physician to Maximilian II. and Rudolf II. successively. In the latter part of his life he was Professor of Medicine at Leyden, where he died in 1585. Plantin published Dodoens’s most important work,Stirpium historiæ pemptades sex sive libri triginta, in which some of the figures are copied from the fifth-century manuscript[73]copy of Dioscorides. Dodoens’s first book, theCruÿdtboeck, was translated into French by his friend Charles de l’Escluse[74]and afterwards into English by Henry Lyte.

Lyte, who was an Oxford man, travelled extensively in his youth and made a collection of rare plants. He contributed nothing original to the literature on herbs, but his translation of the French version of theCruÿdtboeckwas an inestimable service. His own copy of the French version, which is now in the British Museum, has on the title-page the quaint inscription “Henry Lyte taught me to speake Englishe.” The book is full of MS. notes and references to Turner.

The full title of Lyte’s book is as follows: “A niewe Herball or Historie of Plantes: wherein is contayned the whole discourse and perfect description of all sortes of Herbes and Plantes: their divers and sundry kindes: their straunge Figures, Fashions and Shapes: their Names, Natures, Operations, and Vertues: and that not only of those which are here growyng in this our Countrie of Englande but of all others also of forrayne Realmes, commonly used in Physicke. First set foorth in the Doutche or Almaigne tongue by that learned D. Rembert Dodoens, Physition to the Emperour: And nowe first translated out of French into English by Henry Lyte Esquyer.”

(Colophon.) “Imprinted at Antwerpe by Me Henry Loë Booke printer and are to be solde at London in Paul’s churchyarde by Gerard Dewes.”[75]

The beautiful illustrations in Lyte’sDodoensare to a large extent printed from the same blocks as those in the octavo edition (1545) of Fuchs. In Fuchs there are about 516 illustrations, and in Lyte’sDodoensabout 870. Those which are not copied from Fuchs were probably collected by Dodoens himself, who, according to some verses at the beginning of the herbal, took a practical interest in the publication of the English translation of his book.

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