William Turner (naturalist)
William Turner (1509/10 – 13 July 1568)
He first published Libellus de Re herbaria in Latin in 1538, and later translated it into English because he believed herbalists were not sharing their knowledge. Turner's works were condemned under Henry VIII and under Mary Tudor.[2]
Biography
Early years
Turner was born in
In 1540, he began travelling about preaching until he was arrested. After his release, he went on to study medicine in Italy, at Ferrara and Bologna, from 1540 to 1542 and was incorporated M.D. at one of these universities. He married Jane Auder[6] (perhaps a widow of a Mr Cage when they married[citation needed]) who gave birth to a son Peter in 1542. After his death, she remarried Richard Cox, Bishop of Ely.[7]
Career
After completing his medical degree, he became physician to the Earl of
After the succession of
Quite early in his career, Turner became interested in natural history and set out to produce reliable lists of English plants and animals, which he published as Libellus de re herbaria in 1538. In 1544, Turner published Avium praecipuarum, quarum apud Plinium et Aristotelem mentio est, brevis et succincta historia ("The Principal Birds of Aristotle and Pliny..."), which not only discussed the principal birds and bird names mentioned by Aristotle and Pliny the Elder but also added accurate descriptions and life histories of birds from his own extensive ornithological knowledge. This is the first printed book devoted entirely to birds.[9]
In 1545, Turner published The Rescuynge of the Romishe Fox, and in 1548, The Names of Herbes. In 1551, he published the first of three parts of his famous Herbal, on which his botanical fame rests.
A new herball, wherin are conteyned the names of herbes… (London: imprinted by
A New Book of Spiritual Physick was published in 1555. In 1562, Turner published the second part of his Herbal, dedicated to
As a member of the nonconformist faction in the Vestments controversy Turner was famous for making an adulterer do public penance wearing a square cap and for teaching his dog to steal such caps from bishop's heads. His scholarly pursuits had other, distinctly political, implications. According to Tudor historian Lacey Baldwin Smith, for instance, "Religious discontent and civil rebellion were obviously walking hand in hand when William Turner dared speak out against [Henry VIII's] proclamation of 1543 limiting the reading of the Bible to men of social standing. What kind of ungodly belly wisdom was it, he demanded, to say that 'rich men and the nobles are wiser than the poor people?'"[12]
Turner embraced the transmutation of species. Historian of science Charles E. Raven wrote that "Turner, a shrewd observer and an excellent botanist, accepted transmutation as a commonplace event."[13]
Natural history publications
- 1538: Libellus de re herbaria novus. Bydell, London. Index 1878; facsimiles 1877, 1966.
- 1544: Avium praecipuarum, quarum apud Plinium et Aristotelem mentio est, brevis et succincta historia. Gymnicus, Cologne. ed Cambridge 1823; ed with transl. Cambridge 1903.
- 1548: Turner, William (1548). The Names of Herbes (1881 ed.). London: English dialect society.
- 1551: Turner, William (1995) [1562–8]. A New Herball Parts II and III. ISBN 978-0-521-44549-8. (Part 1 Mierdman, London 1551; Parts 2 and 3 Barckman, Cologne. 1562, 1568) Parts 1-2, 1551-1562, available at BHL
Other works are listed briefly by Raven.[14]
References
- ^ Year of birth from DNB; day of death preferred on grounds of a message sent by the Bishop of Norwich: see Raven p122.
- ^ a b Samson, Alexander. Locus Amoenus: Gardens and Horticulture in the Renaissance, 2012 :4
- ^ Raven, Charles E. 1947. English naturalists from Neckam to Ray: a study of the making of the modern world. Cambridge. p38
- ISBN 978-0-85244-516-7.
- ^ "Turner, William (TNR529W)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ "Richard Cox" 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica Vol. 7
- ^ 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ Adler, Mark (May 2010). Mendip Times. pp. 36–37.
{{cite news}}
: Missing or empty|title=
(help) - ^ "William Turner and the First Bird Book | BirdNote". BirdNote. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
- ISBN 978-1-9162686-1-6
- ^ Knight, Leah. Of Books and Botany in Early Modern England. p. 40.
- ^ Smith, Henry VIII: The Mask of Royalty, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1971, p. 128.
- ISBN 978-0-521-16639-3
- ^ Raven, Charles E. 1947. English naturalists from Neckam to Ray: a study of the making of the modern world. Cambridge. p71
Bibliography
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Hunt, William (1899). Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 57. London: Smith, Elder & Co. . In
- Jones, W. R. D. "Turner, William (1509/1510-1568)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27874. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
External links
- William Turner at the Galileo Project
- William Turner at Morpeth
- Evans AH 1903 Turner on birds. Cambridge University Press.
Historical editions
- Avium praecipuarum quarum apud Plinium et Aristotelem mentio est, ...
- The 1568 edition of the herbal, including part 3. From Rare Book Room.
Modern editions
- George Chapman/Anne Wesencraft/Frank McCombie/Marilyn Tweddle (eds.) William Turner: "A New Herball" Vols 1 and 2: Parts I, II and III. (Cambridge University Press 1996)
- Marie Addyman William Turner: "Father of English Botany" . (Friends of Carlisle Park 2008: Buy it at bookshops in Morpeth, via www.focpMorpeth.org or at Wells Cathedral)
- Works by William Turner at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)