View source for William Turner (naturalist)

{{short description|English Protestant reformer, physician and natural historian (c. 1509–1568)}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2017}}
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[[File:Mandrake - William Turner's Herbal.jpg|thumb|Illustration of [[Mandrake (plant)|mandrake]] from William Turner's ''Herbal'', the first to be written in English rather than [[Latin]]]]
'''William Turner''' (1509/10 – 13 July 1568)<ref>Year of birth from DNB; day of death preferred on grounds of a message sent by the Bishop of Norwich: see Raven p. 122.</ref> was an [[English people|English]] [[Anglicanism#Anglican divines|divine]] and [[Protestant Reformer|reformer]], a [[physician]] and a [[natural history|natural historian]]. He has been called "the father of English [[botany]]".<ref name=locus>Samson, Alexander. ''Locus Amoenus: Gardens and Horticulture in the Renaissance'', 2012 :4</ref> He studied medicine in Italy, and was a friend of the great [[Swiss people|Swiss]] naturalist [[Conrad Gessner]]. He was an early [[herbal]]ist and [[ornithology|ornithologist]], and it is in these fields that the most interest lies today.<ref>Raven, Charles E. 1947. ''English naturalists from Neckam to Ray: a study of the making of the modern world''. Cambridge. p38</ref> He is known as being one of the first "[[parson-naturalist]]s" in England.<ref name=parson-naturalist>{{cite book | author=Armstrong, Patrick  | title=The English Parson-naturalist: A Companionship Between Science and Religion | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hB0hEc4CN3wC | year=2000 | publisher=Gracewing | isbn=978-0-85244-516-7 | page=43}}</ref>

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 I of England|Mary Tudor]].<ref name=locus/>

==Biography==
[[File:William Turner Libellus de Re Herbaria 1538 candido lectori SPD page 02.jpg|thumb|upright|Title page of ''Libellus de Re Herbaria Novus'', 1538]]
[[File:William Turner Libellus de Re Herbaria 1538 candido lectori SPD page 01.jpg|thumb|upright|Preface of ''Libellus de Re Herbaria Novus'' with name Guilielmus Turnerus]]
[[File:William Turner Avium Praecipuarum Title Page 1544.jpg|thumb|upright|Title page of ''Avium Praecipuarum'', 1544, the first ever printed book devoted wholly to ornithology]]

===Early years===
Turner was born in [[Morpeth, Northumberland|Morpeth]], [[Northumberland]], in or around 1508. His father was probably a [[Tanning (leather)|tanner]] of the same name. He studied at [[Pembroke College, Cambridge|Pembroke Hall]], [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]], from 1526 to 1533, where he received his [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] in 1530 and his [[Master of Arts (Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin)|M.A.]] in 1533.<ref>{{acad|id=TNR529W|name=Turner, William}}</ref> He was a [[fellow]] and senior treasurer of Pembroke Hall. While at Cambridge he published several works, including ''Libellus de re herbaria'', in 1538. He spent much of his leisure in the careful study of plants which he sought in their native habitat, and described with an accuracy hitherto unknown in England.

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<ref>"Richard Cox" 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Vol. 7</ref> (perhaps a widow of a Mr Cage when they married{{citation needed|date=August 2017}}) who gave birth to a son [[Peter Turner (physician)|Peter]] in 1542. After his death, she remarried [[Richard Cox (bishop)|Richard Cox]], [[Bishop of Ely]].<ref>1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica''</ref>

===Career===
After completing his medical degree, he became physician to the Earl of [[Emden]]. Back in England, he became [[chaplain]] and [[physician]] to the [[Duke of Somerset]], and through Somerset's influence, he obtained ecclesiastical preferment. The position as Somerset's physician also led to practice among upper society. He was [[prebendary]] of Botevant in [[York Cathedral]] in 1550, and [[Dean (religion)|dean]] of [[Wells Cathedral]] from 1551 to 1553, where he established a [[herbal garden]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Adler|first=Mark|date=May 2010|work=Mendip Times|pages=36–37 <!-- access-date=29 April 2010 -->}}</ref> When [[Mary I of England]] acceded to the throne, Turner went into exile once again. From 1553 to 1558, he lived in [[Wissembourg|Wissembourg in Alsatian Rhineland]]—a Protestant centre linked to [[Martin Bucer]]—and supported himself as a physician. He became a supporter of [[Huldrych Zwingli | Zwingli]] at this time, if not before.

After the succession of [[Elizabeth I of England]] in 1558, Turner returned to England, and was once again Dean of Wells Cathedral from 1560 to 1564. His attempts to bring the English church into an agreement with the reformed churches of [[Germany]] and [[Switzerland]] led to his suspension for nonconformity in 1564. Turner died in [[London]] on 7 July 1568 at his home in [[Crutched Friars]], in the [[City of London]], and is buried in the church of [[St Olave Hart Street]]. An engraved stone on the southeast wall of this church commemorates Turner. [[Thomas Lever]], one of the great puritan preachers of the period, delivered the sermon at his funeral.

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 ''{{lang|la|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.<ref name="BirdNote">{{cite web|title=William Turner and the First Bird Book|url=https://www.birdnote.org/show/william-turner-and-first-bird-book|website=BirdNote|access-date=18 January 2018}}</ref>

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.

''{{Not a typo|A new herball, wherin are conteyned the names of herbes…}}'' (London: imprinted by [[Steven Mierdman|Steven Myerdman]] and {{Not a typo|soolde}} by John Gybken, 1551) is the first part of Turner's great work; the second was published in 1562 and the third in 1568, both by Arnold Birckman of [[Cologne]]. These volumes gave the first clear, systematic survey of English plants, and with their admirable woodcuts (mainly copied from [[Leonhart Fuchs]]'s 1542 ''[[De Historia Stirpium Commentarii Insignes]]'') and detailed observations based on Turner's own field studies put the [[herbal]] on an altogether higher footing than in earlier works. At the same time, however, Turner included an account of their "uses and {{Not a typo|vertues}}", and in his preface admits that some will accuse him of divulging to the general public what should have been reserved for a professional audience. For the first time, a herbal was available in England in the vernacular, from which people could identify the main English plants without difficulty.

''A New Book of Spiritual Physick'' was published in 1555. In 1562, Turner published the second part of his ''Herbal'', dedicated to [[Sir Thomas Wentworth]], son of the patron who had enabled him to go to Cambridge. This book was published by Arnold Birckman of Cologne, and included in the same binding Turner's treatise on baths. The second volume includes one of the earliest reference to the celebrated Glastonbury Thorn, only five miles from Wells, which Turner tells us "is grene all the wynter, as all they that dwell there about do stedfastly holde".<ref>Stout, Adam (2020) ''Glastonbury Holy Thorn: Story of a Legend'' Green & Pleasant Publishing, pp. 24–25  {{ISBN| 978-1-9162686-1-6}}</ref>  The third and last part of Turner's ''Herbal'' was published in 1568, in a volume that also contained revised editions of the first and second parts. This was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. He claimed that the herbal described only English plant species "whereof is no mention made neither of ye old Grecianes nor Latines".<ref>{{cite book |last=Knight |first=Leah |title=Of Books and Botany in Early Modern England |page=40}}</ref> ''A New Boke on the Natures and Properties of all Wines'', also published in 1568, had pharmacological intent behind it, as also the included ''Treatise of Triacle''.

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?{{'"}}<ref>Smith, ''Henry VIII: The Mask of Royalty'', Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1971, p. 128.</ref>

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."<ref>Raven, Charles E. (2010 edition). ''Natural Religion and Christian Theology: Volume 1, Science and Religion: The Gifford Lectures 1951''. Cambridge University Press, p. 205. {{ISBN|978-0-521-16639-3}}</ref>

=== Natural history publications ===
{{refbegin}}
* 1538: ''{{lang|la|Libellus de re herbaria novus}}''. Bydell, London. Index 1878; facsimiles 1877, 1966.
* 1544: ''{{lang|la|Avium praecipuarum, quarum apud Plinium et Aristotelem mentio est, brevis et succincta historia}}''. Gymnicus, Cologne. ed Cambridge 1823; ed with transl. Cambridge 1903.
* 1548: {{cite book |last1=Turner |first1=William |title=The Names of Herbes |date=1548|edition=1881 |publisher=[[English Dialect Society|English dialect society]] |location=London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZYIrUD8lP90C }}
* 1551: {{cite book|last=Turner|first=William|author-link=William Turner (naturalist)|title= A New Herball Parts II and III|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ouWABJeOC4MC|year=1995|orig-year=1562–8|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=978-0-521-44549-8}} (Part 1 Mierdman, London 1551; Parts 2 and 3 Barckman, Cologne. 1562, 1568) [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/153565 Parts 1–2, 1551–1562, available at BHL]
{{refend}}
Other works are listed briefly by Raven.<ref>Raven, Charles E. 1947. ''English naturalists from Neckam to Ray: a study of the making of the modern world''. Cambridge. p. 71</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Bibliography ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite EB1911 |wstitle = Turner, William |volume = 27 }}
* {{cite DNB |wstitle = Turner, William (d.1568) |volume = 57 |first = William |last = Hunt }}
* {{cite ODNB |title = Turner, William (1509/1510-1568) |first = W. R. D. |last = Jones |id = 27874 }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{commons category|William Turner (naturalist)}}
*[http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/turner_wil.html William Turner at the Galileo Project]
*[http://www.focpMorpeth.org William Turner at Morpeth]
* Evans AH 1903 [https://archive.org/details/cu31924022568285 Turner on birds]. Cambridge University Press.
<!--apparently no botanical abbreviation-->

'''Historical editions'''
* [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k74821j ''Avium praecipuarum quarum apud Plinium et Aristotelem mentio est, ...'']
* [http://www.rarebookroom.org/Control/turher/index.html ''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)
* {{Librivox author |id=15714}}

{{Deans of Wells}}
{{natural history}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, William}}
[[Category:1500s births]]
[[Category:1568 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Morpeth, Northumberland]]
[[Category:Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:16th-century English naturalists]]
[[Category:16th-century English botanists]]
[[Category:English ornithologists]]
[[Category:Deans of Wells]]
[[Category:Parson-naturalists]]
[[Category:Proto-evolutionary biologists]]
[[Category:Herbalists]]