AN OLD HERBAL 33 



It would lend an additional interest to our Cathedral 

 copy of Fuchs' Herbal if we could trace its " pedigree." 

 That it is a first edition of the magnificent De Historia 

 Stirpium, printed by Isingrin of Basle, and published in 

 the year 1542, is of course certain ; and that it found 

 its way over to England shortly after its publication 

 seems also clear. But who coloured the woodcuts ? 

 Who wrote the English names on the fine folio pages 

 beneath the illustrations ? Whose liberality bequeathed 

 the precious volume to the Cathedral library ? On 

 these points no certain answer can be given. If, how- 

 ever, the English names were added at Winchester, I 

 should be bold enough to venture a suggestion. That 

 the writing is by a sixteenth-century hand I feel pretty 

 certain, and that the species were named by a com- 

 petent botanist is beyond question. He was a man, 

 too, of culture and learning, as the style of writing con- 

 clusively shows, and moreover a person of means, for 

 the volume was no inexpensive one. Was there any- 

 one, in the second half of the sixteenth century, con- 

 nected with Winchester, above all with the Cathedral, 

 whose tastes and scientific attainments would lead him 

 to possess a copy of the great German botanist's 

 splendid work ? I think I have discovered such an in- 

 dividual. On I5th March 1549, one J onn Warner, M.D., 

 was installed a Prebendary of the Cathedral. Dr 

 Warner was Warden of All Souls, Oxford, and had 

 been appointed by Henry VIII. the first Regius Pro- 

 fessor of Medicine in the University. Like almost all 

 scientific men of the time, he was a sturdy Protestant, 

 and during Queen Mary's reign was suspended from the 

 wardenship of All Souls. On the accession of Queen 

 Elizabeth, the Deanery of Winchester falling vacant 



