82 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



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 htle 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 Enghshman in the sixteenth century. 

 The first part of it was printed in London by Steven Mierdman, 

 a Protestant refugee from Antwerp, in 155 1. 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., 

 see Bibliography 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; and Netie KreiUerbuch, 

 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's 



