76 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



do, 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 y cures. 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's Athenae Oxonienses we 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." 1 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 2 

 he studied botany under Luca Ghini. Either there or at Ferrara 

 he took his M.D. degree. From Italy he went to Zurich, where 



1 It has been suggested that Turner was imprisoned for his refusal to 

 subscribe to the Six Articles and that he recanted to save his life. But, as 

 Dr. B. D. Jackson has pointed out, Turner was made of sterner stuff and his 

 whole life and writings are a standing contradiction to any such supposition. 



2 One of the earliest botanic gardens in Europe was at Bologna. It was 

 founded by Luca Ghini. It is interesting to see how frequently Turner in 

 his herbal quotes Ghini, and cites his authority against other commentators. 

 Luca Ghini was the first who erected a separate professorial chair at Bologna 

 for Botanical Science. He himself lectured on Dioscorides for twenty-eight 

 years. He was the preceptor of Caesalpinus and Anquillara, two of the 

 soundest critics on botanical writings of that age. 



The most famous public botanical gardens in Europe during the sixteenth, 



