The Old English Herbals Part 8

"GILBERT BATH AND WELLS."

_January 24, 1559-60._

There is a story told that Turner trained his dog at a given sign to s.n.a.t.c.h the bishop's square cap off his head when the prelate was dining with him. If this is true, possibly it accounts for the fact that he was subsequently suspended for Nonconformity, after which, being precluded from clerical duties, he left Wells and returned to London. He lived in Crutched Friars and, like the two other Elizabethan herbalists, had a famous garden. He was in failing health when he completed his herbal, and there is extant a pathetic letter (the greater part of it written by an amanuensis) to his staunch patron Lord Burleigh, which is signed "Your old and seikly client

wllm turner doctor of physic."

Turner died in 1568, and was buried in S. Olave's, Crutched Friars, where the tablet to his memory can still be seen.

CLARISSIMO . DOCTISSIMO . FORTISSIMOQUE . VIRO GULIELMO .

TURNERO . MEDICO . AC . THEOLOGICO . PERITISSI MO .

DECANO . WELLENSI . PER . ANNOS . TRIGINTA . IN . VTRAQUE SCIENTIA . EXERCITATISSIMVS . ECCLESIAE . ET . REI . PUBLICAE PROFVIT . ET . CONTRA . VTRIVSQUE . PERNITIOSISSIMOS . HOS TES . MAXIME . VERO . ROMANUM . ANTICHRISTVM . FORTISSIMUS JESU . CHRISTI . MILES . ACERRIME . DIMICAVIT . AC . TANDEM .

COR PUS . SENIO . ET . LABORIBUS . CONFECTVM . IN . SPEM .

BEATISSIM :

RESVRRECTIONIS . HIC . DEPOSVIT . ANIMAM . IMMORTALEM CHARISSIMO . EIVSQUE . SANCTISSIMO . DEO . REDDIDIT . ET .

DEVICTIS . CHRISTI . VIRTUTE . MVNDI . CARNISQUE . VIRIBUS .

TRIUMPHAT IN AETERNUM .

MAGNVS . APOLLINEA . QVONDAM . TVRNERVS . IN . ARTE MAGNUS . ET . IN . VERA . RELIGIONE . FVIT .

MORS . TAMEN . OBREPENS . MAIOREM . REDDIDIT ILLVM .

CIVIS . ENIM . CAELI . REGNA . SVPERNA . TENET OBIIT . 7 DIE . IVLII . AN . DOM . 1568 .

In his will, which is too long to quote here, Turner bequeathed to his wife[65] "his best pece or syluer vessell and halfe dozen of syluer spones," and to his nephew "my lyttell furred gowne." Peter, the son to whom he left "all my writen bookes and if he be a preacher all my diuinitie bookes, & yf he practise Phisicke all my physicke bookes,"

had some knowledge of plants, for in a copy of Turner's Herbal in the Linnean Society's Library there is a long list of errata for which Peter Turner apologised in an Address to the Reader. There is something very nave and charming about Peter's admiration for his father's "fame and estimation." He tells us that he has diligently compared the printed book with his father's "owne hande copie," and refrains from having the whole book printed again because "I should have done against Charitie to have caused the Printer by that meanes to lose all his labor and cost which he hath bestowed in printing hereof. Wherefore, gentle Reader, beare a little with the Printer that never was much accustomed to the printing of Englishe and afore thou reade over this booke correct it as I haue appointed and then the profit thereof will abundantly recompense thy paynes. In the meane time vse this Herbale in stede of a better and give all laude and prayse unto the Lorde."

Turner was the first Englishman who studied plants scientifically, and his herbal marks the beginning of the science of botany in England.

Like most writers of any value, he impressed his personality upon his books, and these show him to have been a man of indomitable character, caustic wit and independent thought. "Vir solidae eruditionis judicii"

he is called by John Ray. His first botanical work was the _Libellus de re herbaria novus_ (1538), printed by John Byddell in London. This little book is particularly interesting, because it is the first in which localities of native British plants are given. In 1548 he published another small book ent.i.tled _The names of herbes in Greke, Latin, Englishe, d.u.c.h.e, and Frenche wyth the commone names that Herbaries and Apotecaries use, gathered by William Turner_. In the preface he tells us that he had begun to "set furth an herbal in latyn," but that when he asked the advice of physicians, "their advise was that I shoulde cease from settynge out of this boke in latin till I had sene those places of Englande, wherein is moste plentie of herbes, that I might in my herbal declare to the greate honoure of our countre what numbre of sovereine and strang herbes were in England, that were not in other nations, whose counsell I have folowed, deferrying to set out my herbal in latyn, tyl that I have sene the west countrey, which I never sawe yet in al my lyfe, which countrey of al places of England, as I heare say, is moste richely replenished wyth al kindes of straunge and wonderfull workes and giftes of nature as are stones, herbes, 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 litle boke, which is no more but a table or regestre of suche bokes as I intende by the grace of G.o.d 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 Englishman in the sixteenth century. The first part of it was printed in London by Steven Mierdman, a Protestant refugee from Antwerp, in 1551. 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 t.i.tle, 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 ill.u.s.trated. 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 _Neue Kreuterbuch_, 1543). Nearly all the ill.u.s.trations in the famous sixteenth-century Flemish, English and Swiss herbals were printed from the actual wood-blocks or copied from the ill.u.s.trations in Fuchs's works. Notably in Hieronymus Bock's _Kreuter Buch_ (1546), Rembert Dodoens's _Crudtboeck_ (1554), Henry Lyte's _Niewe Herball_ (1578), and Jean Bauhin's _Historia plantarum universalis_ (1651). It is a remarkable fact that so far as wood-engraving is concerned this country has contributed nothing to the art of plant ill.u.s.tration. In the first English ill.u.s.trated Herbal, the _Grete Herball_ of 1526, the figures are merely copies of the inferior cuts in the later editions of the _Herbarius zu Teutsch_, and, with the exception of Parkinson's _Paradisus_, all the English sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century herbals borrowed their ill.u.s.trations from Flemish or German sources.

Fuchs had two sets of blocks for his Herbal, one for the folio edition of 1542 and the other for the octavo edition of 1545. It was the blocks for the latter which were borrowed by Turner's printer, and it has been suggested that it was his desire to secure these beautiful ill.u.s.trations which led him to have his herbal printed at Cologne.[66]

Over 400 of Fuchs's blocks were used in the complete edition of Turner's Herbal, and, of the rest, some are copied from the smaller figures in Mattioli's[67] commentary on Dioscorides.

Turner dedicated the first part of his Herbal (1551) to the Duke of Somerset, uncle to Edward VI., and at that time Lord Protector. The preface is delightful and I quote a part of it:--

"To the mighty and christiane Prince Edward, Duke of Summerset, Erle of Herford, Lorde Beauchampe, and Uncle unto the Kynges maiesty, Wyllyam Turner his servant wysheth increase in the knowledge of G.o.ddes holy worde and grace to lyue thereafter. Although (most myghty and Christian Prince) there be many n.o.ble and excellent actes and sciences, which no man douteth but that almyghty G.o.d, the author of all goodness, hath gyuen unto us by the hands of the Hethen, as necessary unto the use of Mankynd: yet is there none among them all, whych is so openly comended by the verdit of any holy writer in the Bible, as is ye knowledge of plantes, herbes, and trees and of Phisick. I do not remembre that I have red anye expressed commendations of Grammer, Logick, Philosophie, naturall or morall, Astronomie, Arithmetyke, Geometry, Cosmographie, Musycke, Perspectiue or any other such lyke science. But I rede amonge the commendatyons and prayses of Kyng Salomon, that he was sene in herbes shrubbes and trees and so perfectly that he disputed wysely of them from the hyghest to the lowest, that is from the Cedre tre in Mount Liban unto the Hysop that groweth furth of the wall. If the Knowledge of Herbes, shrubbes and trees which is not the lest necessary thynge unto the knowledge of Phisicke were not greatly commendable it shulde never have bene set among Salomon's commendacyons and amongst the singular giftes of G.o.d. Therefor whereas Salomon was commended for the Knowledge of Herbes the same Knowledge was expressedly ynough comended there also." Continuing, he speaks of learned Englishmen "Doctor Clement, Doctor Wendy and Doctor Owen, Doctor Wolton and Maister Falconer"[68]

which "have as much knowledge in herbes yea and more than diuerse Italianes and Germanes whyche have set forth in prynte Herballes and bokes of simples. Yet hath none of al these set furth any thyng other to the generall profit of hole Christendome in latin and to the honor of thys realme, nether in Englysh to the proper profit of their naturall countre." After slyly observing that perhaps they do not care to jeopardise their estimation, he compares himself, for having ventured to write this book, with the soldier "who is more frendly unto the commonwealth, which adventurously runneth among the myddes of hys enemyes, both gyuyng and takyng blowes, then he that, whilse other men feight, standeth in the top of a tre iudging how other men do, he beynge without the danger of gonne shot himself."

To those who may object that it is too small, he explains that he will write more fully when he has "travelled diverse shyres in England to learn more of the herbs that grow there." Others may condemn him for writing in English, "for now (say they) every man without any study of necessary artes unto the knowledge of Phisick will become a Phisician ... euery man nay euery old wyfe will presume, not without the mordre of many, to practyse Phisick." To these he succinctly replies, "How many surgianes and apothecaries are there in England which can understand Plini in Latin or Galen and Dioscorides?" The English physicians, he says, rely on the apothecaries, and they in turn on the old wives who gather the herbs. Moreover, since the physicians are not present when their prescriptions are made up, "many a good ma by ignorance is put in jeopardy of his life, or good medecine is marred to the great dishonesty both of the Phisician and of G.o.ddes worthy creatures." All this can be avoided by having a herbal written in English. Dioscorides and Galen, he points out, wrote in their native tongue, Greek. "Dyd Dioscorides and Galen give occasion for every old wyfe to take in had the practise of Phisick? Did they giue any iust occasion of murther? If they gaue no occasyon unto every old wyfe to practise physike then give I none. If they gave no occasion of murther then gyue I none ... then am I no hynderer wryting unto the English my countremen an English herball."

The second part of Turner's Herbal is dedicated to his old patron, Thomas Lord Wentworth, and the complete work, including the third part, to Queen Elizabeth.[69] In the preface to this last he reminds the queen of a conversation he had had with her in Latin eighteen years before, at the Duke of Somerset's house, when he was physician to that n.o.bleman. It is in this preface also that he criticises the foreign herbalists; though he has learnt much from them, they had much to learn from him, "as their second editions maye testifye." He claims that in the first part of his herbal he taught "the truth of certeyne plants which these above-named writers (Matthiolus, Fuchsius, Tragus and Dodoneus) either knew not at al or ellis erred in them greatlye.... And because I would not be lyke unto a cryer yt cryeth a loste horse in the marketh, and telleth all the markes and tokens that he hath, and yet never sawe the horse, nether coulde knowe the horse if he sawe him: I wente into Italye and into diverse partes of Germany, to knowe and se the herbes my selfe."

The book owes much of its charm to its vivid descriptions of the plants, and the fascinating and unexpected details he gives us about them. The comparison of dodder, for instance, to "a great red harpe strynge," is a happy touch which it is impossible to forget. "Doder groweth out of herbes and small bushes as miscelto groweth out of trees. Doder is lyke a great red harpe strynge and it wyndeth about herbes foldyng mych about them and hath floures and knoppes one from an other a good s.p.a.ce.... The herbes that I have marked doder to growe most in are flax and tares."

These accurate observations and careful descriptions are characteristic of the writer, and recall similar touches in the Saxon herbals. For example, he records that the stamens of the Madonna lily have a different smell from the flower itself, and that the berries of the bay tree are almost, but not quite, round. There is only s.p.a.ce to quote the following:--

"The lily hath a long stalk and seldom more than one, howbeit it hath somtyme II. It is II or III cubites hyghe.

It hath long leves and somthyng of the fas.h.i.+on of the great satyrion. The flour is excedyng white and it hath the forme or fas.h.i.+on of a long quiver, that is to say, smal at the one end and byg at the other. The leves of the floures are full of crestes, and the overmost ends of the leves bowe a little backwarde and from the lowest parte within come forth long small yelow thynges lyke thredes of another smelle than the floures are of. The roote is round and one pece groweth hard to another allmoste after the maner of the roote of Garleke, but that the clowes in the lily are broder."

"The leaves of the Bay tree are alwayes grene and in figure and fas.h.i.+on they are lyke unto periwincle. They are long and brodest in the middest of the lefe. They are blackishe grene namely when they are olde. They are curled about the edges, they smell well. And when they are casten into the fyre they crake wonderfully. The tre in England is no great tre, but it thryveth there many partes better and is l.u.s.tier than in Germany. The berries are allmoste round but not altogether.

The kirnell is covered with a thick black barke which may well be parted from the kirnell."

"Blewbottel groweth in ye corne, it hath a stalke full of corners, a narrow and long leefe. In the top of the stalke is a knoppy head whereupon growe bleweflowers about midsummer. The chylder use to make garlandes of the floure.

It groweth much amonge Rye wherefore I thinke that good ry in an evell and unseasonable yere doth go out of kinde in to this wede."

"Pennyroyal.--It crepeth much upon the ground and hath many lytle round leves not unlyke unto the leves of merierum gentil but that they are a little longer and sharper and also litle indented rounde about, and grener than the leves of meriurum ar. The leves grow in litle branches even from the roote of certayn ioyntes by equall s.p.a.ces one devyded from an other. Where as the leves grow in litle tuftes upon the over partes of the braunches.... Pennyroyal groweth much, without any setting, besyd hundsley [Hounslow] upon the heth beside a watery place."

Of camomile he writes: "It hath floures wonderfully shynynge yellow and resemblynge the appell of an eye ... the herbe may be called in English, golden floure. It will restore a man to hys color shortly yf a man after the longe use of the bathe drynke of it after he is come forthe oute of the bath. This herbe is scarce in Germany but in England it is so plenteous that it groweth not only in gardynes but also VIII mile above London, it groweth in the wylde felde, in Rychmonde grene, in Brantfurde grene.... Thys herb was consecrated by the wyse men of Egypt unto the sonne and was rekened to be the only remedy of all agues."

Unlike modern authorities, Turner contends that our English hyssop is the same plant as that mentioned in the Bible, and he also describes a species which does not now exist. "We have in Sumers.h.i.+re beside ye come Hysop that groweth in all other places of Englande a kinde of Hysop that is al roughe and hory and it is greater muche and stronger then the comen Hysop is, som call it rough Hysop." Another plant which seems to have disappeared and which, he states, no other writer describes, is "the wonderful great cole with leaves thrise as thike as ever I saw any other cole have. It hath whyte floures and round berryes lyke yvy. This herbe groweth at douer harde by the Sea-syde. I name it the Douer cole because I founde it first besyde Douer." Incidentally he mentions samphire also as growing at Dover.

It is interesting to find that Turner identifies the _Herba Britannica_ of Dioscorides and Pliny (famed for having cured the soldiers of Julius Caesar of scurvy in the Rhine country) with _Polygonum bistorta_, which he observed plentifully in Friesland, the scene of Pliny's observations. This herb is held by more modern authorities to be _Rumex aquations_ (great water dock).

[Ill.u.s.tration: ILl.u.s.tRATIONS FROM TURNER'S "HERBAL"]

Throughout the Herbal there are recollections of the north of England, where the author spent his boyhood. Of heath, for instance, he tells us: "The hyest hethe that ever I saw groweth in Northumberland, which is so hyghe that a man may hyde himself in." Of the wild hyacinth he writes: "The boyes in Northuberland sc.r.a.pe the roote of the herbe and glew theyr arrowes and bokes wyth that slyme that they sc.r.a.pe of." Of sea-wrake (seaweed) he tells us: "In the Bishopriche of Durham the housbandmen of the countie that dwel by the sea syde use to fate [fatten, _i. e._ manure] their lande with seawrake." Under "birch" we find: "Fisherers in Northumberland pyll off the uttermost barke and put it in the clyft of a sticke and set in fyre and hold it at the water syde and make fish come thether, whiche if they se they stryke with theyr leysters or sammon speres. The same," he continues, "is good to make hoopes of and twigges for baskettes, it is so bowinge. It serveth for many good uses and for none better then for betinge of stubborne boyes that ether lye or will not learne."

Cudweed "is called in Northumberland chafwede because it is thought to be good for chafyng of any man's fleshe wyth goynge or rydynge." And it would be interesting to know if the daisy is still called banwurt in the north. "The Northern men call thys herbe banwurt because it helpeth bones to knyt agayne.... Plinie writeth that the dasey hath III and sometimes IV little whyte leves whiche go about the yelow knope, it appereth that the double Daseys were not founde in plinies tyme whych have a greate dele mo then Plini maketh mention of."

There are other country customs which he records. "Shepherds use clivers [goosegra.s.s] in stede of a strayner to pull out here of the mylke;" "birderers [bird-catchers] take bowes of birch and lime the twigges and go a bat folinge with them;" "som make a lee [lye] or an ashy water of the rotes of gentian wherwyth they toke out spottes very well out of cloth." He mentions woad as "trimmed wyth mannes labor in dyenge and wull and clothe," and teazle "which the fullers dresse their cloth wtall." Apparently Turner gave the spindle tree its name, for he says: "I coulde never learne an Englishe name for it. The d.u.c.h.e men call it in Netherlande, spilboome, that is, spindel tree, because they use to make spindels of it in that countrey, and me thynke it maye be so well named in English seying we have no other name.... I know no good propertie that this tree hath, saving only it is good to make spindels and brid of cages" [bird cages].

The use of complexion washes was a custom on which Turner was alarmingly severe. There are fewer beauty recipes in his herbal than in any other--only four altogether. "Some weomen," we find, "sprinkle ye floures of cowslip w{t} whyte wine and after still it and wash their faces w{t} that water to drive wrinkles away and to make them fayre in the eyes of the worlde rather then in the eyes of G.o.d, whom they are not afrayd to offend." And of marygold we learn that "Summe use to make theyr here yelow with the floure of this herbe, not beyng contet with the naturall colour which G.o.d hath geven the."

There is curiously little folk lore in this herbal, and most of it is guarded by "some do say" or "some hold." Nevertheless, with this qualification, Turner gives us fragments of folk lore not to be found in other herbals. For instance, that nutsh.e.l.ls burnt and bound to the back of a child's head will make grey eyes black, and that parsley thrown into fish ponds will heal the sick fishes therein. Again, this is the first herbal in which any account is to be found of the very old custom of curing disease in cattle by boring a hole in the ear and inserting the herb bearfoot.[70]

"They say it should be used thus. The brodest part of the ear must have a round circle made about it w{t} the blood that rinneth furth with a brasen botken and the same circle must be round lyke unto the letter O, and when this is done without and in the higher part of the ear the halfe of the foresaid circle is to be bored thorowe with the foresaid botken and the roote of the herbe is to be put in at the hole, when y{t} newe wounde that hath receyued it holdeth it so fast, that it will not let it go furth, then all the mighte and pestilent poison of the disease is brought so into the eare. And whilse the part which is circled aboute dyeth and falleth awaye y{t} hole beast is saved with the lose of a very small parte."

Another piece of folk lore is remarkable because it is the only instance in an English herbal of a belief in the effect of a human being on a plant: "If ye woulde fayne have very large and greate gourdes, then take sedes that growe there [in the sides].... And let weomen nether touche the yonge gourdes nor loke upon them, for the only touchinge and sighte of weomen kille the yonge gourdes." This belief he quotes from Pliny.

Turner, again, is the only old herbalist who refers to the old and widespread belief that larch was fire-proof. It was largely used, he tells us, for laying under the tiles of newly-built houses, as "a sure defence against burning," and he narrates at length how Julius Caesar was unable to burn a tower built with larch. On the old mandrake legend he is scathing. "The rootes which are counterfited and made like litle puppettes and mammettes which come to be sold in England in boxes with heir [hair] and such forme as man hath, are nothyng elles but folishe fened trifles and not naturall. For they are so trymmed of crafty theves to mocke the poore people withall and to rob them both of theyr wit and theyr money. I have in my tyme at diverse tymes take up the rootes of mandrake out of the grounde but I never saw any such thyng upon or in them as are in and upon the pedlers rootes that are comenly to be solde in boxes. It groweth not under galloses [gallows] as a certayn doting doctor of Colon in his physick lecture dyd teach hys auditors." But he accepts without question the belief in its efficacy as an anaesthetic: "It is given to those who must be burned or cut in some place that they should not fele the burning or cuttyng." Of wine made of it, he says: "If they drynk thys drynke they shall fele no payne, but they shall fall into a forgetfull and slepishe drowsiness. Of the apples of mandrake, if a man smell of them thei will make hym slepe and also if they be eaten. But they that smell to muche of the apples become dum ... thys herbe diverse wayes taken is very jepardus for a man and may kill hym if he eat it or drynk it out of measure and have no remedy from it.... If mandragora be taken out of measure by and by slepe ensueth and a great lousing of the streyngthe with a forgetfulness."

Turner is one of the few herbalists who cautions against the excessive use of any herb. "Onions eaten in meat largely make the head ake, they make them forgetfull whiche in the tyme of syknes use them out of mesure." "Cole engendreth euell and melancholie juice. It dulleth the syght and it troubleth the slepe wyth contrary thynges which are sene in the dreme." Of nigella he writes: "Take hede that ye take not to muche of this herbe, for if ye go beyonde the mesure it bryngeth deth." "Hemp seed," he says, "if it be taken out of measure taketh men's wyttes from the as coriander doth." "If any person use saffron measurably it maketh in them a good colour, but if thei use it out of mesure it maketh hym loke pale, and maketh the hede ache and hurteth the appet.i.te." For those who have taken an overdose of opium there is a surprising remedy. "If the pacient be to much slepi put stynkynge thynges unto hys nose to waken hym therewith." As in all herbals of this period, there are an astonis.h.i.+ng number of remedies against melancholy and suggestions for those whose weak brains will not stand much strong drink; but, while remedies for broken heads, so common in the older herbals, are conspicuously absent, we find that walnuts are recommended "for the bytings both of men and dogges"!

As in the _Grete Herball_, there are many descriptions of other substances besides herbs, some of the longest being of dates, rice, olives, citron, pomegranates and lentils. The account of citron it would be pleasant to transcribe in full, not for the sake of the story but for the manner of the telling. One could listen to a sermon of considerable length from a divine who, in a book intended for grown-ups, has a tale of "two naughty murthering robbers, condemned for theyr murder and robery to be flayn and poysoned to deth of serpentes, and such venemous bestes," and of the one who, owing to having eaten "a pece of citron," remained, Daniel-like, unhurt by the poison of the snakes, whilst the other who had not taken this precaution "fell down sterk dede." And finally, the moral--"Wherefore it were wisdome that n.o.blemen and other that are bydden to dynner of theyr enemies or suspected frendes before they eat any other thyng should take a pece of citron."

The later sixteenth-century herbalists owed much to the famous herbalists of the Netherlands, and above all to that prince amongst publishers, Christophe Plantin of Antwerp, whose personality secured him a unique place in the literary world. Indeed, there is a splendour about the works of the Flemish herbalists unequalled by any others of this period, with the exception of the Bavarian doctor Leonhard Fuchs.

There is no comparison between them and the Italian herbalists of the Renaissance, who, for the greater part, devoted themselves to studying the cla.s.sical writers and identifying the plants mentioned by the old authorities. France, curiously enough, contributed comparatively little when the herbal was at its zenith, though it must of course be remembered that the Bauhins, who rank as Swiss herbalists, were of French extraction. But it is difficult to estimate the influence of the works of those three notable friends, Rembert Dodoens, Charles de l'Escluse and Matthias de l'Obel, particularly on the English herbalists. The most famous English herbal--Gerard's--is virtually a translation of the _Pemptades_ of Dodoens. Lyte's translation of the _Crudtboeck_ was the standard work on herbs during the latter part of the century, and Parkinson incorporated a large part of de l'Obel's unfinished book in his _Theatrum Botanic.u.m_.

De l'Obel, after whom the little garden flower--lobelia--is named, spent the greater part of his life in England. He was a Fleming by birth and a doctor by profession,[71] and he was physician to William the Silent until his a.s.sa.s.sination. About 1569 he came over to England (with his friend Pena, who at one time was physician to Louis XIII.) and lived at Highgate with his son-in-law. He superintended Lord Zouche's garden at Hackney, and later was given the t.i.tle of botanist to James I. L'Obel's great work, written in collaboration with Pena, was the _Stirpium Adversaria Nova_, printed in London by Thomas Purfoot in 1571.[72] Pulteney, in his _Biographical Sketches_ (1790), makes the extraordinary statement that Christophe Plantin of Antwerp was the real printer. It has, however, been pointed out by modern authorities that the archives of the Plantin Museum show that Plantin bought 800 copies of Purfoot's edition, with the wood blocks, for 1320 florins. In 1576 Plantin published de l'Obel's _Plantarum seu Stirpium historia_, and to this he appended the first part of the _Adversaria_, keeping Purfoot's original colophon.

Although Dodoens neither lived in England nor had any of his works printed here, his _Crudtboeck_ became one of the standard works in this country through Lyte's translation. Dodoens was born at Malines about 1517 and, after studying at Louvain, visited the universities and medical schools of France, Italy and Germany, graduated M.D., and was appointed physician to Maximilian II. and Rudolf II. successively.

In the latter part of his life he was Professor of Medicine at Leyden, where he died in 1585. Plantin published Dodoens's most important work, _Stirpium historiae pemptades s.e.x sive libri triginta_, in which some of the figures are copied from the fifth-century ma.n.u.script[73]

copy of Dioscorides. Dodoens's first book, the _Crudtboeck_, was translated into French by his friend Charles de l'Escluse[74] and afterwards into English by Henry Lyte.

Lyte, who was an Oxford man, travelled extensively in his youth and made a collection of rare plants. He contributed nothing original to the literature on herbs, but his translation of the French version of the _Crudtboeck_ was an inestimable service. His own copy of the French version, which is now in the British Museum, has on the t.i.tle-page the quaint inscription "Henry Lyte taught me to speake Englishe." The book is full of MS. notes and references to Turner.