NHSN Heritage Researcher Rachel Anderson investigates one of the most priceless books in the North East Nature Archive collection
This week, we’d like to introduce you to the oldest object in our North East Nature Archive: the ‘New Herball’ of William Turner.
Often referred to as the “Father of English botany”, William Turner (c.1509-1558) was an influential sixteenth-century physician, naturalist, botanist and theologian. He was born in Morpeth, Northumberland, in around 1509/10, and studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he became a prominent Protestant figure. His controversial religious beliefs led to several periods of exile to the European continent, where he met many notable naturalists including the Renaissance polymath, Conrad Gessner (1516-1565), with whom he built a lasting rapport.
Turner wrote broadly on topics such as medicine, botany and ornithology. His most significant publication, however, was his groundbreaking work A New Herball, published in three parts from 1551 to 1568, and we are fortunate enough to have a copy of this influential work here in the collections at NHSN.
The sixteenth century witnessed an explosion in the publication of herbals, texts that identified plants and herbs while outlining their uses and hazards to reader. Turner’s Herball is particularly significant as it was the first original herbal to be written in English. The author chose to write in English rather than the more commonly used Latin to encourage the exchange of practical botanical and medical knowledge between practitioners and apothecaries.
Anticipating some potential backlash for his vernacular ‘booke of wedes or grasse’, he advocated for the study of medicinal plants and herbs:
For the knowledge of herbes trees and shrubbes is not onelye verye delectable for a Princis [princess’s] minde but profitable for all the bodies of the Princis hole Realme both to preserve men from sicknes sorowe and payne that commeth thereby and also from poison and death but also necessarye for Phisiciones & apothecaries w[ith]out ye knowlege whereof they can not deuly exercise their office and vocation where unto they are called.
Turner’s Herball is therefore primarily a physician’s guide to herbs. It contains vivid descriptions of 238 English plants and their uses alongside many intricate woodcut illustrations, largely copied from Leonhart Fuchs’s De historia stirpium (1542). A copy of this volume can be consulted in Newcastle University’s Special Collections at the Phillip Robinson Library.
One of the things that makes our copy of Turner’s Herbal so special is the annotations left by previous owners. Marginalia in early modern and medieval texts offer a glimpse into the ways in which former owners and other readers interacted with books and manuscripts throughout the past. Signatures and other annotations not only function as a record of the hands they passed through, but act as a form of life writing, providing a record of the way individuals defined themselves, their relationships with institutions and their place within the broader tapestry of society. Inscriptions help us to understand the diverse experiences and identities of readers, many of whom, such as women, may have otherwise been obscured from the historical record. They also tell us more about how readers engaged with the material, and what elements they believed were important in the text.
For example, in the photograph above we can see the inscription ‘the Roote of Bearfoote for the Rott of sheepe hoofs 164 & 161’ followed by an inverted annotation depicting the name ‘Joseph Rock’ dated 1689. The inscription refers to the section of the Herball devoted to the plant ‘Berefoote’, more commonly known today as Hellebore, shown above. In addition to the plant’s remarkable healing properties for livestock, Turner also describes its benefits for a range of human ailments. According to Turner, ‘Berfote purgeth the belly of fleme [phglem] and choler, [it] is good for ye falling sicknes, for melancolike persones, or mad folke, for payn in the joyntes and the palsey’ and could even ‘bringeth doune weomens sycknes [sickness]’. These numerous applications were likely of little interest to our annotator, possibly Mr. Rock, who appears to have meticulously scoured the pages in search of remedies specifically for his sheep.
Below we can see some more of the signatures carefully inscribed onto the early pages of the Turner’s Herball. For example, Sarah Morish’s beautifully intricate signature can be seen below, alongside the date 1710. She also appears to have practiced it on the final leaves of the book. Opposite Sarah’s signature, we can see an inscription from a ‘Mr Harry Allen, Groom of his Majesties Bed Chamber & Secretary of [a section of the page is missing here] in the Admiralty Office’.
A Mr Henry Allen is listed in 1676 as a ‘Groom of the Great Chamber chamber in Ordinary’ in Office-Holders in Modern Britain, Volume 11. Unfortunately, we’ve been unable to track down any more biographical details about these individuals. The offices held by Mr Allen, however, were highly prestigious. The Grooms of the Bedchamber, for instance, were active from around 1660 to 1817. The role was a gift from the crown and came with a salary of around £500. While the number of grooms fluctuated, a king would typically have around twelve in his service. Their duties included waiting on the king while he dressed and fetching wine from servants and presenting it a lord who would then serve the king. It is safe to assume, therefore, that the volume has likely passed through the hands of some notable figures in history before arriving in our care here at the Great North Museum: Hancock.
William Turner died in London on 7 July 1568, but his legacy continues to resonate in North East to this day. For example, his work is commemorated in the William Turner Garden within Carlisle Park in Morpeth, a walled herb garden inspired by his contributions to natural history.
Stay tuned for more blogs highlighting the remarkable treasures in the NHSN archive!
Sources and Further Reading
Marie Addyman, William Turner: Father of English Botany (2008) NHSN Public Access (925.8 TUR (Add))
Marie Addyman, William and Peter Turner: a family of English Renaissance physicians (2017) NHSN Public Access (925.8 TUR (Add))
‘The bedchamber: Grooms of the Bedchamber 1660-1837’, in Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 11 (Revised), Court Officers, 1660-1837. Edited by R O Bucholz (London, 2006), British History Online, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/office-holders/vol11/pp20-24.
Whitney Jones, “Turner, William (1509/10–1568), naturalist and religious controversialist.” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-27874.
Many thanks to Dr Matt Symonds and Dr Dan Waterfield for assistance with paleography and biographical sources.