An alphabetical catalogue of plants and medicines made from them. Turner, the “Father of English Botany”, treated plants as simples, and did not attempt to show their relationships. He was a much travelled man and a friend of Conrad Gessner. He introduced Lucerne or alfalfa (Medicago sativa) into England. Reproduced in facsimile, London, 1877, and London, Ray Society, 1965. See Nos.1810.2 & 1811.

The first book on birds with clear descriptions of the appearance of individual birds based on the author’s own experiences and observations. Turner attempted to determine those birds named by Aristotle and Pliny; he added notes from his own observations on birds, identifying numerous northern European and English species for the first time. Digital facsimile of the 1544 edition from Google Books at this link. 

A much-expanded English translation of Turner’s Libellus (No. 1805). That and the above work mark the beginning of scientific botany in England. They contain the first records of the occurrence of some 238 species of flowering plants, a few of them precisely localized. Reprinted with introduction and bibliography, London, Ray Society, 1965.

The first original scientific herbal written by an Englishman, and the first scientific herbal published in the English language. The illustrations were taken from the blocks cut for the 8vo edition of Fuchs (1546). Turner was a strongly unorthodox thinker whose stubborn Protestant convictions forced him into exile on the Continent during the Catholic reaction at the end of the reign of Henry VIII, and again during the reign of Mary. He had a varied and turbulent career as naturalist, theologian and physician. Parts 2 and 3 were produced in English in Cologne, 1562 and 1568, while Turner was an exile in Germany. Part 3 was issued only with a reprint of Parts 1 and 2.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.