John Goodyer

John Goodyer (* 1592 in Alton , Hampshire ; † 1664 ) was an English botanist .

Life

Goodyer had been in the service of the family of Thomas Bilson of Westmaple- Durham from 1625 , who was Bishop of Worcester from 1596 to 1597 and Bishop of Winchester from 1597 to 1616 . Goodyer lived first in Droxford , from 1625 in Petersfield in Hampshire . His estate, called The Spain , and the land that belonged to it, had been given to him by his employer, Sir Thomas Bilson.

During his lifetime, Goodyer was considered the best plant connoisseur in England. Even as a young man he had a passionate interest in botany. In both Droxford and Petersfield, he created his own botanical garden in order to be able to study domestic and foreign plants, including many cultivated plants, more closely. The introduction of Jerusalem artichoke ( Helianthus tuberosus ) in English gardens goes back to Goodyer. In addition, he used business trips and trips to track down the growing places of rare plant species in Hampshire and further away parts of the country. He wrote down his finds and observations on papers and slips of paper of all kinds, on the back of letters, envelopes, bills, receipts and shopping lists.

Goodyer was in close contact with numerous gardeners and scientists of his time, including Elias Ashmole , John Franqueville from London, Thomas Johnstone (1604 / 5–1644), John Parkinson (1567–1650), John Ray and John Tradescant . Although he was not a doctor, his fellow men regarded him as a doctor because of his excellent knowledge of medicinal plants .

His grave is in the cemetery of St. Mary's in Buriton, where a stained glass window also commemorates him. The place is a few kilometers south of Petersfield (Hampshire) .

The scientific estate, consisting of books, manuscripts and letters, is located in Magdalen College . Goodyer had already equipped the library of this traditional university with specialist botanical books during his lifetime.

Goodyer's fortune was put into a foundation at his request after his death . The income was used to support families in need in his home community.

A great-nephew of his, the grandson of his sister Rose Yalden, was the agricultural specialist John Worlidge , who wrote the book Systema Agriculturae in 1669 .

plant

• Together with Thomas Johnstone, Goodyer revised The Herbal or Generall Historie of Plantes by John Gerard , an extensive plant book from the 16th century, which Johnstone published in a 2nd edition in 1597.
• Goodyer translated the natural history of plants , a plant book by the Greek naturalist Theophrastus of Eresos , into English by 1624 .
• From 1652 to 1655 he translated the Materia Medica by Dioscurides , a 5-volume work on the medical knowledge of antiquity, from Greek into English. By the time it was finished in 1655, it had written about 4,540 pages. However, he did not find a publisher. His historical translation by Robert Theodore Gunther was not published until 1933.
• Finally, he also translated the Dioscurides Commentary by Jean-Antoine Sarrasin (1547–1598), published in Lyon in 1598, from French into English.

Honors

At an advanced age, Goodyer was so highly respected as a scientist and benefactor nationwide that he was under special protection during the English Civil War (1642–1649): The Lieutenant General of the Royal Forces, Sir Ralph Hopton , ordered that John Goodyer and his house, servants, Family, property, livestock and land are to be protected and defended under all circumstances and from all damage, disturbances and burdens .

The English botanist Robert Brown named the plant genus Netzblatt from the orchid family (Orchidaceae) as Goodyera in honor of Goodyer .

literature

• Robert Theodore Gunther: Early English Botanists and their Gardens . Oxford, 1922.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Robert T. Gunther: The Greek Herbal of Dioskurides Illustrated by a Byzantine AD 512. Englished by John Goodyer AD 1655 . New York 1934.