Thomas Penny

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Thomas Penny (* 1532 in Eskrigg near Lancaster ; † January 1589 ) was a British doctor, clergyman, botanist and entomologist .

life and work

He is considered a pioneer of zoology and entomology in England, who already deviated from Aristotle in his systematics (he grouped caterpillars not to worms, but to the butterflies that emerged from them) and doubted spontaneous generation. He was also a pioneer in conducting biological experiments.

Penny studied theology at Queens' College, Cambridge University. In 1550 he received the sizarship of Trinity College and in 1551 his Bachelor of Arts. In 1553 he became a Fellow of Trinity College and in 1554 a senior bursar. Like many of his fellow students at Cambridge, he appears to have adhered to Puritanism . He had to keep a low profile under the Catholic Queen Mary. In Elizabethan times, he initially rose quickly. In 1560 he received a benefice at St. Pauls in London and in 1561 he became a preacher in Cambridge. His further career was prevented by his puritanical views, which he revealed at the Spittle sermon in St. Paul's Easter 1565. He was no longer allowed to preach, but kept his benefices until 1577, when they were withdrawn from him because of the support of the Puritan Richard Gawton. After his Spittal sermon he went to the continent to study medicine. Even then he had a reputation as a biologist and visited Conrad Gessner in Zurich. After his death he helped his pupil Wolf to prepare the Historia Plantarum for a planned publication and left additional comments in the manuscript. In 1566 he went to Montpellier to study medicine, and he also studied and visited Orleans, Paris, Geneva and Heidelberg. After returning to England, the College of Physicians initially refused him admission, but he then practiced in London.

No books are known of him and the whereabouts of his manuscripts are also unknown. He is best known for quotations in the works of others, and what they took from his manuscripts. As a biologist, he was held in high regard by his contemporaries.

He was also co-author of Thomas Muffet (editor) Insectorum, sive, Minimorum animalium theatrum , which appeared long after his death in 1634. Moffet also mentions Edward Wotton and Conrad Gessner as sources. In particular, he used Penny's 500 drawings of insects that are preserved in his manuscript in the British Library. After Potts and Fear, Muffet was a friend to whom he left his manuscript on insects after his death, and Muffet's book that later emerged from it was largely written by Penny. Muffet probably could not afford the printing costs and the costs of producing the illustrations and for a time lost interest, which only reawakened after the publication of Ulisse Aldrovandi's insect book in 1602. But he died in 1604 and the widow sold the manuscripts to the royal physician Mayerne, who then took care of the printing in 1634, albeit with cheaper and coarser woodcuts based on Penny's templates for the illustrations.

He also provided illustrations of plants Stirpium nomenclator pannonicus of Carolus Clusius . He had been acquainted with the botanist Peter Turner, a son of the early English botanist William Turner , from his time at Cambridge .

literature

Web links

References and comments

  1. ^ Thomas Penny the first English Entomologist. Retrieved January 10, 2019 .
  2. ^ Potts, Fear, Thomas Penny the first English Entomologist, see web links
personal data
SURNAME Penny, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British physician, clergyman, botanist and entomologist
DATE OF BIRTH 1532
PLACE OF BIRTH Eskrigg at Lancaster
DATE OF DEATH January 1589