Thomas Turner

Thomas Turner, D.,D. (1591--1672) was Dean of Canterbury from 1644 to his death in 1672. Because of the political situation in 1644 he was unable to take up his post at Canterbury until the Restoration in 1660.

Turner was educated at Reading Grammar School and St John's College, Oxford (1610; B.A. 1614; .M.A. 1618; B.D. 1624). His tutor was William Juxon and William Laud was President (1611–1621). He taught at Oxford from 1617 to 1629 and was the college library keeper in 1621.

After taking up his deanship in Canterbury, Turner superintended considerable restoration work at the Cathedral, including the rebuilding of the Library. An entry in the Benefactors' Book (f. 109r) records his gift of books to the Library:

Thomas Turner sacræ Theologiæ Professor, hujus Eccl[es]iæ Decanus, dedit Historiam Byzantinam, 
         octodecim voluminibus contentam, in fol. Edit. Paris.
[In a later hand:]
     Perkins’s Works. 3 vol: fol

Shelfmark W/D-7-1/20

Historia Byzantina.
Paris: 1645–1663 [1670].

Inscription on label pasted on verso of front free endpaper: Donum Thomæ Turner Decani Cantuariensis.

The eighteen books of the Historia Byzantina (now bound in 20 volumes), published in Paris between 1645 and 1663, are shelved at H/D-7-1/20. Each volume has a paper label on the verso of the front free endpaper with an inscription indicating that they were given by Thomas Turner..

The books are bound in 17th-century calf with a double fillet rule parallel to the spine. Most have been rebacked at a later date. The first volume has a fore-edge title, showing that the volumes were once shelved with the spine inwards, either in Turner's own library or in the newly re-opened Chapter Library. All the volumes have evidence of a former chain staple : two holes (sometimes covered by a patch of leather) on the upper fore edge of the front board.

These may be the volumes from which the chains were removed by order of the Chapter in 1677, after Turner's death.

Shelfmark W/P-5-20

Alexander ab Alexandro. Genialium dierum libri sex varia ac recondita eruditione referti ....
Paris: 1579.

Inscription on title page: Thomæ Turnerj.