A native of Nantwich, Cheshire, Gerard was an English botanist and surgeon. He began an apprenticeship in surgery to Alexander Mason in 1562 and was admitted to the freedom of the Barber-Surgeons’ Company of London in 1569. He was made master of the company in 1607. While Gerard was a surgeon by trade, he was a botanist by choice. He personally curated the botanical garden for the College of Physicians in 1586, and oversaw the gardens of William Cecil, Lord Baron of Burghley.

Gerard published several books on the cultivation of plants in England, but it is his The Herball or, Generall Historie of Plants Gathered by John Gerarde of London (1597) that was his greatest contribution to the study of natural history. Containing over 1800 woodcuts of plants. Gerard included in his work not just descriptions of the plants, but where they can be found in England and any folklore attached to the plant. His Herball even contained plants from the new world, including a depiction of the (at the time) exotic potato. Perhaps most importantly, the Herball was written in English, not Latin, which may have contributed to its wide popularity. The book was not without its flaws though: Gerard was accused of using a partially finished translation by Dr Priest of Dodoens’s Stripium historiae pemptades sex without acknowledgement. Also, of the 1800 woodcuts used for the Herball, only 16 were made specifically for the book; the rest were reused from other published herbals.