ADRIAN, one of the most distinguished scholars of the sixteenth century, said by some to have been the son of a Scotchman named Turnbull, who settled in Normandy in the end of the fifteenth, or towards the beginning of the sixteenth century. This conjecture is favoured by his French name Tournebeuf, which, when Anglicised, becomes Turnbull. Be this as it may, Adrian Turnebus was born at Les Andelys' in Normandy, in 1512. He was sent to Paris in his eleventh year, where he soon rose superior to all competitors, and is said occasionally to have shown more knowledge even than his masters. Toulouse was the place selected by Turnebus where he should begin the world as an instructor of youth; but his fame soon followed him, and brought him back to Paris in 1547. Here he attracted immense crowds of students by his great knowledge of Greek, his exquisite taste, and his genuine modesty. He shared with Muretus the fame of the university of Paris. In 1555 he was made Royal Professor, and ten years afterwards, this ardent fervid nature, so modest and so scholarlike, had to pass away from the scene of its triumphs. Turnebus died on the 12th of June 1565.

The works which he has left behind him bear ample testimony to the learning and genius of Turnebus. They consist, for the most part, of philological dissertations, critical commentaries, and translations of Greek writers into Latin. His son, Stephen, published the Adriani Turnebi Opera, Strasbourg, 3 vols. folio, 1600; and his son, Adrian, brought out his Adversaria, in 3 vols. 1564.