Nicholas Culpeper (probably born at Ockley, Surrey, 18 October 1616; died at Spitalfields, London, 10 January 1654) was an English botanist, herbalist, physician and astrologer. His book The English Physitian (1652, later the Complete Herbal, 1653 ff.) is a store of pharmaceutical and herbal knowledge, and Astrological Judgement of Diseases from the Decumbiture of the Sick (1655) is one of the most detailed works on medical astrology in Early Modern Europe. Culpeper spent much time outdoors cataloguing hundreds of medicinal herbs. He scolded some methods of contemporaries:

"This not being pleasing, and less profitable to me, I consulted with my two brothers, Dr. Reason and Dr. Experience, and took a voyage to visit my mother Nature, by whose advice, together with the help of Dr. Diligence, I at last obtained my desire; and, being warned by Mr. Honesty, a stranger in our days, to publish it to the world, I have done it."

Culpeper came from a line of notabilities, including Thomas Culpeper, lover of Queen Catherine Howard, also a distant relative, sentenced to death by her husband, King Henry VIII.