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Simon Bredon (c. 1300-1372) Physician, Mathematician and Astronomer*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

C. H. Talbot
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Synopsis

Simon Bredon was one of a remarkable group of scientists who brought fame to Oxford by their achievements in the sphere of natural science, particularly in astronomy. Though his interests lay chiefly in the field of medicine, as indicated by the large collection of books on this subject which he bequeathed to his friends, he was also a mathematician and astronomer.

The manuscripts of his works, still preserved at Oxford, Cambridge and the British Museum, which include an arithmetic, a commentary on the Almagest, a theory of the planets and astronomical calculations, have never been properly examined and some kind of preliminary investigation seems necessary before his true position among the Merton school of scientists can be assessed.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , June 1962 , pp. 19 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1962

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References

1 Powicke, F. M., The Mediaeval Books of Merton College, Oxford, 1931, p. 138.Google Scholar

2 Fuller biographical details will be found in Emden, A. B., A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to a.d. 1500, Oxford, 1957, vol. i, pp. 257–258.Google Scholar Other accounts of Bredon can be found in Gunther, R. T., Early Science in Oxford, Oxford, 1923, vol. ii, pp. 52–55Google Scholar; and in Thorndike, Lynn, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, New York, 1934, vol. iii, pp. 521–522.Google ScholarWeisheipl, J. A. has written a thesis, Early 14th century Physics and the Merton School (Bodl. Lib. MS. D. Phil., d. 1776, not, as stated by Emden, d. 1000–1001)Google Scholar in which Bredon appears, but I have had no opportunity of seeing it.

3 Printed by Powicke, , op. cit. (1), pp. 82–86.Google Scholar The list of books has also been given by Gunther, , op. cit. (2), pp. 53–55.Google Scholar

4 Gunther, , op. cit. (2), pp. 157–158, 208.Google Scholar

5 Ibid., pp. 42–43.

6 Questiones in X libros Ethicorum Aristotelis, Vienna, Bibl. Monast. B.V.M. ad Scotos, MS. 278. I take this reference from Emden.

7 The following manuscripts of the treatise are known to me: Oxford, Digby MS. 98, fos. 109–117; Digby MS. 147, fos. 92–103; Corpus Christi Coll. MS. 118, fos. 101–118; Cambridge, Univ. Lib. MS. Ee. iii, 61, fos. 92–101.

8 Oxford, Digby MS. 168, fos. 21–39; Digby MS. 178, fos. 42–87; Cambridge, Univ. Lib. MS. Ee. iii, 61, art. 8.

9 B.M., M.S. Egerton 847; Egerton MS. 889; Oxford, Digby MS. 48; Digby MS. 93; Digby MS. 98. The following manuscripts listed by Thorndike, Lynn, op. cit. (2), p. 523Google Scholar, note 23, do not contain Bredon's work, but the treatise by Gerard da Sabbionetta: B.M. Royal 12 C.ix; Royal 12 C. xvii; Royal 12 E xxv; Oxford, Digby MS. 47; Digby MS. 168; Digby MS. 207.

10 It survives in one manuscript only, Oxford, Digby MS. 160, fos. 102–223.

11 B.M., Harl. MS. 321, fos. 24V–28 (Astrolabii usus et declaracio per Bredon).

12 Oxford, Digby MS. 178, fos. 11v–14 (Conclusiones quinque de numero quadrato).

13 B.M., Egerton MS. 889.

14 Attributed to Bredon by Bale, J., Index Britanniae Scriptorum, ed. Poole, R. L. and Bateson, M., Oxford, 1902, p. 410.Google Scholar

15 This work mentioned by Bale is none other than the exposition of Boethius' Arithmetic.

16 Index Britanniae Scriptorum, pp. 410–411.Google Scholar

17 Emden, , op. cit. (2), p. 257Google Scholar, from whom I take this information, gives as his authority MS. Cotton Galba E. xiv, but I can find no such manuscript.

18 Digby MS. 98, fo. 109: ‘Incipit quedam abstractio et competens exposicio arsmetricae Boicii’.

19 Digby MS. 178, fo. 12v.

20 Ibid., fo. 13: he is referring to Vitellio's 129th conclusion taken from the book of Apollonius of Perga ‘de conicis elementis’.

21 Gunther, , p. 54Google Scholar: ‘opus de sinibus’, ‘Tabula Mauduit’ in quaternionibus.

22 Gunther, p. 208: he describes it on pp. 206–207.

23 B.M., MS. Harl. 321, fo. 28.

24 E.g. Emden, , op. cit. (2), p. 258.Google Scholar

25 Practica et Compositio Astrolabii, B.M., Royal MS. 12 C. ix, fo. 38; Royal MS. 12 C. xvii, o. 95.

26 B.M., Royal MS. 12 D. v, fo. 50r: ‘Longitudo Oxonie secundum Bredon 14.56’.

27 Gunther, p. 56: Gunther says, p. 45, that the supposed difference of longitude between Oxford and Toledo was 16 minutes East.

28 Oxford, Digby MS. 15: B.M., Egerton MS. 847, fo. 104v is entitled ‘Incipit theorica planetarum secundum Walterum Brytte’, whereas a later hand in MS. Egerton 889 attributes it to Campanus of Novara, ‘Secundum Campanum’.

29 Digby MS. 98, fo. 257.

30 Gerard's treatise begins with the words: ‘Circulus eccentricus, vel egresse cuspidis, vel egredientis centri, dicitur.’ Bredon's begins: ‘Circulus eccentricus, circulus egresse cuspidis, et circulus egredientis centri idem sunt.’

31 Digby MS. 178.

32 Digby MS. 168.

33 I have used the edition by Erasmus Oswald Schrekhensuchs printed in Basle in 1551.

34 Haskins, C. H., Studies in the History of Mediaeval Science, Cambridge, Mass., 1927, p. 110.Google Scholar

35 Digby MS. 179, fo. 3: ‘Incipit liber quadrepartiti ptholomei Phalusiensis de iudiciis astrorum secundum aliam translacionem.’ Another hand has written at the side: ‘ut apparet Bredon’: see Bjornbo, , Archiv. für die Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, i. 391ff.Google Scholar

36 Talbot, C. H., ‘A Mediaeval Physician's Vade-Mecum’. Journ. Hist. Med., 1961, xvi, 213–233.Google Scholar

37 Cambridge, Peterhouse MS. 75, fos. 1–78.