John Craig (died 1620) was a Scottish physician and astronomer. He was physician to King James. He corresponded with

Tycho Brahe Tycho Brahe ( ; ; born Tyge Ottesen Brahe, ; 14 December 154624 October 1601), generally called Tycho for short, was a Danish astronomer of the Renaissance, known for his comprehensive and unprecedentedly accurate astronomical observations. He ...

, and associated with

John Napier John Napier of Merchiston ( ; Latinisation of names, Latinized as Ioannes Neper; 1 February 1550 – 4 April 1617), nicknamed Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish landowner known as a mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He was the 8 ...

Physician

He was born in Scotland, the son of an Edinburgh tailor and merchant Robert Craig and

Katherine Bellenden Katherine Bellenden (1497 – c. 1568) was a courtier working in the wardrobe of James V of Scotland. Her niece of the same name was similarly employed. A family at court Katherine was the daughter of Patrick Bellenden a servant of Margaret T ...

. The lawyer and poet Thomas Craig was his older brother. He graduated M.D. at the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis''; German: ''Universität Basel'') is a public research university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest univ ...

. He came back in Scotland, after a decade and a half on the continent of Europe, and may have been a physician to the king. Craig attended Agnes Keith, Countess of Moray in her final illness in Edinburgh in 1588, with the surgeon Gilbert Primose and the apothecary Thomas Diksoun. He accompanied King James to London on James's accession to the throne of England. On 20 June 1603 James made him first physician with an anuual salary of £100. His long-serving German doctor Martin Schöner was also appointed first physician with the same salary on 6 July. In 1604, he was admitted a member of the College of Physicians of London. He was incorporated M.D. at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

on 30 August 1605; was named an elect of the College of Physicians on 11 December the same year; was consiliarius in 1609 and 1617; and died before 10 April 1620, when John Argent was chosen an elect in his place.

Astronomy and mathematics

Paul Wittich taught him astronomy at the University of Frankfurt (Oder) in 1576. Craig wrote a manuscript "Capnuraniae seu Comet, in Aethera Sublimatio" addressed to his friend Tycho Brahe. Some of their correspondence was printed by Rudolf August Nolten. Craig's work was prompted by the

Great Comet of 1577 The Great Comet of 1577 (designated as C/1577 V1 in modern nomenclature) is a non-periodic comet that passed close to Earth with first observation being possible in Peru on 1 November 1577. Final observation was made on 26 January 1578. Tycho Br ...

.Adam Mosley, ''Bearing the Heavens: Tycho Brahe and the astronomical community of the late sixteenth century'' (2007), p. 159. The contact with Brahe was set up by William Stewart of Houston, who visited Denmark in 1589. Andrew Pyle (editor), ''Dictionary of Seventeenth Century British Philosophers'' (2000), article on Craig, pp. 218–9. According to Richard A. Jarrell: Craig was an academic in Germany for an extended period. He was in

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

in 1569, and in 1570 as a medical student under Caspar Peucer. He was in Frankfurt-on-Oder in 1573, teaching mathematics and logic. He returned to Scotland in 1584. Craig may have been the person who gave

of Merchiston the hint which led to his discovery of

logarithm In mathematics, the logarithm of a number is the exponent by which another fixed value, the base, must be raised to produce that number. For example, the logarithm of to base is , because is to the rd power: . More generally, if , the ...

s. Anthony à Wood wrote that Napier himself informed Tycho Brahe, via Craig, of his discovery, some twenty years before it was made public.

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* * * ;Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Craig, John 1620 deaths 17th-century Scottish medical doctors Scottish astronomers Year of birth missing Court of James VI and I