Portrait of Richard Banister Wellcome M0010062EA

Richard Banister (died 1626), was an English oculist of

Stamford, Lincolnshire Stamford is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population at the 2011 census was 19,701 and estimated at 20,645 in 2019. The town has 17th- and 18th-century stone buildings, older timber ...

. He was educated under his relative, John Banister, the surgeon. He devoted himself especially to certain branches of surgery, such as 'the help of hearing by the instrument, the cure of the hare-lip and the wry neck, and diseases of the eyes.’ He studied under various persons eminent in these subjects, among whom were ‘ Henry Blackborne, Robert Hall of Worcester, Master Velder of Fennie Stanton, Master Surflet of Lynn, and Master Barnabie of

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.’ To complete his education he studies the works of authors such as Rhazes, Mesne, Fernelius, and

Vesalius Andries van Wezel (31 December 1514 – 15 October 1564), Latinization of names, latinized as Andreas Vesalius (), was an anatomist and physician who wrote ''De humani corporis fabrica, De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem'' (''On the fabric ...

. Banister then established himself in Stamford, and acquired considerable reputation as an oculist. He was in demand in all the nearby large towns, and was even asked to go to London. He appears to have performed numerous operations for

cataract A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens (anatomy), lens of the eye that leads to a visual impairment, decrease in vision of the eye. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colours, blurry or ...

, and to have cured twenty-four blind persons at

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

, of which he obtained a certificate from the mayor and aldermen. In 1622 Banister published a second edition of a ''Treatise of One Hundred and Thirteen Diseases of the Eyes and Eyelids'', with some profitable additions of certain principles and experiments, by Richard Banister, oculist and practitioner in physic. It is a translation from the French of Jacques Guillemeau, made by one A. H., and at its first publication dedicated to the elder Banister. Guillemeau was a distinguished surgeon at the courts of Charles IX, Henry III, and

Henry IV of France Henry IV (; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry (''le Bon Roi Henri'') or Henry the Great (''Henri le Grand''), was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 16 ...

, and his work, ''Traité des Maladies de l'Œil'' (Handbook for treatment of ailments of the eye), was published in Paris in 1585, and at

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

in 1610, and was translated both into Flemish and into German. The English translation by A. H. having become out of print, a second edition was published in 1622 by Richard Banister, together with an 'appendant part' called ''Cervisia Medicata, Purging Ale, with divers aphorisms and principles''. The work received the name of ''Banister's Breviary of the Eyes'' in which the curative properties of Malvern water are also mentioned. In this treatise he names the best oculists for the last fifty or sixty years, not university graduates. Banister was buried at St Mary's Church, Stamford, 7 April 1626. His wife Anne was buried there 16 April 1624.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banister, Richard Year of birth missing 1626 deaths People from Stamford, Lincolnshire Oculists English medical writers 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers Eye care in the United Kingdom