Simon Ludford (died 1574) was an English physician.

Biography

Ludford was a native of

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

, and entered the Franciscan order. After the dissolution of the monasteries he became an apothecary in London, and supplicated for the degree of B.M. from 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 6 November 1553. He was admitted to the degree and to practice on 27 November 1554 (Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc., i. 222), but the

College of Physicians of London The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of p ...

informed the university of his incompetence in medicine, and he was excluded from the privileges of his degree. He went to Cambridge, but met with no better fate. The vigilant Dr.

John Caius John Caius (born John Kays ; 6 October 1510 – 29 July 1573), also known as Johannes Caius and Ioannes Caius, was an English physician, and second founder of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Scholar and physician to Edward VI and Mary I ...

caused a letter to be sent to the authorities stating that Ludford had been examined by the College of Physicians on 12 February 1553, and found ignorant, not only of medicine but of philosophy and letters, and that he was without any trace of a liberal education. These rebuffs seem to have stimulated him to study, and he was admitted M.D. at Oxford on 26 June 1560. On 7 April 1563 he was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians of London, and he was chosen a censor in 1564, 1569, and 1572. His copy of the works of Avicenna is in the library of the college with some others of his books. His only extant composition is a manuscript copy of verses written on a blank space at the end of the preface of

Charles Estienne Charles Estienne (; 1504–1564), known as Carolus Stephanus in Latin and Charles Stephens in English, was an early exponent of the science of anatomy in France. Charles was a younger brother of Robert Estienne I, the famous printer, and son to ...

's ‘De dissectione partium corporis humani libri tres,’ Paris, 1545, and descriptive of the book. Ludford had paid 8s. for the book, and states he was in want of money at the time. He died in 1574.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ludford, Simon Year of birth missing 1574 deaths 16th-century English medical doctors People from Bedfordshire Alumni of the University of Oxford Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians