Bredon, Simon

(b. Winchcomb, England, ca 1300; d. ca. 1372)

mathematics, astronomy, medicine.

Originally a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, Bredon moved to Merton College and
was a fellow there in 1330, becoming junior proctor of the university in 1337 and
keeper of the Langton chest about 1339. In 1348 he left Merton to become vicar of
Rustington, Sussex, and thereafter held a succession of church appointments. His
will, probated in 1372, listed the contents of his library, which covered theology,
law, medicine, mathematics, and astronomy, as well as grammar and dialectic.

Bredon’s earliest writings were concerned with philosophy, but he soon turned to
mathematics and produced an explanation of Boethius’ Arithmetic. This he split up
into two parts, the first dealing with numbers, including multiplication, the
second concerned with geometrical figures—triangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons,
etc. In his copy of William Rede’s astronomical tables for 1341–1344 he jotted down
five conclusions on square numbers, which he considered useful for the squaring of
the circle. These were followed by two criticisms of statements made by Vitello in
his book on perspective, which Bredon dubbed “marvellous but false”. His possession
of Richard of Wallingford’s book on sines and John Maudith’s table of chords shows
him to have taken an interest in trigonometry, but his own writings on these
subjects have not survived except for a few brief notes; therefore it is not
possible to assess his contribution in this field.

Bredon’s works on astronomy are better attested. He wrote a treatise on the use of
the astrolabe, giving detailed instructions how to find the altitude, degree, and
declination of the sun; the latitude of any region; the degree of eclipse; and so
on. The opening paragraph, entitled “Nomina instrumentorum”, is not his work, but a
borrowing from Messehallach. His Theorica planetarum, sometimes attributed to
Walter Brytte, a contemporary at Merton, sometimes to Gerardo da Sabbionetta, is
largely a paraphrase of the latter’s treatise although it lacks the two final
sections on the latitude of the planets and the invection of the aspects of the
planets. The text De equationibus planetarum formerly ascribed to Bredon has been
shown to belong to Chaucer.

Bredon wrote a commentary on the first three books of Ptolemy’s Almagest. No

complete copy survives, but the work can be reconstructed from two incomplete
manuscripts, both of which were annotated by Thomas Allen and John Dee. According
to a marginal note in MS Digby 179, Bredon also made a new translation of Ptolemy’s
Quadrepartitum, probably to be identified with the Astronomia judiciaria mentioned
in John Bale’s Index Britanniae scriptorum. This translation is inserted into the
lower margins of the version done by Egidius de Thebaldis of Parma, a copy of which
was in Bredon’s library. He drew up tables for the declination of the sun and the
ascension of the signs and gave the longitude of Oxford as 14°5′. Bale ascribes
three other works to him—Super introductorio Alcabitii, Astronomia calculatoria,
and Astronomia judiciaria—without giving incipits.

Bredon’s most ambitious work was the Trifolium, a medical compilation modeled on
Avicenna’s Canon. Only one–twelfth of it survives, dealing with the prognostication
of disease from feces and urine, and with the composition of medicines. He was
physician to Richard, Earl of Arundel, in 1355 and treated Joanna, Queen of Scots,
in 1358.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. Original Works. Bredon’s writings are Questiones in X libros Ethicorum
Aristotelis; Vienna, Bibl. Monast B.V.M. ad Scotos MS 278.

Encyclopedia 1080
×
De arithmetica: Oxford, Digby MS 98, fols. 109–117; Digby MS 147, fols. 92–103;
Corpus Christi Coll. MS 118, fols. 101–118; Cambridge, Univ. Lib. MS Ee. iii, 61,
fols. 92–101; Univ. of Alabama, MS 1, fols. 1–16; Boston Public Lib. MS 1531. On
the last, see Margaret Munsterberg, “An unpublished Mathematical Treatise by Simon
Bredon”, in More Books, The Bulletin of the Boston Public Library, 19 (1944), 411.

Conclusiones quinque de numero quadrato; Digby MS 178, fols. 11v-14.

Massa compoti (of Alexandre de Ville Dieu, not of Grosseteste, as ascribed by

Bale): Digby MS 98, fols. 11–21, “bene correctus secundum sententiam Bredone”.

Theorica planetarum: London, British Museum Egerton MS 847, fols. 104–122; Egerton
MS 889; Oxford, Digby MS 48; Digby MS 93; Digby MS 98. The following MSS listed by
Lynn Thorndike do not contain Bredon’s work, but the treatise by Gerardo da
Sabbionetta: London, B.M. Royal 12 C.ix; Royal 12 C.xvii; Royal 12 E.xxv; oxford,
Digby MS 47; Digby MS 168; Digby Ms 207

Commentum… Almagesti: Oxford, Digby MS 168, fols. 21–39; Digby MS 178, fols. 42–87;
Cambridge, Univ. Lib. Ee.iii, 61, art. 8.

Astrolabii usus et declaracio: London, B.M. Harl, 321, fols. 24v–28.

Liber Quadrepartiti Ptolemei: Digby MS 179. See Axel Anthon Björnbo, “Die
Mittelalterlichen lateinischen Übersetzungen aus dem Griechischen aug dem Gebiete
der mathematischen Wissenschaften”, in Archiv für Geschichte der
Naturwissenschaften und der Technik, 1 (1909), 391 ff.

Trifolium: Oxford, Digby MS 160, fols. 102–233.

Bredon is quoted in Thomas Werkworth, Tractatus de motu octavae spherae (1396):

Dibgy MS 97, fol. 143.

Two letters addressed to him are in London, B.M. Royal 12 D.xi, fols. 25r, 35r. His
longitude for Oxford is in Royal 12 D.v, fol. 50r.

II. Secondary Literature. Full biographical details are in A. B. Emden, A.

Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, I (Oxford, 1957),
257–258; R.T. Gunther, Early Science in Oxford, II (Oxford, 1923), 52–55; and Lynn
Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, III (New York, 1934), 521–
522. See also C. H. Talbot, “Simon Bredon (c. 1300–1372), Physician, Mathematician
and Astronomer”, in British Journal of the History of Science, 1 (1962–1963), 19–
30; and J. A. Weisheipl, “Early 14th Century Physics and the Merton School”, Bodl.
Lib. MS D. Phil. d.1776. A list of the contents of Bredon’s library is in F.M.
Powicke, The Mediaeval Books of Merion College (Oxford, 1931), pp. 82–86, 138–142.

C. H. Talbot