Richard Forster
Encyclopedia
Life
He was son of Laurence Forster, and was born at CoventryCoventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
about 1546, and was educated at All Souls' College, Oxford. He graduated at Oxford, M.B. and M.D., both in 1573.
He became a fellow of the College of Physicians of London about 1575, but his admission is not mentioned in the Annals. In 1583 he was elected one of the censors, in 1600 treasurer, and Lumleian lecturer in 1602. He was president of the college from 1601 to 1604, and was again elected in 1615 and held office till his death on 27 March 1616. He had considerable medical practice, and was also esteemed as a mathematician, as reported by William Camden
William Camden
William Camden was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and officer of arms. He wrote the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and the first detailed historical account of the reign of Elizabeth I of England.- Early years :Camden was born in London...
, when recording his death, William Clowes
William Clowes (surgeon)
William Clowes the elder was an early English surgeon. He published case reports in which he advocated the application of powders and ointments. He also published one of the first reports in English on how to reduce a femur.-Life:...
, the surgeon, praises him, and in 1591 writes of Forster as 'a worthie reader of the surgerie lector in the Phisition's college,' showing that he gave lectures before the Lumleian lectures were formally instituted in 1602.
He was a practicing astrologer
Astrologer
An astrologer practices one or more forms of astrology. Typically an astrologer draws a horoscope for the time of an event, such as a person's birth, and interprets celestial points and their placements at the time of the event to better understand someone, determine the auspiciousness of an...
, and it was through Forster that Christopher Heydon
Christopher Heydon
Sir Christopher Heydon was an English soldier, Member of Parliament, and writer on astrology.-Background:Born in Surrey, Heydon was the eldest son of Sir William Heydon of Baconsthorpe, Norfolk, and his wife Anne, daughter of Sir William Woodhouse of Hickling, Norfolk...
's manuscript An Astrological Discourse with Mathematical Demonstrations, defending astrology, passed to Nicholas Fiske. Richard Harvey
Richard Harvey
Richard Harvey is a BAFTA Award–winning British musician and composer. He is best known for his film and television soundtracks...
indicated him as a leader of the astrologer-physicians.
Works
In 1567 he dedicated to Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of ArundelHenry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel
Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel was an English nobleman, who over his long life assumed a prominent place at the court of all the later Tudor sovereigns, probably the only person to do so.-Court career:...
an astrological work. Forster had been introduced to Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, KG was an English nobleman and the favourite and close friend of Elizabeth I from her first year on the throne until his death...
, by Sir Henry Sidney, and dedicated to the earl in 1575 his ephemerides. Besides the prose dedication, in which astronomy is said to be the handmaid of medicine, twenty lines of Latin verse on Leicester's cognisance, the bear, precede the tables of which the book is made up.