Simon Bredon

Who was Simon Bredon?

Simon Bredon was an English astronomer, mathematician, and physician. He was a member of the Merton School, Oxford, elected a Fellow of Merton c. 1330, perhaps until the year 1342, having formerly been a member of Balliol. He was a Doctor of Medicine of the University of Oxford. He left manuscripts and scientific instruments to a number of Oxford colleges, perhaps including the bequest of the Oriel astrolabe, which is now in the Museum of the History of Science.

He was one of the earliest European mathematicians to work on trigonometry.

Authorship of the treatise The equatorie of the planetis has been attributed to Bredon, though also to Geoffrey Chaucer or another contemporary. The Theorica planetarum in the past attributed to him is now thought to be by Walter Brit.