George Baker (surgeon)
Encyclopedia
George Baker was an English surgeon notable for writing and translating a number of early medical texts.
Ergo Bakere tuum superabit sidera nomen,
Atque aliqua semper parte superstes eris.
And Clowes, another contemporary, prophesies the lasting fame of his works in English verse of the same quality. His first book is called The Composition or Making of the most excellent and pretious Oil called Oleum Magistrale and the Third Book of Galen. A Method of Curing Wounds and of the Errors of Surgeons.
In 1576 Baker published a translation of the Evonymus of Conrad Gessner
under the title of The Newe Jewell of Health, wherein is contained the most excellent Secretes of Physicke and Philosophie divided into fower bookes. Baker's own preface to the Newe Jewell is a good piece of English prose. He defends, as do many authors of that time, the writing a book on a learned subject in the vulgar tongue. He was in favour of free translation, "for if it were not permitted to translate but word for word, then I say, away with all translations". The book treats of the chemical art, a term used by Baker as synonymous with the art of distillation. Distilled medicines, he says, exceed all others in power and value, "for three drops of oil of sage doth more profit in the palsie, three drops of oil of coral for the falling sickness, three drops of oil of cloves for the cholicke, than one pound of these decoctions not distilled". Both in this and in his other treatises on pharmacy, the processes are not always fully described, for Baker was, after all, against telling too much. "As for the names of the simples, I thought it good to write them in the Latin as they were, for by the searching of their English names the reader shall very much profit; and another cause is that I would not have every ignorant asse to be made a chirurgian by my book, for they would do more harm with it than good".
Baker's Antidotarie of Select Medicine, 1579, is another work of the same kind. He also published two translations of books on general surgery: Guido's
Questions, 1579, and Vigo's
Chirurgical Works, 1586. Both had been translated before, and were merely revised by Baker. He wrote an essay on the nature and properties of quicksilver
in a book by his friend Clowes in 1584, and an introduction to the Herball of their common friend John Gerard
in 1597. The Galen was reprinted in 1599, as also was the Jewell under the altered title of The Practice of the New and Olde Physicke.
Biography
Baker was a member of the Barber Surgeons' Company and was elected master in 1597. In 1574, when he published his first book, Baker was attached to the household of the Earl of Oxford, and the writings of his contemporaries show that he had already attained to considerable practice in London. Banester of Nottingham speaks of his eminence in Latin verse:—Ergo Bakere tuum superabit sidera nomen,
Atque aliqua semper parte superstes eris.
And Clowes, another contemporary, prophesies the lasting fame of his works in English verse of the same quality. His first book is called The Composition or Making of the most excellent and pretious Oil called Oleum Magistrale and the Third Book of Galen. A Method of Curing Wounds and of the Errors of Surgeons.
In 1576 Baker published a translation of the Evonymus of Conrad Gessner
Conrad Gessner
Conrad Gessner was a Swiss naturalist and bibliographer. His five-volume Historiae animalium is considered the beginning of modern zoology, and the flowering plant genus Gesneria is named after him...
under the title of The Newe Jewell of Health, wherein is contained the most excellent Secretes of Physicke and Philosophie divided into fower bookes. Baker's own preface to the Newe Jewell is a good piece of English prose. He defends, as do many authors of that time, the writing a book on a learned subject in the vulgar tongue. He was in favour of free translation, "for if it were not permitted to translate but word for word, then I say, away with all translations". The book treats of the chemical art, a term used by Baker as synonymous with the art of distillation. Distilled medicines, he says, exceed all others in power and value, "for three drops of oil of sage doth more profit in the palsie, three drops of oil of coral for the falling sickness, three drops of oil of cloves for the cholicke, than one pound of these decoctions not distilled". Both in this and in his other treatises on pharmacy, the processes are not always fully described, for Baker was, after all, against telling too much. "As for the names of the simples, I thought it good to write them in the Latin as they were, for by the searching of their English names the reader shall very much profit; and another cause is that I would not have every ignorant asse to be made a chirurgian by my book, for they would do more harm with it than good".
Baker's Antidotarie of Select Medicine, 1579, is another work of the same kind. He also published two translations of books on general surgery: Guido's
Lanfranc of Milan
The surgeon Lanfranc of Milan , variously called Guido Lanfranchi, Lanfranco, or Alanfrancus was a student of Guglielmo da Saliceto. Involved in the struggles of Guelphs and Ghibellines, he was exiled from Milan by Matteo I Visconti in 1290. He moved first to Lyons, then on to Paris...
Questions, 1579, and Vigo's
John of Vigo
John of Vigo was a Spanish Renaissance pioneer of chirurgy....
Chirurgical Works, 1586. Both had been translated before, and were merely revised by Baker. He wrote an essay on the nature and properties of quicksilver
Mercury (element)
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...
in a book by his friend Clowes in 1584, and an introduction to the Herball of their common friend John Gerard
John Gerard
John Gerard aka John Gerarde was an English herbalist notable for his herbal garden and botany writing. In 1597 he published a large and heavily illustrated "Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes", which went on to be the most widely circulated botany book in English in the 17th century...
in 1597. The Galen was reprinted in 1599, as also was the Jewell under the altered title of The Practice of the New and Olde Physicke.