Richard Banister

He devoted himself especially to certain branches of surgery, such as 'the help of hearing by the instrument, the cure of the hare-lip and the wry neck, and diseases of the eyes.’ He studied under various persons eminent in these subjects, among whom were ‘Henry Blackborne, Robert Hall of Worcester, Master Velder of Fennie Stanton, Master Surflet of Lynn, and Master Barnabie of Peterborough.’ To complete his education he studies the works of authors such as Rhazes, Mesne, Fernelius, and Vesalius.

He appears to have performed numerous operations for cataract, and to have cured twenty-four blind persons at Norwich, of which he obtained a certificate from the mayor and aldermen.

Guillemeau was a distinguished surgeon at the courts of Charles IX, Henry III, and Henry IV of France, and his work, Traité des Maladies de l'Œil (Handbook for treatment of ailments of the eye), was published in Paris in 1585, and at Lyon in 1610, and was translated both into Flemish and into German.

The English translation by A. H. having become out of print, a second edition was published in 1622 by Richard Banister, together with an 'appendant part' called Cervisia Medicata, Purging Ale, with divers aphorisms and principles.

The work received the name of Banister's Breviary of the Eyes in which the curative properties of Malvern water are also mentioned.