June 23 – Mathematician and physician Thomas Hood

On this day in Tudor history, 23rd June 1556, mathematician and physician Thomas Hood was baptised at St Leonard Eastcheap.

In 1588, Hood was invited to become Mathematical Lecturer to the City of London after Elizabeth I’s privy council decided, following the Spanish Armada, that military officers and naval commanders should have a better knowledge of mathematics. He lectured until 1592.

Hood's published works included the 1590 “The Use of the Celestial Globe in Plano, Set Foorth in Two Hemispheres”, the 1592 “The Use of Both the Globes Celestiall and Terrestriall”, the 1596 “Two Mathematicall Instruments, the Crosse-Staffe and the Jacobs Staffe” and the 1598 “The Making and Use of the Geometricall Instrument called a Sector”.

Hood was also a physician, practising medicine from 1597 until his death in 1620.

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