John Caius

John Caius MD (born John Kays) (/ˈkiːz/; 6 October 1510 – 29 July 1573), also known as Johannes Caius and Ioannes Caius, was an English physician, and second founder of the present Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

Biography

Early years

Caius was born in Norwich and was educated at Norwich School. In 1529 he was admitted as a student at what was then Gonville Hall, Cambridge, founded by Edmund Gonville in 1348 - where he seems to have mainly studied divinity.

After graduating in 1533, he visited Italy, where he studied under the celebrated Montanus and Vesalius at Padua. In 1541 he took his degree as a physician at the University of Padua.

In 1543 he visited several parts of Italy, Germany and France and then returned to England. Upon his return from Italy he Latinised his surname, an action which although self-aggrandising, was somewhat fashionable at the time.

Career

Caius was a physician in London in 1547, and was admitted as a fellow of the College of Physicians, of which he was for many years president.

John Caius the Elder

John Caius or Kay, sometimes called the elder, (fl. 1480), was an English poet.

Kay was the English translator of the Siege of Rhodes, an account of the unsuccessful Ottoman assault on Rhodes in 1480. The original Latin text Obsidionis Rhodiæ urbis descriptio (1480) had been written by Gulielmus Caoursin, the vice-chancellor of the order of the knights of St John of Jerusalem and an eye witness to the siege. The English translation was printed c. 1481-84.

Kay dedicates his translation to Edward IV, as whose 'humble poete lawreate' he describes himself. But the expression does not necessarily imply that the writer held any official position at court. The dedication also refers to time spent abroad in Italy, possibly studying, but beyond this details of his biography remain unclear and debated.

References

 "Caius, John (fl.1480)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.