Thomas Lydiat

Thomas Lydiat (1572 to 1646) was an English clergyman and mathematician, noted in his day as a chronologer and as an opponent of Joseph Justus Scaliger in controversy. He is now remembered for suggesting, in 1605, an oval orbit in astronomy, which anticipated Johannes Kepler, with whom he also exchanged views on chronology. Born at Alkerton in Oxfordshire, he won a scholarship to Winchester College and became a fellow of New College, Oxford, but gave up his fellowship in 1603 to devote himself to mathematics and chronology. He dedicated his Emendatio Temporum to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, who made him his chronographer and cosmographer. After the prince died in 1612 he took the family living at Alkerton. Debts he had guaranteed for his brother sent him to prison, and his royalism later brought his rectory under attack from parliamentarians. His contemporaries ranked him with Joseph Mede and Francis Bacon.