military affairs, implies to view and examine the state of things, in order to make a report thereon.

Reorde, Robert, a physician and mathematician, was descended of a respectable family in Wales, and lived in the time of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary of England. The time of his birth is not exactly known, but it must have been about the beginning of the sixteenth century; for he was entered of the university of Oxford about 1525, and was elected fellow of All-Souls College in 1531. As he made physic his profession, he went to Cambridge, where he was honoured with the degree of doctor in that faculty in 1543, and was very much esteemed by all who were acquainted with him, for his extensive knowledge of many of the arts and sciences. He afterwards returned to Oxford, where he publicly taught arithmetic and mathematics, as he had done prior to his going to Cambridge, and that with great applause. It appears that he afterwards went to London, and acted as physician to Edward VI, and to Queen Mary, to whom some of his books are dedicated; yet he died in the King's-Bench prison, Southwark, where he was confined for debt in the year 1558, at a very immature age.

He published several works upon mathematical subjects, chiefly in the form of dialogue between master and scholar. Of these the following is a list, viz. 1. The Pathway to Knowledge, containing the first principles of geometry, as they may moste aptly be applied unto practice, bothe for the use of Instrumentes Geometricall and Astronomicall, and also for projection of Plattes, much necessary for all sortes of men, London, 1551, 4to; 2. The Ground of Arts, teaching the perfect worke and practice of Arithmetike, both in whole numbers and fractions, after a more easie and exact forme then in former time hath been set forth, 1552, 8vo; 3. The Castle of Knowledge, containing the Explication of the Sphere both Celestiall and Materiall, and divers other things incident thereto, with sundry pleasant proofes and certaine newe demonstrations not written before in any vulgar workees, London, 1556, folio; 4. The Whetstone of Witte, which is the second part of Arithmetike, containing the extraction of rootes, the Cosike practice, with the rules of equation, and the workees of surde numbers, London, 1557, 4to.

Wood says that he was the author of several pieces on physic, anatomy, politics, and divinity; but it is uncertain whether these were ever published. Sherburne states that he also published Cosmographiche Isagoge; that he wrote a book, De Arte faciendi Horologium, and another De usu Globorum, et de statu Temporum.