He belonged to the group of Elizabethan surgeons who set themselves to improve the position of English surgery. They wrote in English, and sought to demarcate surgeons from quacks. Others of a like mind were John Banester, William Clowes, Thomas Gale, and John Halle.[2]
In 1588 Read published a composite work, based on a translation from a surgical text of Franciscus Arceus (Francisco Arceo, 1494–1575).[3] There are other elements. Prefixed to the translation is A Complaint of the Abuses of the Noble Art of Chirurgerie, written in verse by Read.[2] There is a work on fistula by John Arderne, and a version of the Hippocratic oath. There are additions of Read's own.[1]
Read dedicated his book to Banester, Clowes, and William Pickering. The work contained aspirations, that "the Barbers craft ought to be a distinct mistery from chirurgery", and "chirurgians ought to be seene in physicke", that in the British context were delayed until 1745, and 1868, respectively.[2]
