Robert Fludd was born in Milgate in 1574. He studied medicine at Oxford for seven years and successfully defended his doctoral dissertation in 1598. After his studies, his travels took him to France, Italy, and Germany. During his medical studies, he developed an interest in chemistry and philosophy.
As Robert Fludd crisscrossed Europe as a traveling scholar, he came in contact with advocates of the medical teachings of Paracelsus. After that time, Robert Fludd devoted much study to the philosophy of the Rosicrucians, a movement which the physician later strongly supported. In 1605, Fludd returned to Oxford and received there the titles of Bachelor of Medicine and Doctor of Medicine, filling a position as lecturer until 1609. Moreover, Robert Fludd occupied himself with the chemical principles of Paracelsus as pertaining to medicine, as well as with mystical and alchemical experiments. Fludd left Oxford in 1606, opening his own medical practice in London. He filled his own laboratory with chemical substances, which he used for his alchemical research. Despite his success as a doctor, Robert Fludd also found time to produce many writings, in which he developed his ideas on the medical mystics and his interest in the teachings of the Rosicrucians. In his writings and work as a physician, Fludd continually searched for a connection between the modern natural sciences and theosophic mysticism.
Robert Fludd died in London in 1637.