Francois Rabelais (c. 1490-1553), French satirist and medical translator. He started his adult life as a Franciscan monk, and later became an ordained priest. He abandoned religion for medicine, and in 1532 became a physician in Lyons. During this year he published a translation of Hippocrates' Aphorismes. He is best known for his satirical and humourous works Gargantua and Pantagruel.