Alexander Christiani (mathematician)

Alexander Christiani (born February 19, 1587 in Demmin ; † July 26, 1637 in Greifswald ) was a German Lutheran theologian and mathematician .

Life

Alexander Christiani was the son of the Demmin councilor and city treasurer Johann Christiani and his wife Marie, daughter of the Demmin mayor Joachim von Hartz. After he lost his father at the age of five, his mother married the city treasurer and later mayor Runge in 1594, who sent him to the Stettin pedagogy for four years . He then went to Frankfurt an der Oder and in 1609 to the University of Greifswald . From there he moved to the University of Wittenberg in 1611 , but soon returned to Greifswald "driven out by a contagious fever". Christiani's main interests were mathematics and languages.

Alexander Christiani was in 1613 at the University of Greifswald to master his doctorate . After returning from an educational trip that took him through Leipzig , Erfurt , Marburg and Gießen , he was appointed professor of mathematics in 1617. He was allowed to make a previously planned trip via Heidelberg , Tübingen , Nuremberg , Mainz , Cologne and Leiden . On August 30, 1618 he took over the chair of mathematics, and a year later of logic and metaphysics . He was dean of his faculty in 1620 and 1623 . The election as rector of the university in 1623/24 was not unanimous. It is not known whether this was one of the unknown reasons for leaving the teaching post after his rectorate.

In 1624 he became archdeacon at St. Nikolai Cathedral . He worked there until his death, but was buried in the St. Jacobi Church . A picture of the donor in his memory from 1640, which shows him and his two wives, came from the Jacobikirche to the cathedral in 1812.

Alexander Christiani's first marriage was to Ilsabe Völschow († 1630), a sister of the theologian Mövius Völschow . His second wife was Christina Tessin.

Fonts (selection)

Most of the surviving writings are not directly identified as Christiani's works, as these dissertations, which stem from his teaching system, were defended by students under his direction. In 1617 in de coeli centro terra , Friedrich Runge defended the geocentric worldview against the heliocentric teaching of Nicolaus Copernicus .

• Exercitationum politicarum nona de mutationibus et corruptionibus rerum publicarum. Greifswald 1616.
• Dissertation quarta de coeli centro terra. Greifswald 1617.
• Exercitationes metaphysicae. Greifswald 1620.
• De legibus. Greifswald 1623.

See also

• List of rectors at the University of Greifswald

literature

• Franz Müller: Contributions to the cultural history of the city of Demmin. W. Gesellius, Demmin 1902, pp. 62f.
• Johann Gottfried Ludwig Kosegarten : History of the University of Greifswald with documentary enclosures. Volume 1. Greifswald 1857, p. 235 ( Google books ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DI 77, Greifswald, No. 415 (†) (Jürgen Herold, Christine Magin), in: www.inschriften.net, urn: nbn: de: 0238-di077g014k0041501 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Johann Eberhard	Rector of the University of Greifswald 1623/24	Bartholomew Battus