Johann Adolf Tassius
Johann (es) Adolf Tassius (actually Tasch (e), wrongly also cup) (* 1585 in Bremervörde ; † January 4, 1654 in Hamburg ) was a German mathematician, natural scientist and professor at the Academic Gymnasium in Hamburg.
Life
Tassius's parents were Joachim Tasch from Altenburg and Magdalena von der Horst. Joachim Tasch worked as a secretary and notary in the administration of the Archdiocese of Bremen and died before his son was nine years old. Tassius attended the Katharineum in Lübeck under the rector Otto Walper , a Hebraist, and received a good education, especially in the ancient languages. It was there that Tassius met Joachim Jungius , with whom he had a lifelong friendship.
Nothing is known about any post-school activity that he should have completed around 1605. From 1611 Tassius studied at the University of Rostock . At the age of 26, he was relatively old for a student who was enrolling for the first time. There he defended theses under the title De analogia in 1613 in a disputation chaired by Johann Sleker , who was a professor of physics and metaphysics. In Rostock, two students from the Lüneburg patrician family Elver, Johann and Leonhard , were already known to whom they were in close contact later.
A few years later, in 1618, Tassius continued his studies in Heidelberg and Tübingen, now at the medical faculty. In Heidelberg copied a Greek manuscript of the Pneumatika from Heron of Alexandria and lived in the house of the librarian Jan Gruter . In the same year he moved to Tübingen. At these stations, too, Tassius was accompanied by a younger Lüneburg patrician, Nikolaus Düsterhoff, perhaps he was his court master . In Tübingen, Tassius made friends with Johann Valentin Andreae , who praised him in his autobiography, and with Christoph Besold , who dedicated the print of a speech from the rectorate to him. Tassius sought the language editing for Hebrew language but did not succeed, the agency received the Württemberg Wilhelm Schickard .
Soon afterwards Tassius went to the Academic Gymnasium in Strasbourg , where he matriculated. Then he went to Belgium , which can mean both the Spanish Netherlands Belgium and the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands . The Netherlands was a popular destination for academic educational trips. However, there is no proof of matriculation for Tassius there, and the purpose of the trip is also unknown. However, Tassius never obtained an academic degree, neither the master's degree nor the doctor of medicine, which would have been necessary for a job as a doctor.
Since 1621, Tassius stayed in northern Germany again. First in Rostock with Joachim Jungius, then in Lüneburg, where he had friends among the patricians since his Rostock student days. There is no evidence of a permanent position for him there. Tassius campaigned for the Societas ereunetica sive zetetica , a scientific society that Jungius had founded in Rostock in 1622. Tassius raised money and recruited members for this association. He tried for himself and Jungius for a professorship at the University of Helmstedt . Jungius was appointed in 1625, but was only able to exercise his office for a short time because the university stopped teaching because of the Thirty Years' War . Tassius was left without a job.
It was not until 1628 that Tassius was appointed professor of mathematics at the Academic Gymnasium in Hamburg, where Jungius had since become rector. Tassius held this office until his death. The Hamburg high school was of supraregional importance during the Thirty Years' War and was also able to attract students from outside the country. Reasons for this were, in addition to the security of the city of Hamburg, the scientific reputation of Jungius and Tassius. Bernhard Varenius , Marcus Meibom and Justus Georg Schottelius were among her students .
Tassius was in touch with the circle around Samuel Hartlib and John Durie . Johann Amos Comenius visited him in Hamburg. The English mathematician John Pell published a contribution by Tassius in an anthology in which Pell put together essays by various mathematicians against the circular quadrature by Christian Sørensen Longomontanus . This remained Tassius' only publication during his lifetime, apart from five disputations , which his students defended in Hamburg, although friends urged him to publish his own writings.
His successor Heinrich Siver only published a number of mathematical textbooks after Tassius' death. He sold his collection of mathematical books and instruments to the Hamburg City Library in exchange for an annuity for himself and his wife ; the holdings have largely been lost due to losses in the Second World War . He also bequeathed his handwritten estate, mainly templates and notes on his mathematics teaching activities, to this library. Larger parts of it have been preserved.
Works
- Arithmeticae Empiricae Compendium , Hamburg: Zacharias Hertel, 1673. (Fractional calculation and elementary number theories)
- Trigonometriae Canonicae Compendium , Hamburg: Hertel, 1676. (plane and spherical trigonometry )
- Geodaesiae, sive Geometriae Practicae Compendium , Hamburg: Zacharias Hertel, 1677. (land survey)
- Photicae, (quae vulgò Optica dicitur,) Compendium , [Hamburg], 1678. (Mathematical Optics)
- Astronomiae sphaericae, in globo et canonibus primi motus prolitae, Compendium Hamburg: Hertel, 1679. (Movement of the starry sky, sun and moon)
- Geographiæ Universalis Compendium , Hamburg: Rebelin, 1679. (Mathematical Geography)
- Chronologiae compendium, descriptum ex recensione Henrici Siveri , Hamburg, 1691. (Christian calendar calculation and calendar of the Greeks, Romans, Persians, Jews and Muslims)
- Pars Geometriae, quae agit de Magnitudinum proportione , Hamburg: Rebelin, 1673, (On the construction of similar figures)
- Joan. Adolfi Tassii Staticae Compendium et variis Mathematicis collectum , Hamburg 1681. (determination of the center of gravity and simple machines: lever, wedge, shaft, pulley block)
- Opuscula Mathematica , Hamburg: Love time, 1699,
Individual evidence
literature
- Wilhelm Sillem: Tassius, Johann Adolf . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, pp. 411-413.
- Catrin Pieri: The Hamburg mathematician Johann Adolph Tassius (1585-1654) , in: Rainer Gebhardt (Hrsg.): Arithmetic and Algebraic Writings of the Early Modern Times Conference proceedings for the Scientific Colloquium April 22-24, 2005 in Annaberg-Buchholz, Annaberg-Buchholz , Adam-Ries-Bund eV, 2005. ISBN 3-930430-68-1 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Tassius, Johann Adolf |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Tassius, Johannes Adolph (alternative spelling); Tasch, Johann Adolph (alternative spelling); Taschen, Johann Adolph (alternative spelling); Tassius, Johannes Adolfus |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German mathematician and professor at the Academic Gymnasium in Hamburg |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1585 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bremervörde |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th January 1654 |
| Place of death | Hamburg |