Johann Jakob Marinoni

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De re ichnographica

Johann Jakob Marinoni / Giovanni Jacopo de Marinoni (* 1676 in Udine , Italy , † January 10, 1755 in Vienna ) was an Austrian astronomer and imperial court mathematician .

Life

The mathematically gifted young man from a good family in the Friulian capital Udine, subject of the Republic of Venice, goes to study in the imperial city at the University of Vienna . Shortly after receiving his doctorate in philosophy (1698), he teaches as a professor at the prestigious Academy of the Estates of Lower Austria (1702). His Italian compatriot Leander Anguissola noticed him and sponsored him. The appointment of Marinoni as imperial court mathematician in his mid-twenties (1703) is a sign of the highest favor. He becomes the teacher of the later Empress Maria Theresa.

Planning and mapping work on the line wall (1704) and the Anguissola-Marinoni plan of Vienna (1706) are the first proof of success for the thirty-year-old. As a representative of the Crown Land of Austria under the Enns, he measures national borders, produces current border maps and mediates in border disputes. Artful maps of stately possessions earn him many recommendations from the Austrian nobility. The imperial approval of the engineering academy in 1717 and the appointment as second director under Anguissola established his professional position. The first polytechnic training institute for officers and civilians in Central Europe is based in Marinoni's house on the Mölkerbastei in Vienna.

At the request of the Austrian governor of the state of Milan, the court war council, to which the engineering academy is subordinate, sent him to Lombardy in 1719. He demonstrated a high level of expertise, great organizational talent and made a significant contribution to the creation of the Milanese cadastre, the first land register of an entire country on a cartographic basis, which, however, only came into force a few years after the death of its creator in 1760 after decades of arduous disputes and in Italy “Catasto Teresiano “(first land survey in Europe). Decisive improvements of important instruments for the cartographic practice, like those of the measuring table or the planimetric scales, are his work. The stay for cadastral surveying in Italy was extended against his will until 1723, as he was obliged to carry out hydrometric measurements and the surveying of fortifications and borders. Marinoni is also planning the first road to the Semmering Pass , built in 1728 .

Despite direct intervention by the President of the Court War Councilor, Prince Eugene of Savoy, whose personal protection he enjoys, after Anguissola's death he was initially denied the management of the engineering academy. After his return to Vienna, not always to the satisfaction of his military superiors, he determined the curriculum and admission to the academy. The admission of foreigners is criticized by the highest army leaders as well as the lack of focus on practical military needs. After the elevation to the imperial nobility in 1726 and the appointment to the Imperial Council in 1733, at almost 50 years of age, he was appointed head of the academy. After almost forty years of activity, the school becomes an exclusively military institution after his death.

Marinoni lives alone and devotes his free time to mathematics and astronomy. He became a member of scientific societies throughout Europe - in 1746 he was admitted as a foreign member to the Royal Prussian Society of Sciences , and in the same year he became an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg . - and conducts extensive professional and private correspondence with greats of his time such as Euler, Leibniz, Maupertuis and Mikoviny.

His private observatory on the Mölkerbastei, from which the Vienna University Observatory later developed, is the first in Vienna and has been equipped with innovative instruments from 1728, the library contains a comprehensive collection of scientific literature. Of the three main works, his book on astronomy and the remarks on cartography appear at the end of his life, another volume on surveying technology, and others. a. with examples from Milan, only twenty years after his death. Marinoni is a perfectionist with regard to the explanations and explanatory illustrations and has worked on his work for decades. Not free from vanity, he cites in the foreword the merits that led to his ennoblement, as well as laudatory reviews of his ideas by famous colleagues.

The pious scientist died in 1755 at the age of 79, and most of his legacy went to clergy. Highly honored during his lifetime, if not always undisputed, his reputation as the creator of the Milan cadastre remains above all. His writings adorn many respected libraries and are considered desirable among collectors of scientific antiques, but are largely forgotten in today's professional world. Engraved letters in fluent Italian, elegant Latin or fluent French are preserved in the archives of various countries and provide information about Marinoni's thinking and character. Nothing written by hand is known in German, although the Friulian lived in Vienna for over half a century, which in the first half of the 18th century had a strong Italian influence.

In his native Udine, a geometer school and a street in the old town are named after Marinoni, in Vienna only a small alley on the northern outskirts after another near the summer residence of his empress was renamed when it was incorporated into Vienna at the end of the 19th century . In the crypt of the Schottenkirche, a plaque commemorates the great mathematician, astronomer and geodesist since 2017.

Honors

In 1971 the Marinonigasse in Vienna- Floridsdorf (21st district) was named after him. On May 17, 2017, a memorial plaque was inaugurated in the crypt of the Schottenkirche in Vienna, Marinoni's burial place, as part of an international cadastral congress.

Fonts

  • De astronomica specula domestica et organico apparatus astronomico. Vienna, Kaliwoda, 1745.
  • De re ichnographica, cujus hodierna praxis exponitur, et propriis exemplis pluribus illustratur. Vienna, Kaliwoda, 1751.
  • De re ichnometrica, veteri, ac nova recensetur experimenta per utramque habita accedunt modi areas fundorum sine calculo investigandi. Vienna, Kaliwoda, 1775.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Members of the previous academies. Giovanni Jacopo Marinoni. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences , accessed on May 3, 2015 .
  2. ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Giovanni Giacomo Marinoni. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed on October 4, 2015 (English, here: incorrect spelling of the middle name).
personal data
SURNAME Marinoni, Johann Jakob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marinoni, Giovanni Jacopo de; Marinoni, Johann Jacob von; Marinonius, Johannes Jacobus; Marinoni, Giovanni Giacomo; Marinonis, Johannes Jacobus; Marinoni, Johannes Jacobus; Marinonius, Joannes Jacobus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian mathematician, astronomer and cartographer of Italian origin
DATE OF BIRTH 1676
PLACE OF BIRTH Udine , Italy
DATE OF DEATH January 10, 1755
Place of death Vienna , Austria