Johannes Schöner

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Johannes Schöner, engraving from the 17th century
Western hemisphere of the Beautiful Globe (1515, edition of 1520)
Weimer Globe 1533

Johannes Schöner or Johann Schöner , also Latinized as Johannes Schonerus (born January 16, 1477 in Karlstadt am Main , Lower Franconia ; † January 16, 1547 in Nuremberg , Middle Franconia ) was a German mathematician, geographer , cartographer , astronomer , astrologer , printer and publisher of scientific studies Works.

Life

Algorithm demonstratus , 1534

From 1494, Schöner studied mathematics, theology and medicine in Erfurt , but without a degree. One of his fellow students was Martin Luther . In 1500 he was ordained a priest and held parish positions in the Bamberg and Karlstadt areas. In Nuremberg he learned observational astronomy from Bernhard Walther . In 1523 he was due to neglect of the choral service, and because of concubinage demoted to the Franconian Switzerland. After the Peasants' War of 1525 he went to Nuremberg and converted to Protestantism. On the recommendation of Philipp Melanchthon , he became professor of mathematics at the Egidiengymnasium in 1526 , a position that he held until a year before his death. In 1528, Schöner published a medical work.

Schöner's Waldseemüller card in the Library of Congress (2007)

He had already set up a printing press in Bamberg. With the support of Johann Seyler , he made earth and celestial globes. As a student of Martin Waldseemüller , he created some of the oldest earth globes ever. He also owned the copy of Waldseemüller's world map that is on display in the Library of Congress .

On his globes from 1515 , 1520 (restored in 1725 by the mathematician and globe builder Johann Philipp Andreae (1700–1762)) and 1533 a Brasilia inferior appears , separated from South America by a waterway, i.e. before the official discovery of the Strait of Magellan in November 1520. According to a treatise that Schöner published at the same time, this goes back to a correspondent's report by the Augsburg trading house of the Welser , which was published in the Newen Zeytung out of Presillg Land . This representation led, among other things, to the controversial hypothesis of Gavin Menzies ' (2002) that the Chinese admiral Zheng He mapped the whole world around 1420.

More beautifully edited and published the astronomical observations that his teachers Bernard Walther and Regiomontanus had carried out over 40 years in Nuremberg: Observationes XXX annorum a I. Regiomontano et B. Walthero Norimbergae habitae [4 °, Norimb. 1544].

Nicolaus Copernicus used the observations of Mercury , but attributed them to Schoner, who had communicated them to him before publication. There were 45 observations, 14 of which were longitude and latitude . In Copernicus' main work 3 observations of Mercury are given, but only the lengths. However, they differ slightly from the values ​​published in 1544.

In 1538 Georg Joachim Rheticus stayed with him. Presumably, he and the printer Johannes Petreius convinced him to visit Copernicus in Frauenburg and get his work ready for printing . In 1540 Rheticus dedicated the Narratio Prima , the preliminary publication of the Copernican work, to him.

Bernhard Walther had acquired Regiomontanus' estate, but had not given anyone access. Schöne published some of Regiomontan's works, such as the justification of the scientific cometology Problemata XVI de cometae (1472) magnitudine longitudineque ac de loco ejus vero , the algorithm demonstratus , a (negative) text about the axis rotation of the earth, the manual of trigonometry.

Schöner's first own publication appeared in Bamberg in 1515: Horari cylindri canones , instructions for drawing sundials on a cylinder jacket . Even in Bamberg he published a treatise on the Computus Ecclesiasticus, in which he pointed out, among other things, the need for a calendar reform. His posthumous work was published in 1561 by his son Andreas Schöner (1528–1590).

Schöne published numerous calendars and prognostics that achieved high print runs. In later years he turned increasingly to astrology and wrote an introductory text Opusculum Astrologicum (1539) and an extensive monograph De iudiciis nativitatum Libri Tres (1545). His publication of Bernard Walther's Canones de judiciis aurae should also be seen in this context , an attempt to trace meteorology back to the effects of the stars.

A portrait created by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1529 and located in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels was depicted on the 1000 Deutsche Mark bill from 1964 to 1992 . It is controversial whether it shows Johannes Schöner or, according to a later inscription, the theologian Johannes Scheyring .

The IAU honored him by naming the Mars crater Schöne . In addition, the grammar school in his birthplace Karlstadt bears his name.

literature

Web links

Commons : Johannes Schöner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joachim Telle : The pharmacopoeia of Johannes Schöners and his Middle High German sources. In: Centaurus 17, 1973, pp. 119-141.
  2. ^ Christian Jostmann : Magellan , Munich 2019, p. 78.
  3. ^ Siegmund Günther:  Schöner, Andreas . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 32, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1891, p. 294 f.
  4. ↑ Monika Maruska: Johannes Schöner , Vienna 2008, pp. 132 ff.
  5. ↑ Max J. Friedländer and Jakob Rosenberg : The paintings of Lucas Cranach, Stuttgart 1979, p. 135, no. 331
personal data
SURNAME More beautiful, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beautiful, Johann; Schonerus, Johannes; Schonerus, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mathematician, geographer, cartographer, astronomer and editor
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1477
PLACE OF BIRTH Karlstadt am Main , Lower Franconia
DATE OF DEATH January 16, 1547
Place of death Nuremberg , Middle Franconia