Johannes Engel (astronomer)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johannes Engel (lat. Ioannes Angelus , * before 1463 in Aichach ; † September 29, 1512 in Vienna ) was a Bavarian physician, astronomer / astrologer and professor of physics and mathematics at the University of Ingolstadt .

origin

The shoemaker people Konrad and Elisabeth Engel from Aichach are likely to have been Johannes' parents.

Live and act

In 1468 Johannes Engel began his studies at the University of Vienna. After graduating from the Baccalaureate in 1471, he moved to the University of Ingolstadt, which was newly founded in 1472 . In 1474 he received his master's degree and since 1476 he was lecturer in physics. In 1479 he began studying medicine, which he completed with a doctorate .

Engel was a proofreader in the office of his friend Erhard Ratdolt in Augsburg from 1489–91 . He published ephemeris of the heavenly bodies on the basis of the tablets of Regiomontanus . His edition of the astrological works of the Persian astronomer Abu Ma'schar is well known , in particular the De magnis coniunctionibus , which Johannes Kepler used to equate the star of Bethlehem with the triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 BC. Suggested.

In 1492 Engel was appointed to the University of Ingolstadt as the first full professor of mathematics and astronomy with a regular salary , although he did not have a doctorate. In 1498 he practiced as a doctor in Krems an der Donau . After 1500 he lived as a doctor in Vienna.

Engel regularly wrote astrological tables, especially for medical applications (such as bloodletting times) and predictions of political events and the weather. Such calculations were based on the Alfonsin tables from the 13th century, which Regiomontanus and Johannes Stöffler also used . Engel joined a group of astronomers around Andreas Stiborius in Vienna , who carried out astronomical observations from the tower of the ducal college to check the accuracy of the tables. They found deviations of the observed from the calculated planetary words (e.g. the widespread ephemeris from Stöffler / Pflaum from 1499) of 1 ° to 3 °, especially for Mars. Georg von Peuerbach had already noticed this and began to work out corrections for the Alfonsin tables, which he could not complete due to his early death. Engel resumed work and published corrected almanacs for the years 1510 and 1512. Due to his death in 1512, he was no longer able to create the previously announced explanation of the procedure.

Possible influence on Copernicus

According to the Nicolaus Copernicus biography by Pierre Gassendi from 1654, Engel was aware of his Commentariolus , written around 1509, and was an early follower of his view of the world.

In Commentariolus, Copernicus uses a heliocentric planetary model that mathematically corresponds to the geocentric model of Ibn asch-Shatir (1304-1375), a Syrian astronomer at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus . Owen Gingerich suspects that Copernicus could have learned about it through the almanacs novu [m] atq [ue] correctu [m] Engels, which he knew . J. Dobrzycki and RL Kremer have analyzed the mostly iatromathematical calendars and predictions of Engels and found that all works before 1510 were based on the traditional Alfonsin tables . In the almanacs for the years 1510 and 1512, he uses corrections that go back to Georg von Peuerbach's work that has not survived. These corrections could be based on mathematical procedures used by Islamic astronomers in the Maragha tradition ( Nasir ad-din at-Tusi , Mu'ayyad al-Din al-Urdi , Ibn al-Shatir), although it is unclear how Peurbach came to know about them .

Fonts

  • The German practick maister Hannß Engel on the jar LXXXVIII with the Gewiter before never practiced such a figure
  • Astrolabium planum, in tabulis ascendens , Augsburg 1488, 1494, 1502
  • Ephemerides , Augsburg, 1489
  • Albumazaris de magnis conjunctionibus , Augsburg 1489
  • Almanac for the year 1490 , E. Ratdolt, Augsburg 1489
  • Table of the new and full moons for 1490
  • Forecast for 1496
  • Tractat de nativitatibus , Venice 1494
  • Almanac novu [m] atq [ue] correctu [m] per Joannem angelu [m] artiu [m] et medicine doctore [m] peritissimu [m] ex p [ro] prijs tabulis calculatum super Anno domini. 1510 (and 1512) , Vienna 1509, 1511
  • Astrolabij quo primi mobilis motus deprehenduntur canones , Venetijs, in officina Petri Liechtenstein, 1512
  • Tractat von der Pestilentz Joanni Engel, the freyen künsten and artzney Doctor, drawn from the empty the Doctorn of the artzney and the Astronomey , posthumously 1518

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Joseph Heinrich Wolf: Documented chronicle and historical-statistical property and person address book of Munich and all surrounding places. Volume 2, 1854. p. 205 ( full text in the Google book search).
  2. ↑ Hofman, Fiedler: History of Astronomy. 1792. p. 157 ( full text in the Google book search).
  3. ↑ Acquisition of the Astrolabium planum in tabulis ascendens from 1502 by the city of birth , accessed on June 5, 2016
  4. ↑ cf. Archived copy ( memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lib.cam.ac.uk
personal data
SURNAME Angel, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Angelus, Ioannes (Latinized)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bavarian astronomer and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH before March 2, 1463
PLACE OF BIRTH Aichach
DATE OF DEATH September 29, 1512
Place of death Vienna