Johannes Hommel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johannes Hommel (also: Homelius, Hummelius, Homilius, Hummel ; * February 2, 1518 in Memmingen ; † July 5, 1562 in Leipzig ) was a German Protestant theologian, mathematician and astronomer.

Life

Hommel began his studies at the University of Strasbourg and continued this in 1540 at the University of Wittenberg . In contact with Martin Luther , Philipp Melanchthon and Erasmus Reinhold , he acquired the academic degree of a master's degree in the liberal arts and in 1543 became pastor in Bläß near Memmingen. He had to leave this office in 1548 because the Augsburg interim forced him to do so. His knowledge of mathematics led him to Augsburg to Emperor Charles V , where he made a clock that the emperor the Turkish ruler Suleiman gave. He made himself so popular with the emperor through his work that the emperor raised him to the nobility in 1553.

However, since he no longer wanted to remain at the emperor's court as a supporter of Protestant doctrine, he went to the Electorate of Saxony , where he was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Leipzig in 1551 and soon afterwards became a councilor to Elector August . In Leipzig in 1558 he married Magdalena (born December 23, 1529 in Nuremberg), the daughter of Joachim Camerarius' the elder . In the summer semester of 1560 he took over the rectorate .

Through his lectures on astronomy he encouraged Tycho Brahe to indicate small parts of a line through transversals and borrowed from his observations the pole height of Leipzig at 51 ° 9 '17 ". In Leipzig Brahe became friends with Bartholomäus Scultetus , another famous student of Hommel, on.

Hommel did not publish any writings, but left behind various manuscripts, made astronomical instruments and bequeathed his library to the Princely College in Leipzig, along with a foundation for a student. The dvdd names “De syllogismorum veritate”, Leipzig 1557, as his work.

The moon crater is named after Hommel .

A direct collaboration with Valentin Thau is documented.

literature

Footnotes and individual references

  1. ↑ Bartholomäus Scultetus mentions the date of death in his work Gnomonice 1572, page 5 of the dedication.
  2. ↑ “From September 1555, Hommel became a confidante of Elector August and should have advised him on all astronomical and astrological questions. For his efforts he received an annual allowance of 300 thalers with a vacant apartment in the Dresden Castle ... ”, Jürgen Helfricht : Astronomy history of Dresden. Dresden 2001, p. 16
  3. ↑ Jürgen Helfricht: Astronomy history of Dresden. Dresden 2001, p. 29
  4. ^ "Mathematics Genealogy Project" Mathematics Genealogy Project in English
personal data
SURNAME Hommel, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Homelius; Hummelius; Homilius; bumblebee
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian, mathematician and astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1518
PLACE OF BIRTH Memmingen
DATE OF DEATH on July 4, 1562
Place of death Leipzig