Johannes Remus Quietanus

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Remus Quietanus: Writing Calendar for 1625

Johann Rudrauf (or Ruderauf , Latin: Johannes Remus Quietanus ; born September 22, 1588 in Herda , † October 17, 1654 in Rouffach ) was a German astronomer , astrologer , doctor and calendar maker . He corresponded with Galileo Galilei , Johannes Kepler and Johannes Faber . He was one of the first four observers of a Mercury transit on November 7, 1631.

biography

Youth in Thuringia

Rudrauf was born on September 22, 1588 in Herda near Eisenach in Thuringia, the son of a Lutheran pastor and Latin teacher. Three days later he was baptized with the name "John".

In 1605 he was enrolled at the University of Jena . In 1607 he observed the comet that was later recognized as Halley's Comet . He wrote a treatise about him, which mainly aims to give an astrological interpretation of this "sign of God".

Remus Quietanus in Italy

In 1608 Johann Rudrauf traveled to Italy and was enrolled at the University of Padua , where he studied medicine and also met Galileo Galilei . At that time he converted to Catholicism and Latinized his name to Johannes Remus Quietanus . He probably never came back home.

In 1609 he traveled south to Sicily and Malta . In December 1611 he wrote his first letter to Johannes Kepler from Rome . During the next few years, he studied at the Collegium Romanum , under the direction of Christoph Grienberger . In Rome, Remus Quietanus was well established in papal circles, he associated with several cardinals and frequented Johannes Faber , Chancellor of the Accademia dei Lincei .

During these years in Italy, Remus Quietanus carried out astronomical observations, especially of lunar or solar eclipses , and wrote two manuscripts about them (1615, 1616).

Personal physician to the Habsburg princes

In 1618 Remus Quietanus left Italy and went to Innsbruck to the court of Archduke Maximilian III. where he met the astronomer Christoph Scheiner . After Maximilian's death (November 2, 1618) Remus Quietanus became a doctor for Emperor Matthias and soon became the personal doctor of the new Archduke of Austria-Tyrol Leopold V.

In 1619 Remus Quietanus met Johannes Kepler in Linz .

Witness to the Thirty Years War

In his letters to Giovanni Faber (1618–1622) Remus Quietanus tells of the beginning of the Thirty Years War with events in Bohemia . Peter Ernst II von Mansfeld soon brought the war to Alsace . There was also Remus Quietanus in the followers of Leopold, who went there because he was also Bishop of Strasbourg and tried to defend his property there.

City doctor in Rufach

Around 1620 Remus Quietanus moved to Rufach in Alsace, where he is later named as the city ​​physician (= doctor). From 1624 he was responsible for the annual publication of a writing calendar in this office.

In 1619 he met the young Alsatian Maria Schlitzweck, from whom he had a son in 1623. Maria Schlitzweck died on February 27, 1635. 15 years later Remus Quietanus married Maria Helena Freudenstehlin from Ensisheim . Remus Quietanus died on October 17, 1654.

Quietanus, Kepler and Galileo

In his first letter to Johannes Kepler from 1611, he commented on the latest astronomical news and asked some questions, particularly about the Copernican theory . Kepler replied three months later. This correspondence was not continued until 1618, when Remus Quietanus was employed by the Habsburgs. Kepler was looking forward to a future collaboration, which can be proven by exchanging a few letters from 1619/20 and 1628/29.

In 1619 Remus Quietanus wrote three letters to Galileo Galilei , with which he sent him his Descriptio Cometarum and Kepler's Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae , which was banned in Italy by the Catholic authorities. In this matter Quietanus took on the role of mediator between the two masters, whose relations had then deteriorated.

The transit of Mercury in 1631

In the Tabulae rudolphinae , Kepler predicted 1627 passages of the lower planets in front of the Sun for 1631: a transit of Mercury on November 7th and a transit of Venus on December 9th . In 1629 he repeated this prediction with an Admonitio ad Astronomos , because no one had ever observed such a phenomenon.

Johannes Remus Quietanus took up the suggestion and observed the transit of Mercury from 9:42 on November 7, 1631 in Rufach . He gave a description of this in a letter to Archduke Leopold .

This transit of Mercury was observed at the same time by Pierre Gassendi in Paris , Johann Baptist Cysat in Innsbruck and an unknown person in Ingolstadt .

Publications

Writing calendar

From 1624 on, Remus Quietanus probably issued a writing calendar for the coming year every year. The first edition reads " New writing calendar, the jubilation year 1625 (...) sampt the true sun and moon course, day and night dawn, sun rise and fall, their appearance and absence, even how long it lingers and dark, the Firsternen and sampts Planet configuration, eclipses, suns and moons, and probable weather "and was printed in Basel by Martin Wagner. There are other editions or mentions of them for 1624, 1625, 1626, 1627, 1629, 1630, 1631, 1638, 1641, 1650.

Other publications

  • Thorough description of the new monstrous star which Anno Christi 1607 (…) lighted in the high sky from July 27th to mid-October (J. Rudrauff, Rudravius ​​Herdenses, Erfurt 1607), treatise on the comet of 1607 with astrological interpretation.
  • Restitutio universalis Motuum caelestium in stellis fixis, sole, luna, et maxime eclipsibus. (...) Johannes Remus Quietanus Tyrigoetam, Philosophia et Medicinae Doctor, Rome 1615: handwriting, description of solar and lunar eclipses of the past or the future.
  • Observationes eclipsis lunaris anno Christi MDCXVI. XXVI. Augusti nocte sequente Romae habitae. Ex qua et aliis tribus exquisitis demonstrantur distantiae, magnitudines, & proportions corporum ac sphaerarum Solis, & Lunae, ac umbrae Terrenae, una cum comparatione calculi Alphonsini, Copernicaei, Brahaei, & Magini , Rome 1616.Description of the lunar eclipse of August 26, 1616, Comparison with different models: Alfonsine tables , models by Nicolaus Copernicus , Tycho Brahe and Giovanni Antonio Magini .
  • Observationes et descriptiones duorum cometarum qui anno 1618 ... (Remus Quietanus, Innsbruck 1619), manuscript, description of two comets from 1618 sent to Galileo, there should also be a German version, printed by Daniel Paur, Innsbruck, 1619.
  • Historia morbi quo Arch. Austriae Leopold fuit affectus… Vienna 1622. Medical summary.
  • Natural Practica and Weather , on That Year of the Birth of Jesus Christ, M.DC.XLII. In the 24th year of the persistent wars in Teutschlandt , Remus Quietanus, Spannseil, Colmar, 1641: a kind of almanac with astronomical forecasts, but also political and meteorological remarks, or advice for the garden and health.
  • Astronomical and astrological discourse of the great gathering ... of the two highest planets ... of Saturni a. Jupiter's Remus Quietanus, Spannseil, Colmar 1642. Tract on the coming planetary conjunctionof Jupiter and Saturn from 1643.

literature

  • Max Caspar : Johannes Kepler Collected Works , 1937, Volumes 16 , 17 and 18 , correspondence with Kepler.
  • Klaus-Dieter Herbst: Biobilographisches Handbuch der Kalendermacher 1550-1750 Remus Quietanus, Johannes , Institut Deutsche Presseforschung, 2017.
  • Klaus-Dieter Herbst: The first use of Kepler's Rudolphine tables for the production of a writing calendar , In: Acta Historica Astronomiae, 40, 2010, pp. 160-169.
  • Jacques Mertzeisen, Jean-Pierre Luminet: Homage to Quietanus , Inference, International Review of Science, 2017.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ He himself gives his date of birth in a letter to Kepler: Max Caspar: Johannes Kepler Gesammelte Werke. Volume 17, Letter 833, p. 338.
  2. ^ The information (September 15) in the Thuringian Parish Book, Grand Duchy of Saxony (-Weimar-Eisenach) - Landesteil Eisenach 866, p. 363, is correct. It follows the Julian calendar , which in the 16th century was 10 days behind the Gregorian calendar .
  3. ↑ Herda - History of Herda and his people .
  4. ↑ Thorough description of the new monstrous star ... [1] (J. Rudrauff, Erfurt 1607).
  5. ↑ In 1619 he wrote to Galileo " te ante decennium Patavii cognovi ", Biblioteca nazionale di Firenze, manoscritti digitalizzazioni n ° 35.
  6. ↑ Max Caspar: Johannes Kepler Collected Works. Volume 18, letter 1101.
  7. ↑ Max Caspar: Johannes Kepler Collected Works. Volume 16, Letter 623.
  8. ↑ "Christophorus Grienbergerus (...) praeceptor meus venerandus ..." , Remus Quietanus, Restitutio universalis Motuum coelestium ... , Rome 1615, page 29.
  9. ↑ a b Letters from Quietanus to Johannes Faber, Archivio dell'Accademia dei Lincei, Roma
  10. ^ He announced his engagement in a letter to Kepler: Max Caspar: Johannes Kepler Gesammelte Werke. Volume 17, Letter 855.
  11. ↑ a b c d Archives municipales de Rouffach, church records.
  12. ↑ Kepler et Galilée, une rencontre manquée? Hervé Delime.
  13. ↑ See Tycho Brahe: Historia coelestis. 1666, pp. 955-956, online .
  14. ↑ Klaus-Dieter Herbst: Biobibliographisches Handbuch der Kalendermacher 1550-1750 Remus Quietanus , Johannes, Institut Deutsche Presseforschung, 2017.
  15. ↑ Ioannes Remus Quietanus, Calendarium anglicum Imprint , Austrian National Library, Link
  16. ↑ Austrian National Library. link
personal data
SURNAME Quietanus, Johannes Remus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rudrauf, Johann; Row up, Johannes Remus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German astronomer, astrologer, doctor and calendar maker
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1588
PLACE OF BIRTH Herda
DATE OF DEATH October 17, 1654
Place of death Rouffach