Simon Marius

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Simon Marius from Mundus Iovialis

Simon Marius (Latinized form by Simon Mayr ; * January 10,  1573 jul. In Gunzenhausen , then Margraviate Ansbach , today Bavaria ; † December 26, 1624 jul. / January 5,  1625 greg. In Ansbach ) was a German mathematician, astronomer and Doctor.

Almost simultaneously with Galileo Galilei , Marius was one of the first to use the then newly developed telescope to observe the sky and discovered the four largest moons of the planet Jupiter . Although he still represented a variant of the geocentric view of the world , his discovery ultimately paved the way for the view of Nicolaus Copernicus : Since the Jupiter system obviously did not have the earth but its own central star as its center, the findings of Simon Marius provided, if not proof, so but arguments for the correctness of the heliocentric doctrine.

Life and works

Marius was born as the eighth child of Büttner and mayor of 1576, Reichart Mayr was from the Ansbacher Prince Joachim Ernst of Brandenburg-Ansbach promoted; He also gave him the opportunity to attend the Fürstenschule Heilsbronn from 1586 to 1601 . There he showed his great talent for mathematics and astronomy.

He made a name for himself through the publication of his observations of the comet of 1596 ( C / 1596 N1 ) and his astronomical tables ( Tabulae Directionum Novae , 1599) and in 1601 was appointed court mathematician of the Margraviate of Ansbach . He traveled to Prague to learn about Tycho Brahe's new observation techniques . However, he died four months after his arrival. Then Marius studied medicine at the University of Padua until 1605 and became a doctor.

The portrait in his main work, Mundus Iovialis, shows Marius in the year of publication; as a sign of medical activities he holds a distillation device in the left hand consisting of a glass distillation flask (Cucurbita) and an attached distillation helmet or head in retort shape ( Alembic ); the circle in his right hand indicates his position as a mathematician and astrologer at the Ansbacher Hof; in front of him lies a telescope (lat. perspicillum ), which he was one of the first to use to observe the sky, as well as his work Mundus Iovialis ; to the left of him are the Jupiter system with the four moons he discovered and to the right his first astronomical observation, the comet of 1596.

At that time Marius belonged to the circle around Galileo Galilei . In 1604 he observed a comet again. His student Baldessar Capra published the observations.

Court astronomer and Euclid translator

From 1606 onwards, Marius lived in Ansbach , where he was employed as a royal court astronomer with an annual salary of 150 thalers . His duties as a court mathematician ( astrologer ) also included annual “Prognostica”. He married Felicitas Lauer, the daughter of his Nuremberg publisher Johann Lauer, who had published his calendars and predictions since 1601.

In 1610 he published a translation of the first six books of the elements of Euclid directly from the Greek original into German.

Co-discoverer of the moons of Jupiter

After unsuccessful attempts to build a usable telescope himself, which was suggested by reports in 1608, Marius received a copy of the newly developed instrument in Flanders in 1609 ; in 1610, independently of Galileo (January 7th), he discovered the four large moons of Jupiter ( Gregorian calendar ) only one day later (January 8th ):

"Tunc primum aspexi Iovem, qui versabatur in opposito Solis, et deprehendi stellulas exiguas, modo post, modo ante Iovem in linea recta cum Iove."

“That was the first time I saw Jupiter, who was in opposition to the sun; and I discovered tiny asterisks, now behind, now in front of Jupiter, in a straight line with Jupiter. "

Galileo Galilei then accused him of plagiarism . As early as 1607, the Marius student Baldessar Capra (1580–1626) had a manuscript of Galileo's on the proportional circle printed under his name, and Marius is said to have been involved.

The so-called priority dispute about the first discovery of the moons is resolved if one takes into account that Marius specified the date, namely December 29, 1609, according to the old Julian calendar ; this corresponds to the Gregorian date January 8, 1610. Thus, the observation of Simon Marius lies - according to his own statements! - one day after that of Galileo (January 7, 1610). Marius was aware of the use of the two calendars, as evidenced by a Julian / Gregorian double specification of a date in the Mundus Jovialis .

In addition, very detailed investigations by Oudemans and Bosscha have shown not only that Marius obtained his quite exact results with independent observations, but that these were even more accurate than those published by Galileo up to 1614.

Out of gratitude to the Brandenburg-Ansbach princes, Simon Marius suggested naming the newly discovered moons Brandenburgische Gestirne . Galileo wanted to name them after the Medici family . Its present name Io , Europa , Ganymede and Callisto was Johannes Kepler proposed in October 1613; Simon Marius propagated this mythological name in his main work Mundus Iovialis :

“Io, Europa, Ganymede atque Callisto lascivo nimium perplacuere Iovi.”

"Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto liked the voluptuous Jupiter too much."

Pioneer of the heliocentric worldview

The discovery of the four moons was a tremendous sensation because they revolve around their own central star and thus look like a solar system in miniature; in addition, Marius recognized that the Jupiter system does not move around the earth, but around the sun. The discovery ultimately paved the way for the heliocentric worldview :

"Post plurimas observationes factas atque post deprehensas cuiuslibet quam proxime periodos evolutionum, animadverti etiam aliud phaenomenum: Nimirum quod inaequalitate motus sui principaliter quidem Iovem, cum Iove autem non terram sed solem respiciant."

“After I had made a lot of observations and had received the periodic orbital times of every satellite as precisely as possible, I noticed another phenomenon, namely that they (the moons) are aligned with Jupiter as the center in the regularity of their movement; together with Jupiter, however, they are not directed towards the earth, but towards the sun as the center. "

However, through his observations, Marius did not arrive at the world system as Nicolaus Copernicus had already represented half a century before; rather, he developed a planetary model that mediates between the geocentric and the heliocentric worldview , as also represented by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe :

“Solem autem ipsum quasi in concentrico circa terram moveri suppono.”

"I suspect that the sun itself moves in a concentric orbit around the earth, as it were."

The main purpose of the Mundus Iovialis was to publish the tables of the orbital times of the moons; the values ​​from very careful observations in 1614 only deviate by a maximum of 0.3  ‰ from the values ​​known today; Checking with computer bills also proves their accuracy. In spite of all the eagerness to observe, Marius was not satisfied with just observing, he also looked for explanations.

Title page of the Mundus Iovialis

Marius was only able to publish the observations of 1610 in his work Mundus Iovialis in 1614 , four years after the publication of the Galilean report Sidereus Nuncius in 1610.

Even if Galileo with his violent attacks prevented Marius from gaining the fame he deserved, Marius obviously enjoyed great respect in his Franconian homeland. In 1612 his hometown Gunzenhausen gave him a small beaker for 6½ guilders - presumably for his discovery of the moons of Jupiter. He was visited in Ansbach by scholars of his time such as Petrus Saxonius and Lukas Brunn and was in contact with other scientists such as David Fabricius , Johannes Kepler , Michael Maestlin and Odontius.

Sunspots and Andromeda Nebula

Mayr / Marius continued to discover sunspots - also independently of other astronomers . In 1612 he was the first to observe the Andromeda Nebula through the telescope ( Messier number M31), the large galaxy closest to our sun . Since he apparently knew that it had been described by the Persian astronomer Al Sufi as early as the 10th century AD , he made no claim to priority. However , it was not until 1923 that Edwin Hubble was able to demonstrate the status of the Andromeda galaxy as an independent star system like our Milky Way at the 2.5-meter telescope of the Mount Wilson Observatory .

Simon Marius died on December 26, 1624 after a brief illness in Ansbach.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) honored him by naming the lunar crater Marius . The Simon-Marius-Gymnasium in his hometown Gunzenhausen and the asteroid (7984) Marius are named after him .

The very rare pamphlets by Simon Marius are kept in the Gunzenhausen City Museum, the City Archives of Rothenburg ob der Tauber , the State Library in Munich , the Prussian State Library in Berlin , the State Library in Stuttgart , the University Library Erlangen , the Nuremberg City Library, the Nuremberg Germanic National Museum and the Bavarian State Archives in Nuremberg. Apart from a few surviving letters, all other writings of the manuscripts such as his observation book and some smaller writings have been lost.

Works

  • Writing about the comet from 1596 . Nuremberg 1596.
  • Tabulae directionum novae . Nuremberg 1599, urn : nbn: de: bvb: 12-bsb00017953-0 .
  • The First Six Books Elementorum Evclidis, In which the beginnings and reasons of Geometria are properly taught and thoroughly demonstrated, with particular diligence and effort translated from Greek into our High German . Ansbach 1609.
  • Mundus Iovialis anno MDCIX Detectus Ope Perspicilli Belgici . Nuremberg 1614, urn : nbn: de: bvb: 12-bsb10873865-6 .
  • Mundus Iovialis anno MDCIX Detectus Ope Perspicilli Belgici / The world of Jupiter, discovered in 1609 with the Flemish telescope. Latin facsimile and German translation. Ed. And edit. by Joachim Schlör. Scientifically accompanied and provided with an afterword by Alois Wilder. Schrenk, Gunzenhausen 1988, ISBN 3-924270-14-7 .
  • Thorough refutation of the position of Circkel Claudij Ptolemaei, but above all, Johannis Regiomontani; with great effort and much reflection, as well as Ptolemeo himself, as well as all other excellent astrologers, so before Ptolemy's time, lived up to Regiomontanum, and written by directionibus Theorice and Prastice, drawn together . Frankfurt 1625, urn : nbn: de: bvb: 12-bsb10994226-8 .
  • Writing calendar for the years 1601 to 1629.
  • Prognostica for the years 1601 to 1629. Edition 1601: urn : nbn: de: bvb: 12-bsb00021158-4 .

literature

chronologically. Newest first.

  • Hans Gaab, Pierre Leich (ed.): Simon Marius and his research (= Wolfgang R. Dick, Jürgen Hamel [ed.]: Acta Historica Astronomiae , Volume 57). Leipzig 2016, ISBN 978-3-944913-49-0 .
  • Pierre Leich : The Marius Renaissance: the observation of the Jupiter system by the margravial court astronomer Simon Marius . In: Stars and Space , Issue 11/2014, pp. 44–53.
  • Gudrun Wolfschmidt (Ed.): Simon Marius, the Franconian Galilei, and the development of the astronomical worldview (= Nuncius Hamburgensis, contributions to the history of natural sciences. Volume 16). Tredition, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-8472-3864-5 ; Table of contents (PDF; 368 kB).
  • Jürgen Schlecht: Simon Marius - namesake of our school . In: Annual report of the Simon-Marius-Gymnasium Gunzenhausen 2005/06 . Pp. 93-100.
  • Menso Folkerts :  Marius, Simon. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 217 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Ernst Goercke: Medicean stars versus Brandenburg stars: The life of Simon Marius. In: The Stars . 62nd Volume, No. 4, 1986, pp. 223-231.
  • Alois Wilder: Simon Marius - the namesake of our school . In: 450 years of the Simon-Marius-Gymnasium Gunzenhausen . Gunzenhausen 1981.
  • Ernst Zinner : To save Simon Marius' honor . In: Quarterly magazine of the Astronomical Society . 77th year (1942), 1st issue, pp. 23–75; simon-marius.net (PDF).
  • Johannes Bosscha : Simon Marius: Réhabilitation d'un astronome calomnié. In: Archives Néerlandaises des Sciences Exactes et Naturelles. Series II, Volume 7, La Haye 1907, pp. 258-307, 490-528.
  • Joseph Klug: Simon Marius from Gunzenhausen and Galileo Galilei: An attempt to decide the question about the true discoverer of the Jupiter aids and their periods . In: Treatises of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Class II, Volume 22, Section 2, Franz, Munich 1904, pp. 385-526.
  • Jean Abraham Chrétien Oudemans , Johannes Bosscha: Galilee et Marius. In: Archives Néerlandaises des Sciences Exactes et Naturelles. Series II, Volume 8, La Haye 1903, pp. 115-189.
  • Siegmund Günther :  Marius, Simon . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, pp. 141-146.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nicolaus Copernicus, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium. Nuremberg 1543
  2. ↑ Simon Marius, Prognosticon for the year 1609
  3. ↑ According to information from Marion Maria Ruisinger , Institute for the History and Ethics of Medicine, Erlangen, Michael Kowalski, German Medical History Museum, Ingolstadt, Michael Stolberg, Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Würzburg
  4. ↑ a b E. Zinner: To save the honor of Simon Marius . In: Quarterly magazine of the Astronomical Society . 77th year, 1st issue, Leipzig 1942, p. 4
  5. ↑ Mundus Iovialis . P. 38
  6. ↑ J. Klug agrees with this accusation in his detailed article from 1916.
  7. ↑ Mundus Iovialis. P. 118
  8. ^ JAC Oudemans and J. Bosscha: Galilee et Marius . In: Archives Nederlandaises des Sciences Exactes et Naturelles. Series II, Volume VIII, pp. 115-189 (La Haye, 1903)
  9. ↑ A. Wilder: Simon Marius - the namesake of our school . In: 450 years of the Simon-Marius-Gymnasium Gunzenhausen . Gunzenhausen 1981
  10. ↑ Mundus Iovialis. P. 78 f.
  11. ↑ Mundus Iovialis. P. 84
  12. ↑ Mundus Iovialis. P. 124
  13. ↑ A. Wilder in: Mundus Iovialis. P. 164
  14. ↑ E. Zinner: To save the honor of Simon Marius . In: Quarterly magazine of the Astronomical Society . 77th year, 1st issue, Leipzig 1942, p. 5 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Marius, Simon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mayr, Simon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1573
PLACE OF BIRTH Gunzenhausen , Bavaria
DATE OF DEATH January 5, 1625
Place of death Ansbach