Valentin Naboth

Valentin Naboth (also Naibod or Nabod ; * February 14, 1523 in Calau ; † March 3, 1593 in Venice ) was a German mathematician , astronomer , astrologer and university teacher. His Latinized name was Valentinus Nabodus or Valentinus Naiboda

Live and act

Valentin was the son of Jewish parents and the younger brother of the Lutheran theologian Alexius Naboth (around 1520 – around 1551). In 1544 he was enrolled at the University of Wittenberg . Then in 1550 he moved to the University of Erfurt . From 1553 he taught mathematics himself at the University of Cologne , but since this discipline was not part of the curriculum , he taught as a private lecturer. However, his professional qualifications soon enabled him to be appointed full professor. One of his students was the Dutch mathematician Rudolph Snellius .

Naboth's representation of the conventional view of the solar system (left), Martianus Capella's representation of the geoheliocentric , astronomical model (center) and Nicolaus Copernicus' heliocentric model (right).

In 1573 Naboth published an astronomy textbook, the "Primarum de coelo et terra", which he dedicated to Stephan Báthory . Based on the illustrations used, there is no doubt that Naboth was dealing with the " De revolutionibus orbium coelestium " (1543) when he wrote this textbook, since in this book he shows schematic representations of the conventional model of the solar system, the geoheliocentric model of Martianus Capella, as well as the heliocentric model by Copernicus.

In 1564 he resigned his professorship and first traveled to Paris , where he met the Bohemian, Lutheran humanist Šimon Proxenus ze Sudetu . He also got to know Peter Ramus . After that he moved to Italy, probably first to Padua and later to Venice . He probably lost his fortune in Venice. In a work by Tommaso Campanella the story emerged that Naboth withdrew completely and took precautions to ward off any dangers that he saw arise through a self-made horoscope . So he put up food supplies and locked the windows and doors of his domicile, with the intention of staying hidden until the dangers were over. The closed shutters would have attracted burglars to Campanella, who killed him with five stab wounds. So he did not escape the fate that was predicted by his own astrological calculations.

: Symbolum Valentini Naibodae. Sceptrum Jovis Fulmineum Cum Inscriptione: NEC PROCUL A JOVE

Works

• Enarratio elementorum astrologiae in qua praeter Alcabicii, qui Arabum doctrinam compendio prodidit, expositionem, atq [ue] cum Ptolemaei principijs collationem, reiectis sortilegijs & absurdis vulgoq [ue] receptis opinionibus, de verae artis praeceptorum s origineitur Arnold Birckmann Nachf .; Cologne 1560 Digital copy of the BSB Munich; Digital copy of the FDU Seville [2]
• Primarum de coelo et terra institutionum quotidianarumque mundi revolutionum libri tres. Venetiis 1573
• Astronomicarum institutionum libri III, quibus doctrinae sphaericae elementa methodo nova, facili et ad captum tyronum aptissima traduntur. Venice 1580
• De annui temporis mensura in Directionibus and De Directionibus. edited by Giovanni Antonio Magini in De astrologica ratione . Venice 1607

literature

• Brendan Dooley: A Companion to Astrology in the Renaissance. Brill 2014, ISBN 9-0042-6230-X , p. 94 f.

Web links

• Lucia Bellizia: Valentin Naboth. Matematico, astronomo edastrologo. September 23, 2013, pp. 1–19 [3]
• CERL Thesaurus Nabod, Valentin (1523 - 1593) [4]

Individual evidence

1. ↑ the day of death remains uncertain.
2. ↑ Naibod, Valentin, German Biography [1]
3. ↑ Directorium Mathematicum in the Google book search
4. ^ Theodore Brieger Journal for Church History, Volume III., Friedrich Andreas Perthes , Gotha 1879, p. 304 "Alexius Naboth Calensis October 17, 1541 (..) Valentinus Neboth Kalensis. Free inscripti. Early 1544 ""