Vienna Astronomical School
The Vienna Astronomical School is a group of astronomers and humanists who worked in the late Middle Ages (14th to 16th centuries) to reform scientific celestial science. This impulse was stimulated by the founding of the University of Vienna in 1365 .
Johannes von Gmunden
Heinrich von Langenstein (1325–1397, also called Heinrich von Hessen) - the reorganizer and rector of the young university - and the Upper Austrian Johannes von Gmunden (approx. 1380–1442) are considered to be the founders . He received his master's degree from the University of Vienna in 1406 and soon gave lectures on mathematics , the physics of Aristotle and the logic of Petrus Hispanus . Johannes had his students make astronomical instruments out of cardboard and practice the use of the astrolabe . In 1437 he published improved planet tables and from 1439 the first ever printed calendar . His astronomical and mathematical manuscripts (including on the astrolabe and the theory of trigonometric functions ) became the basis of the later university library.
Georg von Peuerbach
His successor was Georg von Peuerbach in 1453 - the first professor specializing in astronomy. He developed new measuring instruments and also took up Johannes' suggestion to rework the Alfonsin tables , which he carried out with his pupil Regiomontanus . With his annotated revisions of the planetary movement after Ptolemy , he was at the beginning of a scientific revolution that led to Copernicus and Kepler . He worked on the identified deficiencies in the Almagest using the Greek original Cardinal Bessarion instead of the usual Arabic translation.
These studies were also motivated in two ways: The solar year had moved further and further away from the Julian calendar , and more precise “star books” were necessary for ship navigation . Appointed to the papal commission for calendar reform , he died at the age of 38 before the trip to Rome.
Regiomontan and his successors
Regiomontanus (1436–1476, Johannes Müller from Königsberg / Franconia) continued his work - especially on the Almagest, in the calendar reform and the observations - and became even more important than Peuerbach, whose revised planetary theory he had printed in 1472. He received his master's degree in Vienna in 1457, initially teaching mathematics and becoming the founder of modern trigonometry . His precise comet and planetary observations were only surpassed by Tycho Brahe . From 1468 he published ephemeris for the sun, moon and navigation stars, which because of their reliability soon became indispensable for seafarers. Sent by King Matthias to Nuremberg in 1471 , he founded a special printing company for these tables.
The work on the calendar reform begun under Pope Sixtus IV was interrupted by his death, but was incorporated into the later Gregorian calendar . His astronomical writings and excerpts were also used for a long time, even beyond Copernicus.
Two of Regiomontan's successors at the University of Vienna deserve special mention:
- Andreas Stiborius (1464-1515). He was also prior of the ducal college and founded the humanist group Sodalitas litteraria with Conrad Celtis . For Leo X. he wrote an expert opinion on the calendar reform, but the original leap day regulation was not liked.
- Georg Tannstetter (1482–1535), whose work Viri Mathematici, edited in 1514, about the Viennese astronomers and mathematicians, is an early approach to depicting the history of science . As a royal personal physician, he also taught medicine, was rector of the university in 1512 and worked as a cartographer . After working on a missing Austria map, he published the Tabula Hungarie in 1528 . His most famous student was the polymath and publicist Peter Apian .
literature
- Austria Forum: Astronomy in Austria , AEIOU
- Helmuth Grössing : Johannes von Gmunden in his time. In: Communications from the Austrian Society for the History of Natural Sciences 3–4 (1985), pp. 66–72
- Georg Tannstetter : Viri mathematici , supplement to Peuerbach's eclipse panels 1514. Ed. Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer in Humanism between Court and University. Georg Tannstetter (Collimitius) and his scientific environment in Vienna in the early 16th century . Vienna 1996, pp. 156-171
- Christa Binder : The first Viennese mathematical school (Johannes von Gmunden, Georg von Peuerbach) , in arithmetic masters and cossists of the early modern period , (Eds. H. Albrecht, R. Gebhardt) Adam-Ries-Bund Volume 7, Annaberg-Buchholz 1996
- Karl Christian Bruhns : Johann von Gmunden . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, p. 456 f.
- Hermann Haupt: Peu (e) rbach (also Purbach), Georg von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , p. 281 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Friedrich Samhaber: The Kaiser and his astronomer. Friedrich III. and Georg von Peuerbach . Raab / Peuerbach 1999
- Ernst Zinner , life and work of Joh. Müller von Königsberg, called Regiomontanus , 2nd verb. Ed., Osnabrück 1968
- Kurt Vogel : The Danube region, the cradle of mathematical studies in Germany. With three previously unpublished Texts from the 15th century , Munich contributions to the history of medicine and natural sciences, Volume 3, Fritsch, Munich 1973
Individual evidence
- ^ Felix Schmeidler (Ed.): Joannis Regiomontani Opera collectanea. Zeller-Verlag, Osnabrück 1972, ISBN 3-535-00816-6