Achilles Gasser
| Achilles Gasser | |
|---|---|
| File:Portret van Achilles Pirminius Gasser, RP-P-1915-1327.jpg | |
| Born | Lindau |
| Died | Augsburg |
| Fields | Astronomy, cartography |
| Known for | Comet observations, research on European history and geography |
| Influences | Sebastian Münster |
Achilles Pirmin Gasser[1] (3 November 1505 – 4 December 1577)[2] was a German physician and astrologer. He is now known as a well-connected humanistic scholar, and supporter of both Copernicus and Rheticus.
Life
Born in Lindau, he studied mathematics, history and philosophy as well as astronomy.[3] He was a student in Sélestat under Johannes Sapidus;[4] he also attended universities in Wittenberg, Vienna, Montpellier, and Avignon.[5]
In 1528, German cartographer Sebastian Münster appealed to scientists across the Holy Roman Empire[6] to assist him with his description of Germany. Gassar accepted this and was later recognized by Münster as a close collaborator for his cartography of the country.[7]
Rheticus lost his physician father Georg Iserin in 1528, executed on sorcery charges. Gasser later took over the practice in Feldkirch, in 1538; he taught Rheticus some astrology, and helped his education, in particular by writing to the University of Wittenberg on his behalf.[5][8][9]
When Rheticus printed his Narratio prima—the first published account of the Copernican heliocentric system—in 1540 (Danzig), he sent Gasser a copy. Gasser then undertook a second edition (1541, Basel) with his own introduction,[10] in the form of a letter from Gasser to Georg Vogelin of Konstanz.[5] The second edition (1566, Basel) of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium contained the Narratio Prima with this introduction by Gasser.[11]
Gasser died in Augsburg, leaving over 2,900 literary works that are now stored at the Vatican Library in Rome.[citation needed]
Works
He prepared the first edition (Augsburg, 1558) of the Epistola de magnete of Pierre de Maricourt.[3][12]
Other works include:
- Historiarum et Chronicorum totius mundi epitome (1532)
- Prognosticon (1544) dedicated to Thomas Venatorius[13]
- Edition of the Evangelienbuch of Otfried of Weissenburg. His edition did not appear until 1571, under the name of Matthias Flacius who had taken over.[14]
- Observations on comets[15]
Gasser belonged with Flacius to the humanist circle around Kaspar von Niedbruck, concerned with the recovery of monastic manuscripts. Others in the group were John Bale, Conrad Gesner, Joris Cassander, Johannes Matalius Metellus, and Cornelius Wauters.[16]
Notes
- ↑ Also Gassar, Gasserus, Gassarus.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.; (full text online)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Peter G. Bietenholz and Thomas Brian Deutscher, Contemporaries of Erasmus: a biographical register of the Renaissance and Reformation (2003), Volume 3, p. 196; Google Books.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found..
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ MacTutor page on Rheticus Archived 27 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Repcheck, pp. 113–4.
- ↑ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/copernicus/
- ↑ http://copernicus.torun.pl/en/archives/De_revolutionibus/3/
- ↑
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. - ↑ Anthony Grafton, Cardano's Cosmos: the worlds and works of a Renaissance astrologer (1999), p. 56; Google Books
- ↑ Dictionaries in Early Modern Europe (PDF)[permanent dead link], p. 122.
- ↑ Kokott, W., The Comet of 1533, p. 105.
- ↑ Kees Dekker and Cornelis Dekker, The Origins of Old Germanic Studies in the Low Countries (1999), p. 21; Google Books.
References
- Jack Repcheck (2007), Copernicus' Secret: How the Scientific Revolution Began
Further reading
- Karl Heinz Burmeister (1970), Achilles Pirmin Gasser, 1505-1577. Arzt u. Naturforscher, Historiker und Humanist. (3 volumes.)
- Karl Heinz Burmeister, Achilles Pirmin Gasser (1505-1577) as Geographer and Cartographer, Imago Mundi Vol. 24, (1970), pp. 57–62; https://www.jstor.org/stable/1150458
External links
- Script error: No such module "In lang". de:s:ADB:Gasser, Achilles Pirminius
- CERL page
- Script error: No such module "In lang". Old dictionary entry
- Webarchive template wayback links
- Articles incorporating a citation from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia with Wikisource reference
- Articles with dead external links from October 2016
- Articles with invalid date parameter in template
- Articles with permanently dead external links
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with unsourced statements from November 2020
- 1505 births
- 1577 deaths
- 16th-century German physicians
- German astrologers
- 16th-century astrologers
- German Renaissance humanists
- 16th-century German writers
- 16th-century male writers
