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Benvenuti in queste pagine dedicate a scienza, storia ed arte. Amelia Carolina Sparavigna, Torino

Monday, December 24, 2018

Eclisse


Eclipsium omnium ab anno Domini 1554. vsque in annum Domini 1606. accurata descriptio & pictura, ad meridianum Augustanum ita supputata, vt quibusuis alijs facilimè accomodari possit, vna cum explicatione effectuum tam generalium quàm particularium pro cuiusque genesi. Cypriano Leovitio à Leonicia (Cyprian Leowitz). 1556

Cyprián  (1514?  – 1574) was a Bohemian astronomer, mathematician and astrologer.
Cyprian Karásek was born in 1514 into the family of a long-time town councillor and later mayor of Hradec Králové named Jan Karásek (Lvovický after enoblement). He received his elementary education in the Hradec Králové town school and then moved on to study abroad. In 1540 Lvovický studied in Wrocław (Breslau), in 1542 in Leipzig and later astronomy and mathematics in Wittenberg. In 1547 he moved to Nuremberg, then to Augsburg, to the court of Fuggers. After 1556 Otto Henry, Count Palatine of Palatinate-Neuburg (later Elector Palatine), named Lvovický professor of astronomy and mathematics at the Latin "particular school" in Lauingen. Lvovický later became the director of that school, working there until 1566. From 1565 through 1568 he visited Bohemia several times and planned to return to Hradec Králové, but he died before that plan was realized.
Lvovický published several astronomical works in Latin. Being both an astronomer and an astrologer, he tried to base astrology on solid mathematical and astronomical ground.
His first published work was Tabulae eclipsum, predicting (within a few minutes) the start and the duration of lunar eclipses until 1605, including towns where it would be observable. These tables were based on the work of Erasmus Reinhold.
In 1564, by order of Maximilian II, he published detailed ephemeris tables for the sun, moon and other celestial bodies covering the years 1564 - 1574 in 10-day intervals and titled De coniunctionibus magnis insignoribus superiorum planetarum, solis defectibus, et de cometis effectum historica expositione. In this book, recorded astronomical phenomena were linked with historical events (e.g. death of John of Luxembourg with a comet appearing in 1347).
The work Tabulae Peuerbachii Alphonsiane from 1556 earned the respect of Tycho Brahe; they met in 1569 and corresponded thereafter.