PACHSmörgåsbord: Georg Tannstetter

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Kepler on supernova, theology and astrology

Johannes Kepler, who was born on 27 December 1571, is the subject of a couple recent interesting articles. These articles are an opportunity to see how Kepler was typical of the early-modern European scholar, a person as interested in astronomy and optics (our notion of sciences) as theology and astrology.

Posted by Darin Hayton on 12/31 at 12:17 PM
(1) Comments

Monday, July 19, 2010

Exploring Collections: George Tannstetter as Editor

Continuing to explore the rich collections here in Philadelphia, this post looks at three textbooks edited by Georg Tannstetter, the Viennese astrologer/astronomer and personal physician to Emperor Maximilian I. Tannstetter’s texts are in The College of Physicians, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the American Philosophical Society.

Posted by Darin Hayton on 07/19 at 10:47 PM

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Explaining Earthquakes ca. 1500

Earthquakes were commonly associated with celestial phenomena, either comets or planetary conjunctions. They were also connected to the outbreak of diseases. A fragment from some university lectures points to how astrology explained both earthquakes and diseases in early modern Europe.

Posted by Darin Hayton on 02/20 at 10:55 PM
(1) Comments

Thursday, December 29, 2011

In Praise of Ephemeral Astrological Literature

A recent article in The Economist on Luther prompted me to think about ephemeral astrological literature in early modern Europe. Here I suggest that we need to take this literature more seriously than we typically have.

Posted by Darin Hayton on 12/29 at 04:58 PM

Friday, January 20, 2012

The Politics of Calendar Reform

Yesterday’s debates about whether or not to continue inserting a leap second are nothing new. In fact, these most recent debates and, ultimately, the decision to postpone making decision, sound a lot like medieval and early modern effort to reform a calendar or adjust time keeping practices.

Posted by Darin Hayton on 01/20 at 10:53 AM
(7) Comments

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