Erasmus Oswald Schreckenfuchs
Erasmus Oswald Schreckenfuchs (1511–1579) was an Austrian humanist, astronomer and Hebraist.
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Life
He was born in Merckenstein, near Bad Vöslau in Lower Austria, and studied in Vienna, Ingolstadt and Tübingen. He became a student and friend of Sebastian Münster. Together they translated (into Latin) the Form of the Earth of Abraham bar Hiyya, with work of Elijah ben Abraham Mizrahi.[1][2]
He taught at Freiburg, where the Maltese mathematician Joannes Myriti was a student.[3]
In 1551 he produced a commentary to the Almagest of Ptolemy.[4] He published a targum for the Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes (1553).[5][6]
His Commentaries on George Peurbach's New Theories of the Planets of 1556 were voluminous and broad-minded, considering an eclectic mix of astronomical theories, including those of Copernicus. The approach, however, was little concerned with scientific truth. Schreckenfuchs taught at Nuremberg, and found a follower in Christian Wursteisen.[7]
Other works were Primum mobile (Basel, 1567), and a commentary on the De sphaera of Johannes de Sacrobosco of 1569.[8]
References
- "ABRAHAM BAR ḤIYYA HA-NASI - JewishEncyclopedia.com". jewishencyclopedia.com.
- "MIZRAḤI - JewishEncyclopedia.com". jewishencyclopedia.com.
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- Florian Cajori, A History of Mathematical Notations: Two Volumes Bound as One (1993 edition), p. 251.
- Cantica canticorum et Ecclesiastes Salomonis paraphrasticos
- Archived 2016-03-05 at the Wayback Machine
- Pierre Duhem, Sauver les apparences: Essai sur la notion de théorie physique de Platon à Galilée (2004 edition), pp. 103-6.
- "Starry Messenger: Sacrobosco's Books". www.hps.cam.ac.uk.