Achilles Gasser and the Birth of Copernicanism

The overwhelming bulk of scholarly material available on Gasser appears in Burmeister Heinz Karl , Achilles Pirmin Gasser, 1505–1577: Artzt und Naturforscher, Historiker und Humanist (3 vols, Wiesbaden, 1970–75). These volumes are complemented by Burmeister's Earlier Georg Joachim Rhetikus, 1514–1574: Eine Bio-Bibliographie (Wiesbaden, 1967–68). A more recent contribution by Burmeister — “‘Mit subtilen fündlein und sinnreichen speculierungen …’: Die ‘Practica auff das M.D.XLvj. jar’ des Achilles Pirmin Gasser im Umfeld zeitgenössischer Astrologen”, Montfort: Vierteljahresschrift für Geschichte und Gegenwart Vorarlbergs , lv (2003), 107–20 — presents and discusses the preface to the newly discovered work by Gasser mentioned in its title. Further new work on Gasser, by Kremer Richard L. (whose contribution I have in part heard but not seen), will appear in “Copernicus among the astrologers: A preliminary study”, in Astronomy as a model for the sciences in early modern times , ed. by Fritscher Bernhard , in the series Algorismus: Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik und der Naturwissenschaften , ed. by Menso Folkerts (forthcoming from Rauner Verlag, Augsburg, 2005).

See Burmeister , Gasser (ref. 1), 39.

The common story of Iserin's being a sorcerer is recounted by Erich Somweber , “Der Zauberer und Hexenmeister Dr. Georg Iserin von Mazo”, Montfort: Vierteljahresschrift für Geschichte und Gegenwart Vorarlbergs , xx (1968), 63–93. The more factually based (if less romantic) view of Iserin , however, is supported by the actual record of his trial: “Acta unndt Gericht über Georg Iserin”, Stadtbibliothek Feldkirch manuscript sig. Akt 66 (46 pages). The main case against seeing Iserin's crime principally as sorcery is put by Manfred Tschaikner , “Der verzauberte Dr. Iserin”, Kulturinformationen Vorarlberger Oberland , ii (1989), 147–51.

Melanchthon Ebner Erasmus , 7 July 1542; Letter #2514, in Melanchthon , Corpus Reformatorum, Philippi Melanchthonis opera, quae supersunt omnia , ed. by Bretschneider C. G. Bindsell H. E. (28 vols, Halle, 1834–60), iv, 597.

Rheticus's brief account of his and Copernicus's ‘holiday’ at the Bishop's residence in Löbau appears at the beginning of the Narratio prima. Toward the end of this work he (too modestly) gives Giese all the credit for attempting to persuade Copernicus to go into print with his theory. See Three Copernican treatises , transl. and ed. by Edward Rosen , 3rd edn (New York, 1971), 109, 192–3. The Latin text is available in Leopold Prowe , Nicolaus Coppernicus (2 vols, 1883–84; rpt. Osnabrück , 1967), ii, 285–377, and in Nicolaus Copernicus Gesamtausgabe , ed. by Nobis H. M. , viii/1 (Berlin, 2002), 3–56.

See Swerdlow N. M. , “Annals of scientific publishing: Johannes Petreius's letter to Rheticus”, Isis lxxxiii (1992), 270–4. See also the excellent, detailed article by Peter Barker Goldstein Bernard R. , “Patronage and the production of De revolutionibus”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xxxiv (2003), 345–68, passim , and also, regarding Gemma's response to Rheticus, ref. 8, which cites a work I have not yet been able to consult: Cindy Lammens , “‘Sic patet iter ad astra’: A critical examination of Gemma Frisius' annotations in Copernicus' De Revolutionibus and his qualified appraisal of the Copernican theory”, doctoral dissertation, University of Ghent, 2002.

Hipler F. , Spicilegium Copernicanum (Braunsberg, 1873), 351; also quoted in Burmeister , Rhetikus (ref. 1), i, 47.

The letter, dated 1 September 1541 and addressed to the Prince-Elector of Saxony (with a copy to the university) is printed in Hipler F. , “Die Chorographie des Joachim Rheticus, aus dem Autographon des Verfassers”, Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik , xxi (1876), 125–50, pp. 130–1. The letter says that Rheticus, an “honourable and upright” mathematician, had spent his time in Prussia pursuing “by divine grace his skill in astronomy” and so bringing “no little lustre, fame, and honour” to the University of Wittenberg (“Nachdem sich der achtbar vnd wolgelerte vnser besonder lieber Magister Georgius Joachimus Rheticus, der Mathematicen zu Wittenbergk professor, ein zeitlang alhie In diesen landen preussen, ehrlich vnd wol gehalten, Auch seiner kunst der Astronomey dermassen vermittelst gottlicher gnaden vnd hilff nachgesetzt, dorab wir verhoffen, ehr nit allein E. L. sonder auch der gantzen vniuersitet nicht zu geringer zier rhum vnd preiss …”).

Rheticus , Ephemerides (Leipzig, 1550), preface to the reader; excerpted in Prowe , Nicolaus Coppernicus (ref. 5), ii, 392.

Letter from Frisius Gemma Dantiscus , 20 July 1541; in de Vocht Henry , John Dantiscus and his Netherlandish friends as revealed in their correspondence, 1522–1546 (Louvain, 1961), 345–6: “Atque ut de aliis nunc taceam, ipsa sane Vrania sedes ibi fixit nouas, nouosque suos excitauit cultores, qui nouam nobis terram, nouum Phoebum, noua astra, immo totum alium apportabunt orbem…. Quot enim erroribus, inuolucris, labyrinthis, quot denique enigmatibus plusquam Sphyngicis inuolutam habuimus nostram Astrologiam? Ego sane multa possem enumerare, quae nunquam mihi satisfacere potuerunt. Quale est, quod Martis motum saepe a calculo vel exactissimo secundum tabulas, tribus signiferi partibus abesse obseruauerim…. Haec si reddiderit auctor ille vest[er] sarcta et tecta (id quod maxime animus presagit ex eo prooemio quod premisit), nonne hoc est nouam dare terram, nouum coelum ac nouum mundum? Neque ego nunc disputo de hypothesibus, quibus ille utitur pro sua demonstratione, quales sint, aut quantum veritatis habeant. Mea enim non refert terramne dicat circumuolui, an immotam consistere; modo syderum motus temporumque interualla habeamus ad amussim discreta et in exactissimum calculum redacta. Sola me mora omnium pessime habet: Cupio enim iamiam videre huius negocii finem, et non pauci sunt passim viri eruditi, quibus non minor inest animi cupiditas haecce videndi, quam mihi.”.

Swerdlow , “Petreius's letter to Rheticus” (ref. 6), 274.

See Burmeister Heinz Karl , “Der Konstanzer Arzt Dr. med. Georg Vögelin (1508–1542), ein früher Anhänger des Kopernikus”, Archiwum Historii i Filozofii Medycyny (Cracow), lxii (1999), 97–104.

A German translation of the poem appears in Rhetikus Joachim Georg , Erster Bericht , transl. by Karl Zeller (Munich and Berlin, 1943), 26.

Gasser's copy, signed by Rheticus , is held today in the library of the Vatican. See Owen Gingerich , An annotated census of Copernicus' De revolutionibus (Leiden, 2002), 110.

See Anthony Grafton , Cardano's cosmos: The worlds and works of a Renaissance astrologer (Cambridge, MA, 1999), 92–96.

The titles of the English, German, and Latin versions are, respectively, A prognostication for this yere M.D.XLVI; Practica auff das M.D.XLVI. Jar; and Prognosticum astrologicum ad annum Domini M.D.XLVI..

See Burmeister , Montfort (ref. 1), 110–12.

Hipler , “Die Chorographie des Rheticus” (ref. 8), 149.

See William Gilbert , De magnete (1600), transl. by Mottelay Fleury P. (1893; New York, 1958); and Howard Margolis's discussion of Peregrinus, Gilbert , and the spherical lodestone (“terrella”, or little Earth), in It started with Copernicus: How turning the world inside out led to the scientific revolution (New York, 2002), 146–52. For more on Petrus Peregrinus, including Gasser's work on him, which was not published until 1558, see Burmeister , Montfort (ref. 1), 111–13, and Heinz Balmer , Beiträge zur Geschichte der Erkenntnis des Erdmagnetismus (Aarau, 1956), 797 and 243–52. Georg Hartmann , another pioneer of magnetism, whom Rheticus first met in Nuremberg in 1538, is also reported on and excerpted in Balmer , Beiträge , 287–92.

Burmeister , Montfort (ref. 1), 112: “ein begeistertes Loblied … auf Kopernikus.”.

Prowe , Nicolaus Coppernicus (ref. 5), ii, 329; Narratio , transl. by Rosen , in Three Copemican treatises (ref. 5), 147.