Saturn,Aristotelian Astronomy,and Cracow Astronomers: An Episode from the Early Years of Telescopic Astronomy

The personal data of Strażyc Albert [?–1650] are scarce, due to the loss of the Cracow University files from the first half of the seventeenth century. He studied in Cracow, obtaining the Ph.D. degree in 1634. From the later 1630s he held the newly-founded chair of practical geometry and geodesy. After 1646 Strażyc took up medical studies in Italy, where he died shortly after doctoral promotion at the University of Padua. His published works were limited to two almanacs and two “Quaestiones”.

“Quaestio astronomica in Alma Academia Cracoviensi, florentissimo Regni Poloniae Gymnasio; a M.Alberto Raymundo Strazyc, in eadem Academia professore, publice ad disputandum proposita….”.

Shelf mark: 56457 I St.Dr.

“Quaestio: U[trum] Recentiorum observationes, de Jovialibus stellis, maculis solaribus; asperitatibus Lunae, ascensu et descensu Martis, aliisque similibus phaenomenis factae, antiquorum tam philosophorum quam astronomorum repugnent decretis, nec ne?” (f. A3 recto).

Second corrolary to the first thesis, f. a3: “Demonstratis via Geometrica observationibus, si cum omnibus requisitis fuerint expeditae, nusquam error subesse potest.” This echoes Salviati's declaration in the third dialogue in Galileo's Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche (Leyden, 1638), 175: “… le dimostrazioni matematiche che sono i fondamenti di tutta la seguente struttura”.

F. A4 recto, concl. II, 7th corollary: “Diversae naturae eos [satellites] a suo principali cui adherent sidere, non crediderim.”.

F. A5 verso, 5th corollary to the sixth thesis: “… velut pisces in mari, aut aves in aere”; cf. Psalm 8, 9: “The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea.”.

“Decreta antiquorum et philosophorum et astronomorum, per observationes a recentioribus factas labefactata, stare non possunt” (f. A6 recto). One of the corollaries stressed the unity of the matter in the universe: “Coelorum compages, ex eadem materia ex qua et res sublunares constructae … coalescit.” The present resumé deals with the main issues of Strażyc's text; there is more in the leaflet both of fundamental issues and of topics of less importance (though not necessarily correct in detail).

Canevesius Thoma , in Quaestio astronomica … de harmonia motus Lunae ad Solem (Cracow, 1640): “Hypotheses, non Chimeras formare Astronomos existimo, quando totalem coeli Planetarij molem, in orbes partiuntur”.

Jagellonian Library MSS. 495, 2390 and 2468. In astronomical notes (dated 1634–39, MS 2468) there are references to Galileo's Sidereus nuncius (1610), Dialogo sopra due sistemi (1632) and Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche (1638). Other notes deal with Pudłowski's own observations and optical experiments. Two drawings on f. 270 show Galileo's “Saturnus tergeminus”, and the ellipse-shaped planet devoid of rings; they accompany Pudłowski's own note: “Saturnum componi ex tribus stellis et proinde oblongum videri indicavit Galileus” [repr. by T. Przypkowski in Studia i materialy z dziejów nauki polskiej , vol. C12 (Warsaw, 1967), 56].

Galileo's closest pupil and assistant, Benedetto Castelli, warmly recommended Pudłowski's erudition and his esteem for Galileo in a letter of 1 May 1640: “[Pudłowski] da questo ella puo argumentare che il suo sapere e piu che ordinario”. Castelli went on to quote Pudłowski, who found in the works of Galileo all that was worth learning (“che tutto quello che ha inteso di buono lo riconosce dall'haver iste dell opere [di Galileo]”, Opere , ed. by Favaro A. , xviii, 185).

Nova methodus longe accuratior observandi locorum longitudines: Scripta et proposita Italico idiomate per … Benedictum Castelli, in Studio Romano Matheseos Professorem, Modo vero in utilitatem publicam, cultu verborum latino, ornata et per V. D. Cromer … in Academia Cracoviensi candidatum in publicum edita (Cracow, 1642). Pudłowski wrote the preface to it.

The periods of the moons' revolutions were listed in the chapter on Jupiter (2nd corollary) as 1^d18 ½^h, 3^d13 ½^h, 7^d4^h and 16^d18^h, respectively.

His Systema Saturnium of 1659 presented a table of thirteen early Saturn drawings.

Beima F. M. , De annulo Saturni (Leiden, 1842); Shapley Dora , “Pre-Huygenian observations of Saturn's ring”, Isis , xl (1949), 12–17. A valuable review of the early telescopic observations is presented by Alexander A. F. O'D. , The planet Saturn (London, 1962), chap. 4. The most recent study on the subject is that by Van Helden A. , “Saturn and his anses”, Journal for the history of astronomy , v (1974), 105–21, and “Annulo cingitur: The solution of the problem of Saturn”, ibid. , 155–74. Recently Galileo's early observations have been discussed by Deiss B. M. Bebel V. , “On a pretended observation of Saturn by Galileo”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xxix (1998), 215–20.

Galilei Galileo , Istoria e dimostrazione intorno alle macchie solari (Rome, 1613), 92.

F. A4 recto, 3rd conclusion, 1st corollary: “Maculas Solares non posse esse alibi, quam in ipso Solis corpore evincit parallaxis; quamvis refractio easdem aliquando extra discum reponat.”.

S̓Sniadecki Jan (1756–1830), An eminent scientist of the Enlightenment, mathematician and astronomer; from 1807 professor of the university in Wilno (Vilnius), and rector 1807–15.