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Cysat, Johann Baptist
- 1. Dates
- Born: Lucerne, 1586
- Died: Lucerne, 1657
- Dateinfo: Birth Uncertain
- Lifespan: 71
- 2. Father
- Occupation: Man Of Letters And Civic Leader In Lucerne
- No information on financial status.
- 3. Nationality
- Birth: Lucerne, Switzerland
- Career: Germany, Switzerland
- Death: Lucerne, Switzerland
- 4. Education
- Schooling: Religous Order, D.D.
- In 1611, he was a student of Christoph Scheiner at the Jesuit College in Ingolstadt. From what follows, I assume B.A. As one who had been through the complete Jesuit training (though he may not have taken the fourth vow), he had to have had a degree in theology.
- 5. Religion
- Affiliation: Catholic, a Jesuit
- 6. Scientific Disciplines
- Primary: Astronomy
- 7. Means of Support
- Primary: Church Life
- 1603/4, entered Jesuit order as a novice.
- 1618, Professor of Mathematics at Ingolstadt.
- 1623-7, Rector of Jesuit College in Lucerne.
- 1627-8, the order sent him to Spain.
- 1630s, architect of the Jesuit college church built in Innsbruck.
- 1637-41, Rector of Jesuit College in Innsbruck.
- 1646-50, Rector of Jesuit College in Eichstadt.
- 8. Patronage
- Type: Scientist
- He defended Scheiner in his priority dispute with Galileo over sunspots. This certainly implies a relation, and all of those academic appointments suggest influence. After hesitation, I am leaving this in as patronage; the ambiguities are obvious.
- 9. Technological Involvement
- Types: Instruments, Architecture
- He was perhaps the first Swiss man to make telescopes. He built a 6 ft and a 9 or 10 ft for observing comets.
- Architect of the Jesuit college chapel at Innsbruck.
- 10. Scientific Societies
- Memberships: None
- Sources
- Ruedolf Wolf, Biographen zur kulturgeschichte der Schwiez, 1, (Zurich, 1858), 105-118. [xerox]
- Neue deutsche Biographie (Berlin, 1952- ).
- Not Available and Not Consulted
- Bernard Duhr, S.J., Geschichte der Jesuiten in den Laenden deutsche Zunge (Freiburg in Breisgau, 1907-1913), passim.
- M.W. Burke-Gaffney, S.J., Kepler and the Jesuits, (Milwaukee, Wis, 1944), pp. 113-19.
- Compiled by:
- Richard S. Westfall
- Department of History and Philosophy of Science
- Indiana University
Note: the creators of the Galileo Project and this catalogue
cannot answer email on geneological questions. |