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Hortensius, Martinus [Ortensius or Van den Hove, Maarten]
- 1. Dates
- Born: Delft, 1605
- Died: Leiden, 7 August 1639
- Dateinfo: Birth Uncertain
- Lifespan: 34
- 2. Father
- Occupation: No Information
- No information on financial status.
- 3. Nationality
- Birth: Delft, Netherlands
- Career: Netherlands
- Death: Leiden, Netherlands
- 4. Education
- Schooling: Leiden
- Studied mathematics with Beeckman and Snel. 1625-7, he engaged in astronomical observation at Leiden though he was not enrolled. He received instruction from Snel.
- 1628-1630, at Leiden and Ghent, inscribed as a student.
- Beeckman introduced him to Philip van Landsbergen, whose pupil he became.
- Apparently he never received a B.A.
- 5. Religion
- Affiliation: Calvinist (assumed)
- 6. Scientific Disciplines
- Primary: Astronomy
- Subordinate: Optics, Navigation
- After Snel's death, Hortensius completed and published his final work.
- He lectured on optics at Amsterdam in 1635, and he lectured on navigation in 1637.
- 7. Means of Support
- Primary: Academia
- 1634, lectured on mathematics at Amsterdam Atheneum, an institution just established.
- He was enclouraged to apply for this position by Gerard Vossius and Caspar Barlaeus.
- 1635, full professor `in the Copernican theory.'
- 1639, nominated professor at Leiden, but died shortly after.
- 8. Patronage
- Types: Governmental Official, Aristocracy
- He dedicated a work of 1631 to Abraham van der Meer, Senator in the States of Holland.
- In 1634 he was planning to dedicate a work on the diameter of the sun to Fabri de Peiresc, but it was never finished.
- He dedicated his lectures on optics in 1635 to a Polish nobleman, Rozdrazewsky.
- 9. Technological Involvement
- Types: Navigation, Instruments
- 1638, a member of the commission negotiating with Galileo on the determination of longitude by the method of the satelites of Jupiter. Also lectured on navigation.
- He developed a method for measuring the diameters of planets based on the measured visual angle that his telescope embraced.
- 10. Scientific Societies
- Memberships: None
- Collaborated with Philip van Lansberge. Corresponded with Descartes, Mersenne, Gassendi, Huygens, Galileo, and Crueger, Fabri de Peiresc, Schikard.
- Sources
- C. de Waard, "Hortensius," Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch Woordenboek, 1, (Leiden, 1911), cols. 1160-4. [ref. CT1143.M72 v.1] Robert McKeon, "Le debuts de l'astronomie de precision," Physis, 13 (1971), 225-88; 14 (1972), 221-42; especially 13, 230.
- 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. |