Wendelin [Vendelinus], Gottfried

1. Dates

Born: Herck-la-Ville, Belgium, 6 June 1580

Died: Ghent, 1667

Dateinfo: Dates Certain

Lifespan: 87

2. Father

Occupation: No Information

No information on financial status.

3. Nationality

Birth: Herck-la-Ville, Belgium

Career: Belgium

Death: Ghent, Belgium

4. Education

Schooling: Louvain; Orange, L.D.

He went to school in Herck-la-Ville.

1595, he went to the Jesuit college at Tournai.

c. 1598, he was in Louvain, probably attending lectures at the faculty of arts there. No B.A. is known.

1611, received J.D. from the University of Orange. (Although I am listing this, I seem also to remember that Orange was not a valid institution. Check this.)

5. Religion

Affiliation: Catholic

1619, ordained a priest in Brussels.

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Astronomy

7. Means of Support

Primary: Church Life

Secondary: Schoolmastering, Patronage

1601, for a year he was the professor of Mathematics at Digne. (I am not aware of a university there; therefore, secondary level.) Afterwards he traveled extensively.

1604-11, he was tutor to the son of André d'Arnaud, seigneur de Miravail, lieutenant-general of the Senechal's court of Forealquier.

He traveled more, then taught at the Latin school in Herck for a short period.

1619, he received the subdeaconry at Malines, and was ordained.

1620-32, curate of Geet-Bets.

1633-48, curate of Herck.

1648-58, he was an official at the cathedral in Tournai, then retired.

8. Patronage

Types: Aristrocrat, Court Official, Eccesiastic Official

His first patron would have been Andre d'Arnaud, see above.

Archduchess Isabelle conferred on him a prebendary of the canonry of the collegiate church of Notre Dame of Conde.

The bishop of Tournai gave him the position at the cathedral there.

9. Technological Involvement

Type: Cartography

He determined the latitude of Marseille and interested himself in the determination of longitudes made by Peiresc; he calculated the length of the Mediterranean independently from Peiresc's data.

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

Connections: corresponded with Mersenne, Gassendi, and Constantijn Huygens.

Sources

1. Lucien Godeaux, Biographie nationale publiée par l'Académie royale de Belgique, 27 (1938), cols. 180-4.
2. P. Humbert, "Les astronomes françaises de 1610 à 1667," Bulletin de la Société d'études scientifiques et archéologiques de Draguignan et du Var, 42 (1942), pp. 5-72.

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.