17 April 1598: Happy Birthday, Giovanni Battista Riccioli
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Detail to Almagestum Novum by Giovanni Battista Riccioli 1651). The image portrays Urania, the muse of astronomy, weighing up the rival systems of Copernicus, in which the earth moves round the sun, and Riccioli himself, in which the earth remains stationary at the center of the universe. The older system of Ptolemy has already been discarded and lies on the ground alongside.
Image source: microcosmos.uchicago.edu
Image source: microcosmos.uchicago.edu
Via Wikipedia.
Giovanni Battista Riccioli (b.April 17, 1598, Ferrara, Italy – d. June 25, 1671, Bologna, Italy) was an Italian astronomer. He was a Jesuit who entered the order in 1614. He was also the first person to measure the rate of acceleration of a freely falling body.More here.
He devoted his career to the study of astronomy, often working with Francesco Maria Grimaldi. He wrote the important work Almagestum novum in 1651. By necessity, he opposed the Copernican heliocentric theory though praising its value as a simple hypothesis.
He and Grimaldi extensively studied the Moon, of which Grimaldi drew a map. Much of the nomenclature of lunar features still in use today is due to him and Grimaldi. He also observed Saturn, and was the first to note that Mizar was a double star.
Other books he wrote were: Geographiae et hydrographiae reformatae libri (1661), Astronomia reformata (1665), Chronologia reformata (1669) and Tabula latitudinum et longitudinum (published in 1689).
posted by Fergie @ 4/16/2006 10:01:00 PM
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