Johann Philipp von Wurzelbauer

Johann Philipp von Wurzelbauer (also spelled Wurzelbaur, Wurzelbau, Wurtzelbaur, Wurtzelbau) (1651-1725) was a German astronomer.

Biography

A native of Nuremberg, Wurzelbauer was a merchant who became an astronomer. As a youth, he was keenly interested in mathematics and astronomy but had been forced to earn his living as a merchant. He married twice: his first marriage was to Maria Magdalena Petz (1656-1713), his second to Sabina Dorothea Kress (1658-1733). Petz bore him six children.

He first published a work concerning his observations on the great comet of 1680, and initially began his work at a private castle-observatory on Spitzenberg 4 owned by Georg Christoph Eimmart (completely destroyed during World War II), the director of Nuremberg's painters' academy. Wurzelbauer was 64 when he began this second career, but proved himself to be an able assistant to Eimmart. A large quadrant from his days at Eimmart's observatory still survives.

After 1682, Wurzelbauer owned his own astronomical observatory and instruments, and observed the transit of Mercury, solar eclipses, and worked out the geographical latitude of his native city. After 1683, he had withdrawn himself completely from business life to dedicate himself to astronomy.

By 1700, Wurzelbauer had become the most well-known astronomer in Nuremberg. For his services to the field of astronomy, he was ennobled in 1692 by Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor and added the "von" to his name. He was a member of the French and the Prussian academies of the sciences.

Wurzelbauer crater, on the Moon, was named after him around 1800 by the astronomer Johann Hieronymus Schröter.

Works

*"Uranies Noricae basis astronomico-geographica". Nürnberg: Selbstverlag 1697
*"Herrn Christian Huygens Cosmotheoros oder weltbetrachtende Muthmassungen von den himmlischen Erdkugeln und deren Schmuck. Übers. von Johann Philipp Wurzelbau"r. Leipzig 1703
*"Stabilimentum baseos Uranies Noricae astronomico-geographicae Norimbergae Anno 1713"
*"Uranies Noricae basis astronomica". Nürnberg: Selbstverlag 1719
*"Opera Geographica-Astronomica". Nürnberg: Peter Conrad Monath 1728

External links

*de icon [http://www.naa.net/ain/personen/wurzelbau.asp Johann Philipp von Wurzelbau, um 1700 bekanntester in Nürnberg lebender Astronom]
* [http://www.vub.ac.be/STER/JAD/JAD8/jad8_5/jad8_5.htm Acta Historica Astronomiae Vol. 15]
*de icon [http://www.pierre-marteau.com/resources/rost-johann-l.html 1715-1727: Rückkehr in die bürgerliche Existenz und Fortsetzung der Arbeit als Astronom]