Hans Gaab - Simon Marius and His Research

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15156

Cover illustration: Only portrait of Simon Marius from Mundus Iovialis , Nrnberg 1614, )( )( )( 2 v . Credit: Jay and Naomi Pasachoff Collection

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A little more than 400 years ago, the German astronomer Simon Marius (15731625) was one of the first to use the newly invented telescope for the study of planets, stars and the universe. Born in Gunzenhausen and working mainly in Ansbach, he discovered the four major moons of Jupiter independently of Galileo. Marius was the first to propose, in print, naming them Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, as originally suggested to him by Johannes Kepler. It is not (yet) so well known that Simon Marius also worked on many other interesting astronomical topics; e.g. he investigated the Andromeda nebula and described it as an extended source of pale light with its intensity decreasing outwards from the centre.

This edition is an expanded English version of the original German volume Simon Marius und seine Forschung from 2016, which in turn was based on a conference about Simon Mariuss life and work jointly presented by the Nuremberg Astronomical Society and the Study Group for History of Astronomy of the German Astronomical Society in 2014. It contains more than a dozen very interesting and highly elucidating chapters on Marius and his research. The articles reflect the wealth and breadth of Simon Mariuss investigations and explorations; e.g. he studied and examined sunspots and comets, he worked on calendar making and astrology and he also considered the world at large.

Simon Marius accepted that Jupiter with its moons was something like a planetary system on its own. In this sense, he overcame the purely geocentric worldview. However, he still believed that Jupiter with its moons orbited the Earth, as would the other planets and the sun. So Simon Marius wouldnt go the full distance to the heliocentric system, but rather got stuck halfway, similar to Tycho Brahe; hence he is considered a Tychonic (and the readers of this volume will learn and understand why!).

This book adds significant new research to the life and work of Simon Marius. To pick just one article, Jay Pasachoffs account of the parallel and independent discoveries of Jupiters moons by Galileo and by Marius reads like a thriller and is very relevant for every researcher up to the present. Everyone interested in the history of astronomy in general and in the transition between the geocentric and the heliocentric worldviews in particular will benefit a lot by reading this book. This English version will offer these interesting new insights to a worldwide audience and hence broaden the potential readership significantly. It is my pleasure to thank the authors for their insightful contributions as well as the two editors Hans Gaab and Pierre Leichwho were in charge of the German version as wellfor their very careful and meticulous work. May this book find many interested readers!

Although the history of astronomy of the early seventeenth century has been well researched, the margravial court mathematician Simon Marius from Ansbach in Southern Germany has till now attracted little attention. This was above all the result of theas we now knowunjustified accusation of plagiarism by Galileo Galilei. However, a critical appraisal of his early observations of comets, the moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus and sunspots has been somewhat lacking.

For this reason, the Nrnberger Astronomische Gesellschaft (Nuremberg Astronomical Society) initiated the Simon-Marius-Anniversary 2014 on the 400th anniversary of his opus magnum Mundus Iovialis . 66 cooperation partners participated in 60 events on which more than 250 reports appeared in the media.

The central project was the Marius Portal ( www.simon-marius.net ), which, with a multilingual-menu navigation, documents everything by and about Marius. The webpage was launched in the Staatsarchiv Nrnberg (States Archive Nuremberg) on 18th February and in the meantime forms the most extensive and most important presentation of Marius.

The mathematician, physician, astronomer and calendar maker experienced in 2014 a delayed gratification through the naming of asteroid (7984) Marius by the International Astronomical Union.