Starting the classification: New and old stars, and sometimes comets, too

Journal for the History of Astronomy

Volumn 41, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 105-116

  Zsoldos, Endre ^a  

^a KONKOLY OBSERVATORY   (Hungary)

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EID: 84856360816     PISSN: 00218286     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/002182861004100105     Document Type: Review

References (91)

1. Edward Pigott, "Observations and remarks on those stars which the astronomers of the last century suspected to be changeable", Philosophical transactions, lxxvi (1786), 189-219.
2. E. Zsoldos, "Three early variable star catalogues", Journal for the history of astronomy, xxv (1994), 92-98.
3. Michael Hoskin, "Goodricke, Pigott and the quest for variable stars", Journal for the history of astronomy, x (1979), 23-41.
4. John Goodricke, "A series of observations on, and a discovery of, the period of variation of the light of the bright star in the head of Medusa, called Algol", Philosophical transactions, lxxiii (1783), 474-82.
5. Hans Gaab, Pierre Leich and Günter Löffladt (eds), Johann Christoph Sturm (1635-1703) (Frankfurt am Main, 2004).
6. First appeared in 1699-1701. I have access only to the reissue of 1702-4. Dr Hilmar Duerbeck, however, kindly checked a copy of the first edition in the Universitäts- und Stadtbibliothek Köln, and found no difference between the two editions. Hans Gaab, "Bibliographie zu Johann Christoph Sturm", in Gaab et al. (eds), Johann Christoph Sturm (ref. 7), 250-328.
7. Johann Christoph Sturm, Mathesis juvenilis: or a course of mathematics for young students, iii (London, 1708), 93-94.
8. Johann Christoph Sturm, Cometarum natura, motus et origo secundum duas hodie celebriores Joh. Hevelii et P. Petiti celeberrimorum mathematicorum hypotheses ita declarata (Altdorf, 1681).
9. Cornelius Gemma, De natura divinis characterismis, ii (Antwerp, 1575), 125. On Dee
10. see William Camden, The Historie of the Life and Reigne of the most Renowmed [sic] and Victorious Princesse Elizabeth, Late Queene of England (London, 1630), Book II, 53: "Thomas Digsey, and John Dey, Gentlemen, and Mathematicians amongst us, have learnedly proved by Paralactic Doctrine, that it was in the celestiall, not in the Elementary Region: and they were of opinion that it vanished by little and little in ascending." According to Stephen Johnston, "Like father, like son? John Dee, Thomas Digges, and the identity of the mathematician"
11. in Stephen Clucas (ed.), John Dee: Interdisciplinary studies in English Renaisssance thought (Dordrecht, 2006), 65-84, Dee wrote a tract, now lost, on the new star titled "De stella admiranda in Cassiopeiae Asterismo, coelitus demissa ad orbem usque Veneris, iterumque in coeli penetralia perpendiculariter retracta lib. 3".
12. Giovanni Battista Riccioli, Almagestum novum, i, Pars posterior (Bologna, 1651), 174.
13. On Riccioli see Alfredo Dinis, "Giovanni Battista Riccioli and the science of his time", in Mordechai Feingold (ed.), Jesuit science and the Republic of Letters (Cambridge, MA, and London, 2003), 195-224.
14. Ismaël Boulliau, Ad astronomos monita duo (Paris, 1667), 12-14.
15. A review, "Ismaeli Bullialdi Ad Astronomos Monita duo", Philosophical transactions, i (1667), 381-83, describes it as follows: "... he proceeds to the investigation of the Causes of the Vicissitudes in the Emersion and Disappearance of this Star, and having discoursed, that the apparent Increase and Decrement of every Lucid Body proceeds either from its changed distance from the Eye of the Observer, or from its various site and position in respect of him, whereby the angle of Vision is changed, or from the increase or diminution of the bulk of the lucid body itself: and having also demonstrated it impossible, that this Star should move in a Circle, or in an Ellipsis, and proved it improbable that it should move in a Strait Line, he concludes, that there can be no other genuin, or at least, no other more probable cause of its Emersion and Occultation, than this, That the bigger part of that round Body is obscure and inconspicuous to us, and its lesser part lucid, the whole Body turning about its own Center, and one Axe, whereby for one determinate spece of time it exhibits its lucid part to the earth, for another, subducts it: it nor being likely, that fires should be kindled in the Body of that Star, and that the matter thereof should at certain times take fire and shine, at other times be extinguisht upon the consumption of that matter."
16. See Carl B. Boyer, "Boulliau, Ismael", in Complete dictionary of scientific biography (Detroit, 2008), ii, 348-49.
17. The reference to Hevelius is probably Johannes Hevelius, Prodromus cometicus, quo historia cometae anno 1664 exorti (Gdansk, 1665), Figure B facing page 12, which shows the structure Hevelius observed.
18. For example Georg Busch, Von dem Cometen / welcher in diesem 1572. Jar / in dem Monat Novembris erschinen (Augsburg, 1573)
19. and Die andere Beschreibung von dem Cometen / welcher in dem vergangenem 1572. Jar erschienen / und noch jtziger zeit in diesem 73. Jar / unter den Firmamenten sichtbarlichen vorhanden (Erfurt, 1573).
20. Astrologers also talked about the new star as a comet, for example William Lilly, The worlds catastrophe, or, Europes many mutations untill, 1666 (London, 1647), 11: "... we will first handle the Comet, that appeared Anno 1572...."
21. John Clarke, Physical science in the time of Nero, being a translation of the Quaestiones Naturales of Seneca (London, 1910), 277.
22. See also C. Doris Hellman, The comet of 1577: Its place in the history of astronomy (New York, 1944), 25-26.
23. Andrea Argoli, Pandosion sphaericum, 2nd edn (Padua, 1653), 288: "... primum de Stellis intelligit, postremum de veris Cometis...."
24. Daniel Sennert, Thirteen books of natural philosophy (London, 1661), 66: "Yet that it may appear, that we conceive to be most probable; their opinion seems to us most agreeable to truth, who hold that all Comets have been, and appeared in the Region of Heaven which is above the Moon: and if any man will call them new stars, we shall not oppose him."
25. See Hans Kangro: "Sennert, Daniel", in Complete dictionary of scientific biography (ref. 15), xii, 310-13
26. and William R. Newman: "Sennert, Daniel", ibid., Complete dictionary of scientific biography, xxiv, 417-19.
27. Friedrich Wilhelm Weidler, Institutiones astronomiae (Wittenberg, 1754), 365: "Cometae sunt stellae novae, luce debili et motu proprio praeditae, quae vel coma vestitae, vel sine ea, inopinato nonnunquam in conspectum prodeunt." On Weidler
28. see J. C. Poggendorff, Biographischliterarisches Handwörterbuch zur Geschichte der exacten Wissenschaften, ii (Leipzig, 1863), 1281.
29. Gottfried Kirch, "Stellae in Cygno Fixae, alternis temporibus visae et invisae, vicissitudines Lipsiae observatae a Godofredo Kirchio", Acta eruditorum, vi (1687), 647-8. Though this was written in the third person, it still might be the work of Kirch himself and not of the editor of the Acta.
30. See Hub. Laeven, The "Acta Eruditorum" under the editorship of Otto Mencke: The history of an international learned journal between 1682 and 1707 (Amsterdam and Maarssen, 1990).
31. Kirch announced the discovery earlier in his Calendarium christianum, judaicum, et turcicum, but I have had no access to a copy of it. Years later he published another paper on the star, which was usually referred to in the literature: Gottfried Kirch: "De varia apparentia stellae in collo Cygni", Miscellanea Berolinensia, i (1710), 208-12. On Kirch
32. see P. Aufgebauer, "Die Astronomenfamilie Kirch", Sterne, xlvii (1971), 241-47.
33. see Endre Zsoldos and Zsuzsa Lévai: "'Novae' over Kiskartal", Journal for the history of astronomy, xxx (1999), 225-30
34. and Endre Zsoldos: "Kövesligethy Radó, Jókai Mór és az Androméda-köd", Aetas, xvii (2002), 206-11.
35. On Leovitius see Günther Oestmann: "Cyprianus Leovitius, der Astronom und Astrologe Ottheinrichs" in Tagungsband des Symposiums Pfalzgraf Ottheinrich (Regensburg, 2002), 348-359.
36. John Keill, An introduction to the true astronomy (London, 1721), 57: "It is probable that these two Stars might have been the same with that which was seen by Tycho, and that in about 150 Years the same Star may again make its Appearance." Pigott, op. cit. (ref. 1), 192: "Several astronomers are of opinion, that it has a periodical return, which Keill and others have conjectured to happen every 150 years. This is also my opinion...."
37. See Michael Hoskin: "Novae and variables from Tycho to Bullialdus", Sudhoffs Archiv, lxi (1977), 195-204.
38. On Keill see David Kubrin: "Keill, John", in Complete dictionary of scientific biography (ref. 15), vii, 275-7.
39. Hans Gaab: "Zur Biographie von Johann Christoph Sturm (1635-1703)", in Gaab et al. (eds), Johann Christoph Sturm (ref. 7), 12-85.
40. On Weigel see Reinhard Schielicke, Klaus-Dieter Herbst and S. Kratochwil (eds), Erhard Weigel - 1625 bis 1699: Barocker Erzvater der deutschen Frühaufklärung (Frankfurt am Main, 1999).
41. Erhard Weigel, Cosmologia (Jena, 1680), 9-10.
42. Ernst Zinner, "Zur Erklärung des Lichtwechsels der vermißten Sterne", Kleine Veröffentlichungen der Remeis-Sternwarte, no. 7 (1952), 1-35. The light curve is on p. 8, showing a somewhat similar behaviour to that of Mira during the second half of the seventeenth century.
43. Charlotte Methuen, Kepler's Tübingen: Stimulus to a theological mathematics (Aldershot, 1998), 107.
44. One can find an example in Melanchthon's preface to Sacrobosco's Sphaera, Philip Melanchthon, "Preface to On the Sphere (1531)", in Philip Melanchthon, Orations in philosophy and education, ed. by Sachiko Kusukawa, transl. by Christine F. Salazar (Cambridge, 1999), 105-12.
45. Johann Andreas Quenstedt, Theologia didactico-polemica (Wittenberg, 1691), 535. "Distinguitur (2.) Providentia in extra-ordinariam et ordinariam. Extraordinaria est, quando Deus vel absque mediis vel praeter aut supra media, vel contra media eorumque naturam, sive quod idem est, supra et contra ordinem a se institutum operatur.... Ordinaria est, qua Deus per media ordinaria videl. per institutum et consuetum naturae cursum opera sua exequitur." The translation is
46. from Heinrich Schmid, The doctrinal theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church,. transl. by Charles A. Hay and Henry A. Jacobs (Philadelphia, 1899), 193. For a recent discussion of the question of extraordinary providence
47. see Charles M. Wood, "How does God act?", International journal of systematic theology, i (1999), 138-52.
48. See also Charlotte Methuen, "Special providence and sixteenth-century astronomical observations: Some preliminary reflections", Early science and medicine, iv (1999), 99-113. Methuen considers the sixteenth century when Aristotle's theory of comet generation was still thought valid. It was not accepted in Wittenberg in the second half of the seventeenth century. On Quenstedt 5.
49. see Julius August Wagenmann, "Johann Andreas Quenstedt", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, xxvii (Leipzig, 1888), 35-37.
50. For example, Samuel Pomarius, Collegii synoptici in partem generalem physicae disputationem (Wittenberg, 1659), 23: "In extraordinariis Deus sine Natura agit; in ordinariis nec Natura sine Deo, nec deus sine Natura."
51. Simon Fridericus Frentzelius, Praelucente stella ex Jacob, stellam nati Jesuli a magis visam (Wittenberg, 1661), Bv: "In ordinariis quidem naturalibus Deus sine natura facile non agit.... Extraordinaria vero quae sunt, et inusitata plane, solus plerumque sibi reservavit Deus...."
52. Bartholomaeus Keckermann, Systema physicum (Hanau, 1612), 618: "Sunt autem Meteora vel ordinaria, vel extraordinaria, vel mixta." On p. 679: "Distingui potest duratio cometae in ordinariam et extraordinariam."
53. Andreas Libavius, Singularium, pars secunda (Frankfurt, 1599). On p. 35 one can find "Mundo coaevum sydus, et stella ordinata ...", while on p. 45: "... recentiores affirmant, esse stellas secundas inordinatas, non aeternas." This chapter deals with comets, Tycho's star is considered as one itself.
54. Rudolph Goclenius, Idea philosophiae Platonicae (Marburg, 1612), 313: "... distinguunt stellas in ordinatas et aeternas, et inordinatas seu temporaries...." On Keckermann and Goclenius
55. see Joseph S. Freedman, "The career and writings of Bartholomew Keckermann (d. 1609)", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, clxi (1997), 305-64
56. Joseph S. Freedman, "'Professionalization' and 'Confessionalization': The place of physics, philosophy, and arts instruction at central European academic institutions during the Reformation era", Early science and medicine, vi (2001), 334-52. On Libavius
57. see Allen G. Debus, The Chemical Philosophy (New York, 2002), 169-73.
58. Christoph Nottnagel, Synopsis mathematica, editio secunda (Wittenberg, 1657), 157-61. On Nottnagel
59. Franco Burgersdijk, De stellis ordinariis et extraordinariis (Leiden, 1631), L4r
60. Andreas Spole, De stellis fixis (Uppsala, 1683), 44.
61. The best source for Schnitzler's life is still Johann Seivert, Nachrichten von Siebenürgen Gelehrten und ihren Schriften (Pressburg, 1785), 376-87.
62. See also Endre Zsoldos and Cristina Blaga, "Jacob Schnitzler Wittenbergben", Magyar Könyvszemle, cxxii (2006), 16-31.
63. Jacob Schnitzler, De stellis fixis (Wittenberg, 1659), A2r: "Stellae fixae (alias Inerrantes dictae) sunt stellae luce, quantitate egregia et figura quam proxime globosa praeditae, in octavo coeli orbe seu regione perpetuo mobiles, situmque et ordinem eundem, eandemque ad se invicem distantiam et habitudinem retinentes." This is a version of the usual Wittenberg definition of stars.
64. Some examples: Johannes Sperling, Institutiones physicae (Wittenberg, 1639), 489: "Stellae sunt corpora naturalia simplicia, lucida, globosa, semper mobilia, ex luce primigenia ad salutem inferiorum producta." Nottnagel, op. cit. (ref. 35), 157: "Stellae sunt corpora simplicia, lucida, quam proxime globosa, ac perpetuo in orbem mobilia, suamque periodum finito temporis spatio absolventia...."
65. Georg Caspar Kirchmaier, De stellis, generaliter spectatis (Wittenberg, 1659), A2r: "Stellae sunt Corpora Naturalia simplicia, lucida, quam proxime globosa, semper mobilia, influentiis admirandis praedita, ex luce primigenia, a Creatore Deo, ad salutem inferiorum producta."
66. Jacob Schnitzler, De stellis fixis novis (Wittenberg, 1659), A2r-A2v: "Stellae Fixae Novae sunt Stellae a Deo immediate virtute supernaturali ex nihilo creatae, motum cum reliquis stellis fixis communem habentes et in octavo coeli ad tempus locatae, ut gloriam Dei enarrent...." The definition of comets is very similar
67. Jacob Schnitzler, De stellis erraticis extraordinariis seu cometis (Wittenberg, 1659), A2r-A2v: "Cometae sunt Stellae erraticae extraordinariae, modo extraordinario a Deo productae, locumque suum in sede Planetarum subter regionem fixarum ad certum tempus obtinentes." This was, naturally, not a new concept. One can find similar definitions ever since the appearance of Tycho's star. It can even be argued that it originated with Saint John of Damascus, who said about comets in De fide orthodoxa: "they are not of the number of the stars which have existed from the beginning, but by the divine command they take form at just the right time and then are dissolved again."
68. See Saint John of Damascus, Writings (New York, 1958), 219.
69. "Stella est densior pars sui orbis", the usual definition of a star in the late Middle Ages, ascribed erroneously to Aristotle. See the discussion in Edward Grant, Planets, stars, & orbs: The medieval cosmos, 1200-1687 (Cambridge, 1996), 426-8.
70. Jacob Schnitzler, Comet-Stern predigt (Hermannstadt, 1681), A3v-A4v: "Considerantur stellae fixae vel absolute, vel relative. Absolute consideratae sunt vel ordinariae vel extraordinariae. Ordinariae sunt, quae ab initio mundi semper conspicuae et adhuc conspiciuntur. Extraordinariae, quae singulari Dei dispensatione ad certum tantum tempus conspiciuntur."
71. Ibid., Comet-Stern predigt, Bv: "Aber mann muss hie distingvieren inter opera Dei ordinaria et extraordinaria, einen unterscheid machen zwischen ordentlichen und ausserordentlichen oder sonderlichen Wercken Gottes."
72. Márton Szentiványi, Curiosiora et selectiora variarum scientiarum miscellanea (Nagyszombat, 1689), 69: "Novas Stellas generari ex Solis, aliorumque Syderum exhalationibus, et effluvijs. Haec enim effluvia, ubi condensata, et a Sole illuminata fuerint, speciem novarum stellarum referunt."
73. A similar explanation was considered earlier by Athanasius Kircher, Itinerarium exstaticum (Rome, 1656), 278-9
74. and Libertus Fromondus, Meteorologicorum (Antwerp, 1627), 124.
75. Edmond Halley, "A short History of the several New-Stars that have appear'd within these 150 Years; with an Account of the Return of that in Collo Cygni, and of its Continuance observed this Year 1715", Philosophical transactions, xxix (1715), 354-6.
76. E. Zsoldos, "The beginnings of variable star astronomy in Hungary", in Lajos G. Balázs, Peter Brosche, Hilmar W. Duerbeck and Endre Zsoldos (eds), The European scientist: Symposium on the era and work of Franz Xaver von Zach (1754-1832) (Frankfurt am Main, 2004), 132-55.
77. This is an interesting echo of the Middle Ages as it is clearly "mythologically speaking" about variables. It seems to have been introduced by William of Conches in the twelfth century, when he remarked that "authors deal with celestial matters in three ways: namely, in terms of myths [fabulose], astrology, or astronomy." William of Conches, A dialogue on natural philosophy (Notre Dame, 1997), 41.
78. It can be found in the earlier Philosophia (Philosophiarum et astronomicarum (Basel, 1531), 30; published under the name of William of Hirsau)
79. and Glosae super Boetium (Turnhout, 1999), 53, too. Riccioli's list of variables also nicely fits this threefold division
80. James Ferguson, Astronomy explained upon Sir Isaac Newton's Principles, 2nd edn (London, 1757), 236-7: "It would seem that the periodical Stars have vast clusters of dark spots, and very slow rotations on their Axis; by which means, they must disappear when the side covered with spots is turned towards us. And as for those which break out all of a sudden with such lustre, 'tis by no means improable that they are Suns whose Fuel is almost spent, and again supplied by some of their Comets falling upon them, and occasioning an uncommon blaze and splendor for some time: which indeed appears to be the greatest use of the cometary part of any system." The first edition of 1756 did not contain the chapter on the fixed stars. The tenth edition of 1799 has the same text. On Ferguson
81. see E. Henderson, Life of James Ferguson, F.R.S., in a brief autobiographical account. And further extended memoir (Edinburgh, London and Glasgow, 1867).
82. Newton's explanation can be found in Isaac Newton, Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica, 2nd edn (Cambridge, 1713), 481: "Sic etiam Stellae fixae quae paulatim expirant in lucem et vapores, Cometis in ipsas incidentibus refici possunt, et novo alimento accensae pro Stellis Novis haberi."
83. Maupertuis's idea appeared in Discours sur les différentes figures des astres (Paris, 1732), 77-78
84. English translation, Dissertation on the different figures of the coelestial bodies (London, 1734), 62-63.
85. Bernard R. Goldstein, "Evidence for a supernova of A.D. 1006", Astronomical journal, lxx (1965), 105-14.
86. Weidler took the reference from Jacques Cassini, Éléments d'astronomie (Paris, 1740), 59.
87. It was known in Europe in the Middle Ages, too, see the anonymous tract on the comet of 1238, printed in Lynn Thorndike, Latin treatises on comets between 1238 and 1368 A.D. (Chicago, 1950), 9-61, see pp. 60-61.
88. Thorndike identifies it with the comet of 1006 described in Alexandre Guy Pingré, Cométographie, i (Paris, 1783), 363-5, which, in turn, is identical with Goldstein's supernova of 1006. The supposed new star seen by Albumasar was a comet
89. see Thorndike, op. cit., 59
90. and Lynn Thorndike, "Albumasar in Sadan", Isis, xlv (1954), 22-32.
91. Klaus-Dieter Herbst, "Der Beitrag von Johann Christoph Sturm zur astronomischen Forschung", in Gaab et al. (eds), Johann Christoph Sturm (ref. 7), 203-25.