Alternate Names
Peuerbach, Georg von; Peurbach, Georg von; Purbach, Georg von; von Peuerbach, Georg; von Purbach, Georg
BornPeurbach near Linz, (Austria), possibly 30 May 1423
DiedVienna, (Austria), 8 April 1461
Georg von Peurbach continued a strong tradition in which the University of Vienna was considered to have the best astronomy scholars in Europe during the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
Peurbach was born sometime after 1421, the date of 30 May 1423 coming from a horoscope published as late as 1550. Peurbach received a bachelor’s degree in 1448 and his master’s degree 5 years later, both at the University of Vienna. As a lecturer at the university there, he was one of the leaders in reviving classical Greek and Roman literature in the arts and sciences. After observing an occultation of Jupiter by the Moon in 1451, Peurbach spent the last decade of his life making observing instruments, lecturing on astronomy and the classics, collaborating with men such as ...
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Selected References
Aiton, E. J. (1987). “Peurbach’s Theoricae novae planetarum: A Translation with Commentary.” Osiris 3: 5–43. (Translation into English of Peurbach’s most important treatise.)
Gassendi, P. (1655). Tychonis Brahei, Equitis Dani, Astronomorum Coryphaei, Vita . . . Accessit Nicolai Copernici, Georgii Pevrbachii, & Ioannis Regiomontani . . . The Hague: Adriani Vlacq, pp. 333ff. (Includes the first extensive biography of Peurbach.)
Hellman, C. Doris and Noel M. Swerdlow (1978). “Peurbach (or Peuerbach), Georg.” In Dictionary of Scientific Biography, edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie. Vol. 15 (Suppl. 1), pp. 473–479. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Jervis, Jane L. (1985). Cometary Theory in Fifteenth-Century Europe. Wroclaw: Ossolineum, Polish Academy of Sciences Press. Studia Copernicana, Vol. 26, p. 86ff. (Details the 1456 observations of comet 1P/Halley by Peurbach.)
Pedersen, Olaf (1978). “The Decline and Fall of the Theorica Planetarum: Renaissance Astronomy and the Art of Printing.” In Science and History: Studies in Honor of Edward Rosen, edited by Erna Hilfstein et al., pp. 157–185. Studia Copernicana, Vol. 16, p. 161ff. Wroclaw: Ossolineum, Polish Academy of Sciences Press. (Details the role of Peurbach and Regiomontanus in the downfall of Aristotelian and Ptolemaic theory.)
Peurbach, Georg von (1472). Theoricae novae planetarum. Nuremberg. (Peurbach’s premier treatise.)
Peurbach, G. and Regiomontanus (1495). J. de Sacro-Bosco Sphaericum opusculum, contraque cremonensia in planetarum theoricas deliramenta J. de Monteregio disputationes, necnon G. Purbachii in motum planetarum theoricae. Venice. (Reprinted nine times up to 1513; commentary on Sacrobosco based on ideas of Regiomontanus and Peurbach.)
— (1496). Epytoma Joanis De Monte regio In almagestum ptolomei. Venice: Johannes Hamman. (Books I-VI were translated by Peurbach, but left to Regiomontanus to complete upon the older man’s early death.)
Schöner, J. (ed.) (1544). “Ioannis de Monteregio et Barnardi Waltheri eivs discipvli ad solem obseruationes,” and “Ioannis de Monteregio, Georgii Pevrbachii, Bernardi Waltheri, ac aliorum, Eclipsium, Cometarum, Planetarum ac Fixarum obseruationes.” In Scripta clarissimi mathematici. Nuremberg: Ioannem montanum & ulricum Neuber. (Includes observations of Peurbach.)
Steele, John M. and F. Richard Stephenson (1998). “Eclipse Observations Made by Regiomontanus and Walther.” Journal for the History of Astronomy 29: 331–344. (English translations of Peurbach’s eclipse observations.)
Zinner, Ernst (1990). Regiomontanus: His Life and Work, translated by Ezra Brown. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publications, pp. 17ff. (Includes a fair amount of information on Peurbach, particularly in his relationship with Regiomontanus.)
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Green, D.W.E. (2014). von Peurbach, Georg. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_1081
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