The Physicist and Astronomer Christopher Scheiner: Biography, Letters, Works (review)

This study begins with a biographical account of the Jesuit mathematician, Christoph Scheiner, much of it based on recent documentary discoveries. Professor Daxecker provides detailed information, often from previously unknown or unexamined sources, to reveal the basic facts of Scheiner's life. For example, various reports put Scheiner's birth in either 1573 or 1575, but the author demonstrates the likelihood of the former date based on a newly discovered obituary written at the time of Scheiner's death in 1650. Other highlights of Scheiner's biography include the extended period of time that he spent as confessor and client of the powerful Hapsburg Archdukes Leopold V and Karl II. With very few exceptions, the period beginning with Scheiner leaving his professorship at the University of Ingolstadt in 1617 and ending with his arrival at Rome in 1624 has formed a frustrating lacuna in the historical literature. However, Daxecker has uncovered an impressive collection of correspondence, much of it edited and published in 1995 by the same author, and he employs this rich collection to establish many facts relating to Scheiner's work for his Hapsburg patrons. For example, Scheiner was put in charge of building a new Jesuit church in Innsbruck. He also sought out religious relics on behalf of his patrons, and many of the letters recount his successes and difficulties in these quests. The author has also been able to clarify Scheiner's whereabouts in this seven-year period, which included an extended stay at Freiburg im Breisgau and a visit to Neisse where he founded a new Jesuit school. Daxecker details Scheiner's stay in Rome from 1624–33, where the Jesuit composed his Rosa Ursina and witnessed the events surrounding Galileo's trial before the Inquisition. Lastly, the author sheds light on Scheiner's stay at Neisse from 1637 to his death there in 1650.

The second part of this work forms one of the most impressive contributions to the literature on Scheiner because it provides a systematic overview of extant correspondence. Three categories of correspondence are covered: "Letters from Christoph Scheiner between 1600 and 1634," "Letters from Christoph Scheiner to Archduke Leopold V between 1620 and 1632," and "Letters from the Father Generals [sic] to Christoph Scheiner between 1614 and 1649." The author presents brief summaries of each of the letters to and from Scheiner that now remain in various archives. These summaries are sometimes very brief as they are generally related to the length of the original sources. For example, from a 10 November 1613 letter to Paul Guldin, SJ in Rome, the author describes simply that "Christopher Scheiner reports the twofold motion of the sunspots and a new phenomenon, the sun flares"(48). Daxecker often, however, provides much more detailed information contained in longer letters, especially if it deals with scientific matters. From a subsequent letter to Guldin, for example, the author describes Scheiner's reports of new solar observations as well as his concerns about pleasing Jesuit censors (48–50). The author illustrates the interaction that Scheiner had with often-famous contemporaries who shared similar scientific interests; this list includes Johannes Kepler, Giovanni Antonio Magini, Matthäus Rader, Paul Guldin, Galileo, Pierre Gassendi, and many others. The letters from Scheiner to his patron as well as those from the Jesuit Fathers General are particularly interesting because they express concerns that typically do not involve scientific matters. Here, the author shows how the religious and political interests of the Society of Jesus intersected in Scheiner's life.

The last major section of this work deals with the body of Scheiner's scientific work. As with the correspondence, the author provides synopses of these works, some of which are quite extensive. For example, Daxecker presents a thorough description of an unpublished manuscript containing a treatise on the telescope. Scheiner's optical works are well-represented, reflecting the author's main...