General Dictionary/Lansbergius, Philip

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3186039General DictionaryPierre Bayle

LANSBERGIUS (PHILIP) had a rank amongſt the Mathematicians of the ſeventeenth Century. He was born in Zealand[notes 1] in the year 1561,[notes 2] and was a Miniſter of the Goſpel at Antwerp in the year 1586, and afterwards for ſeveral years[1] at Goes in Zeland; and being afterwards diſcharged of his functions on account of his old age, he retired to Middleburg,[notes 3] where he died in the year 1632. You will find the titles of his works below.[2]

  1. Voſſius  aſſerts in page 237, that he was Miniſter at Goes thirty nine years more or leſs: but in page 341 he ſets down but twenty nine years. There is certainly an error of the preſs here; but whether it conſiſts in the omiſſion or in the addition of an x, I own I cannot tell it: It muſt be one.
  2. Chronologiæ Sacræ Libri VI. “Six books of ſacred Chronology;” printed in the year 1626. Progymnaſmata Aſtronomiæ reſtitutæ. “Eſſays on the reſtitution of Aſtronomy;” printed at Middelburg in the year 1629. Triangulorum Geometricorum Libri IV. “Four books of Geometrical triangles;” printed in the ſame City, in the year 1631. Uranometriæ Libri III. “Of meaſuring the Heavens, in three books;” printed the ſame year, and in the ſame City. Commentationes in motum terræ diurnum & anmuum, & in verum aſpectabilis cœli typum. “An account of the diurnal and annual motion of the earth, and of the true ſituation of the viſible celeſtial bodies.” In this work he declares himſelf openly for Copernicus’s opinions, and even pretends to improve it. He compoſed this work in Dutch; but it was tranſlated into Latin by Martin Hortenſius, and printed at Middelburg in the year 1630. Fromond a Doctor of Louvain refuted it in his Anti-Ariſtarchus, five orbis terræ immobilis: “A treatiſe in which it is proved that the earth ſtands ſtill.” Lanſbergius, who did not live long enough to reply to this refutation, left a ſon, who publiſhed an anſwer to Fromond, and at the ſame time to Morin, Regius Profeſſor at Paris, and to a Dane named Peter Bartholinus. This anſwer is intitled, Jacobi Lanſbergii Medicinæ Doctoris Apologia pro Commentationibus, &c. i. e. “A defence of the account &c. By James Lanſbergius, Doctor of Phyſick;” it was printed at Middelburg in the year 1635, and refuted in a new work of Fromond printed in the year 1634, and intitled Veſta or Anti-Ariſtarchi Vindex. i. e. “The earth,” or “a vindication of Ariſtarchus.” I think the controverſy ended here.
Notes
  1. Voſſius, de Scient. Mathem. pag. 341.
  2. Lanſberg, Epiſt. Dedic. Uranometriæ.
  3. Voſſius, de Scient. Mathem. pag. 341.
References
  1.   De Scient. Mathemat.