Skip to content
1882
Volume 11, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 1792-2593
  • E-ISSN: 2507-0371

Abstract

Abstract

Nicolaus Mulerius (1564-1630) was nominated in 1614 at the newly created University of Groningen as professor of Mathematics and Medical Science. His favorite topic concerned “mathematics” which, in practice, implied astronomy. In due course he published a textbook of astronomy (1616) and a new edition of Copernicus’ epochal , the third since 1543 and the first annotated version (1617). Defending Copernicus at the new University -that is: at a University meant to produce ministers for the Reformed Church and therefore bound to the word if not the letter of the Bible- required quite some diplomatic skills. So Mulerius took care to have his new edition of Copernicus prefaced by the founder of the University, Ubbo Emmius, a beacon of Calvinist orthodoxy, while inventing various ways to subtly manifest his predilection without being “unmasked”. This attitude may be called “honorable dissimulation”. There was indeed all reason to be careful since -well-paying- theology students, not only Dutch Calvinists but also Lutherans from the German lands, constituted the core of the University’s population. As a matter of fact, in sticking to the letter of the Bible the Groningen theologians did not give way to their Roman-Catholic colleagues of the Curia in Rome. Mulerius’ “honorable dissimulation” is all the more remarkable. The discovery of a unique copy of the auction sale catalog of Mulerius’ private library (1646) made it possible, in this connection, to shed a more revealing light on his astronomical stance.

© Brepols Publishers NV
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1484/J.ALMAGEST.5.123110
2020-07-01
2025-12-08

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Accetto, T. (1641), Della dissimulatione honesta. Naples: E. Londo.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Alsted, J.H. (1630), Encyclopaedia, 7 vols. Herborn in Nassau (see also online-version).
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Anonymous (1976), The Anglo-Dutch Contribution to the Civilization of Early Modern History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Apperloo-Boersma, K., Selderhuis, H.J. (eds) (2013), Power of Faith: 450 Years of the Heidelberg Catechism. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Bacon, F. (1625), Essayes or Counsels, Civill and morall. 3rd edition. London: J. Haviland. Also in: Bacon, F. (1942), Essays and New Atlantis. New York: W.J. Black.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Blaauw, A., De Boer, J.A., Dekker, E., Schuller tot Peursum-Meyer, J. (eds) (1983), A Look on Astronomy. Astronomy at the University of Groningen (in Dutch). Catalog of an exposition. Groningen: University Museum.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Black, Chr. (2009), The Italian Inquisition. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Brahe, T. (1602), Astronomiae instauratae mechanica. Hven: private edition.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Brugmans, H. (1914), “Some topics concerning the foundation of the Groningen Academy” (in Dutch), in Huizinga (ed.) 1914, 241-257.
  10. Brugmans, H., Wachter, F. (eds) (1911-1923), Briefwechsel des Ubbo Emmius. 2 vols. Aurich: A.H.F. Dunkmann.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Calvin, J. (1559), Institutiones Christianae Religionis. Geneva: R. Stephanus (also online).
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Copernicus, N. (1543). De revolutionibus. Neurenberg: J. Petreus.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Daumas, M. (1972), Scientific Instruments of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries and their Makers. Translated from the French by M. Holbrook. London: B.T. Batsford.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. De Bujanda, J.M. (1984), Index des livres interdits. Geneva: Droz.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Dekker, E. (1999), Globes at Greenwich. Oxford and Greenwich: Oxford University Press and National Maritime Museum.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Dekker, E., Van der Krogt, P. (1993), Globes from the Western world. London: Sotheby Parke Burnet.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Finocchiario, M. (1989), The Galileo Affair. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Finocchiario, M. (2010), Defending Copernicus and Galileo. Critical Reasoning in the Two Affairs. Berlin et al.: Springer.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Gilliespie, S., Hardie, Ph. (eds) (2007), The Cambridge Companion to Lucretius. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Hering, G. (1968), Ökumenisches Patriarchat und Europäische Politik 1620-1638. Wiesbaden: F. Steiner Verlag.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Hooykaas, R. (1972), Religion and the Rise of Modern Science. Edinburgh and London: Scottish Academic Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Hooykaas, R. (1976), “The Reception of Copernicanism in England and the Netherlands”, in: Anonymous 1976, 33-44.
  23. Huizinga, J. (ed.) (1914), Academia Groningana: Commemorating Book on the Occasion of the Third Centenary of the University of Groningen Published at the Request of the Academic Senate (in Dutch). Groningen: P. Noordhoff.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Huizinga, J. (1914), On the History of the University of Groningen (in Dutch), in Huizinga, J. (1951), Verzamelde werken, vol. 8. Nijmegen: G.J. Thieme, 340-350.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Jorink, E. (1997), “Between Aristotle and Copernicus: The Natural Philosophical Ideas of Nicolaus Mulerius (1564-1630)” (in Dutch), in Krop, Van Ruler, and Vanderjagt (eds) 1996, 69-83.
  26. King James Bible (1611), The Holy Bible, Contayning the Old Testament and the New [...]. London: R. Barker; see also online version.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Krop, H., Van Ruler, H., Vanderjagt, A. (eds) (1996), Zeer kundige professoren. Beoefening van de filosofie in Groningen van 1614 to 1996. Hilversum: Verloren.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Kubbinga, H. (2014), The Astronomical Instruments (1618) and Catalogus Librorum (1646) of Nicolaus Mulerius, with an Essay on his Place in the History of Science. Groningen: Groningen University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Kubbinga, H. (2020), ”Nicolaus Mulerius as Crypto-Copernican”, Periodiek (Periodical of the Groningen Faculty of Science and Engineering produced by its students’ Physical and Mathematical Society) 2020 (1): 1-5.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Lucretius (2016), De rerum natura, Editio princeps (1472-1473). Edited by M. Beretta. Bologna: Bologna University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Metze, G. (2003), Die Entwicklung des Copernicus-Porträts vom 16. Jahrhundert bis zum 18. Jahrhundert. Inaugural-Dissertation, Ludwig-Maximilan-Universität. München. Available at: <www.edoc.ub.uni-muenchen.de/6796/1/Metze_Gudula.pdf>.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Mulerius, N. (1611), Tabulae Frisicae lunae-solares quadruplices; è fontibus C. Ptolemaei, Regis Alfonsi, Nic. Copernici, & Tychonis Brahe. Alkmaar: J. de Meester.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Mulerius, N. (1616), Institutio astronomicarum libri duo. Groningen: J. Sas.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Mulerius, N. (1617), Nicolai Copernici Torinensis. Astronomia instaurata, libri sex comprehensa, qui de Revolutionibus orbium caelestium inscribuntur [...]. Amsterdam: W.J. Blaeu.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Presser, J. (1975), The Eighty-Years War (in Dutch). 5th edition. Amsterdam and Brussels: Elsevier.
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Prosperi, V. (2007), “Lucretius in the Italian Renaissance”, in Gillispie and Hardie 2007, 214-226.
  37. Redondi, P. (1985). Galilée hérétique. Translated by M. Aymard. Paris: Gallimard.
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Reusner, N. (1587), Icones sive imagines virorum literis illustrium [...]. Strasbourg: s.n.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Rogier, J.L. (1945), The History of Catholicism in the Northern-Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries (in Dutch). 2 vols. Amsterdam: Urbi and Orbi.
     [Google Scholar]
  40. Schuller tot Peursum-Meyer, J. (1983), “Astronomy before Kapteijn” (in Dutch), in Blaauw et al. 1983, 7-30.
  41. Snellius, W. (1617), Eratosthenes batavus. Leiden: J. van Colster.
     [Google Scholar]
  42. Snyder, J. (2009), Dissimulation and the Culture of Secrecy in Early Modern Europe. Los Angeles and Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  43. Sorgeloos, C. (ed.) (2001), “Un post-incunable retrouvé: l’Usus annuli astronomici de Gemma Frisius. Louvain et Anvers, 1534”, Quaerendo 31(4): 255-264.
     [Google Scholar]
  44. Tedeschi, J. (1991), The Prosecution of Heresy: Collected Studies on the Inquisition in Early Modern Italy. New York, NY: Binghamton.
     [Google Scholar]
  45. Van Berkel, K. (2014), Universiteit van het Noorden. Vier eeuwen academische leven in Groningen. Vol. 1, De oude universiteit 1614-1876 (in Dutch). Hilversum: Verloren.
     [Google Scholar]
  46. Van Cleempoel, K. (2002), A Catalogue raisonné of scientific instruments from the Louvain school 1530-1600. Turnhout: Brepols.
     [Google Scholar]
  47. Van den Vondel, J. (1631), Decretum horribile. Gruwel der verwoestinghe. Originally published anonymously. In Van den Vondel 1927-1937, 4: 346-351.
     [Google Scholar]
  48. Van den Vondel, J. (1927-1937), De werken, volledige en geïllustreerde tekstuitgave (The works, complete and illustrated edition), 10 volumes. Edited by J.F.M. Sterck, H.W.E. Möller, C.E. de Klerk, B.H. Molkenboer, J. Prinsen, and L. Simons. Amsterdam: Maatschappij voor goede en goedkoope lectuur.
     [Google Scholar]
  49. Van Deursen, A.Th. (1974), Bavians and Mudgeuzen. Church and the Faithful at the Time of Maurice of Nassau and Oldenbarnevelt (in Dutch). Assen: Van Gorcum.
     [Google Scholar]
  50. Van Hoorn, M. (2013), “Anton Stoelwinter: From Corporate Film Producer to Replica Instrument-maker”, Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 118: 2-7.
     [Google Scholar]
  51. Van Lansberge, Ph. (1629), Bedenckingen op den dagelijckschen, ende iaerlijcksen loop van den aerdt-kloot. Mitsgaders op de ware af-beeldinge des sienelijcken hemels; daer in de wonderbare wercken Godts worden ontdeckt. Middelburg: Z. Roman. In 1630 appeared a Latin translation by Martinus Hortensius, also published in Middelburg.
     [Google Scholar]
  52. Van Netten, D.H. (2006), “Restored Astronomy: The Early Edition of Copernicus’ De revolutionibus (Amsterdam, 1617) and the Role of Mulerius and Bleau”, GeWiNa 29(1): 67-80.
     [Google Scholar]
  53. Van Netten, D.H. (2010), Nicolaus Mulerius (1564-1630): A Scholar from Groningen in the Debates of his Days (in Dutch). Groningen: Barkhuis.
     [Google Scholar]
  54. Vermij, R. (2002), The Calvinist Copernicans: The Reception of the New Astronomy in the Dutch Republic 1575-1750. Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences.
     [Google Scholar]
  55. Woodhouse, J.R. (1994), “Honourable Dissimulation: Some Italian Advice for the Renaissance Diplomat”, Proceedings of the British Academy 84: 25-50.
     [Google Scholar]
  56. Zinner, E. (1956), Deutsche und niederländische astronomische Instrumente des 11.-18. Jahrhundert. Munich: Beck.
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1484/J.ALMAGEST.5.123110
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field.
Please enter a valid email address.
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An error occurred.
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error:
Please enter a valid_number test
aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYnJlcG9sc29ubGluZS5uZXQv