Speaker
Description
Peter Apian was a German humanist, known for his works in mathematics, astronomy and cartography. His books were extremely influential in his time, with the numerous editions in multiple languages being published until 1609.One of the most important astronomical discoveries of Apian resulted from his observations of comets. Apian realized that the comet's tail always points away from the sun, and he was the first to publish drawings of the direction of the comet's tail. Apian’s most important work is the Astronomicum Caesareum from 1540, which he dedicated to Emperor Charles V and his brother King Ferdinand I. Its special feature is the 36 full-page woodcuts, 21 of which are provided with rotating paper discs, so-called volvelles. They reproduce the Ptolemaic system and serve as calculating discs that make it possible to determine the position of the planets.