Franz Xaver Kugler (27 November 1862 – 25 January 1929) was a German

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

Assyriologist Assyriology (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ''Assyriā''; and , ''-logy, -logia''), also known as Cuneiform studies or Ancient Near East studies, is the archaeological, anthropological, historical, and linguistic study of the cultures that used cune ...

, and

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

.. Kugler was born in Königsbach, Palatinate, then part of the

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria ( ; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1806 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German Empire in 1871, the kingd ...

. He earned a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1885, and the following year he entered the Jesuits. By 1893 he had been ordained as a priest. Four years later at the age of 35, he became a professor of mathematics at Ignatius-College in Valkenburg in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. He is most noted for his studies of

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

tablets and

Babylonia Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...

n astronomy. He worked out the Babylonian theories on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

and

planet A planet is a large, Hydrostatic equilibrium, rounded Astronomical object, astronomical body that is generally required to be in orbit around a star, stellar remnant, or brown dwarf, and is not one itself. The Solar System has eight planets b ...

s, which were published in 1907. However his full work on Babylonian astronomy was never completed, with only three volumes out of a planned five published. He died in

Lucerne Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Bibliography

''Die Babylonische Mondrechnung''
Freiburg im Breisgau:

Herder A herder is a pastoralism, pastoral worker responsible for the care and management of a herd or flock of domestic animals, usually on extensive management, open pasture. It is particularly associated with nomadic pastoralism, nomadic or transhuma ...

, (1900). * ''Die Sternenfahrt des Gilgamesch: Kosmologische Würdigung des babylonischen Nationalepos.'' (1904). * ''Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel''. Münster in Westfalien: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchandlung, (1907). 2 Vols. *
Volume 1
*
Volume 2 part 1
*
Volume 2, part 2.1
*
Volume 2, part 2.2
*
Supplement 1
*
Supplement 2 pt. 1-8
*
Supplement 2 pt. 9-14

''Darlegungen und Thesen über altbabylonische Chronologie''
Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete, 22 (1909), pp. 63–78 (*).
''GUR, masihu sa sattuk, KA''
Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete, 23 (1909), pp. 267–273
''Im Bannkreis Babels: panbabylonistische Konstruktionen und religionsgeschichtliche Tatsachen''
Münster: Aschendorff (1910). * ''Zwei Kassitenkönige der Liste A'', Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete, 24 (1910), 173–178. * ''Chronologisches und Soziales aus der Zeit Lugalanda’s und Urukagina’s'', Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete, 25 (1911), 275–280. * ''Contribution à la météorologie babylonienne'', Revue d’assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale, 8 (1911), 107–130. * ''Bemerkungen zur neuesten Königsliste'', Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete, 27 (1912), 242–245.
''Von Moses bis Paulus: Forschungen zur Geschichte Israels''
Münster: Aschendorff, (1922).
''Sibyllinischer Sternkampf und Phaëthon in naturgeschichtlicher Beleuchtung''
Münster in Westfalen : Aschendorff (1927).

Honors

* The crater Kugler on the

is named after him.. P. 157: ", F. X. (1862–1929), German Jesuit; deciphering of the Babylonian tablets on planetary motions; Babylonian chronology. (M) (53S, 104E)"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kugler, Franz Xaver 1862 births 1929 deaths 19th-century German Jesuits 19th-century German chemists 19th-century German mathematicians 20th-century German mathematicians German historians of science German Assyriologists People from the Palatinate (region) People from Neustadt an der Weinstraße German expatriates in the Netherlands 19th-century German writers 19th-century German male writers Jesuit scientists German male non-fiction writers

Bibliography

Honors

See also

References