Gaspar Schott ( German: ''Kaspar'' (or ''Caspar'') ''Schott'';

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

: ''Gaspar Schottus''; 5 February 1608 – 22 May 1666) was a German

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 ...

and

scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...

, specializing in the fields of

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and

natural philosophy Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe, while ignoring any supernatural influence. It was dominant before the develop ...

, and known for his industry.

Biography

He was born at Bad Königshofen im Grabfeld. It is probable, but not certain, that his early education was at the Jesuit College at Würzburg. In any case, at the age of 19 he joined the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

, entering the novitiate at Trier on 30 October 1627. After two years of novitiate training, he matriculated at the University of Würzburg on 6 November 1629 to begin a three-year study of Philosophy, following the normal academic path prescribed for Jesuit seminarians. Owing to the Swedish invasion of Würzburg in October 1631, the Jesuit community fled the city. Schott went, first to the Jesuit seminary of Tournai in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, and subsequently, in 1633, to Caltagirone in Sicily, where he continued his study of Theology. After two years at Caltagirone, he was transferred to

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

for his final year study of Theology after which, in 1637, he was ordained a priest. For the next fifteen years he held a range of teaching and pastoral positions in various Jesuit colleges in Sicily. In 1652, following correspondence with his old mathematics teacher at Würzburg, Athanasius Kircher, now an internationally acclaimed scholar at the

Collegio Romano The Roman College (, ) was a school established by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1551, just 11 years after he founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). It quickly grew to include classes from elementary school through university level and moved to seve ...

, Schott was transferred to the Collegio to work as Kircher's assistant. He was to spend the next two and a half years assisting Kircher, but also assembling material of his own for which he would later seek a publisher. In 1655 Schott returned to Germany, first to Mainz, and later the same year to

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is, after Nuremberg and Fürth, the Franconia#Towns and cities, third-largest city in Franconia located in the north of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. It sp ...

where he was to remain until his death. His return to Germany appears to have been partly motivated by the desire of his Jesuit superiors to mollify the Archbishop-Elector of Mainz, Johann von Schönborn, with whom relations had been strained.

Works

Schott was the author of numerous works from the fields of mathematics, physics, and magic. However, those works were mostly compilations of reports, articles or books he read and his own repeated experiments; he did little, if any, original research. Schott is most widely known for his works on hydraulic and mechanical instruments. His treatise on "chronometric marvels" is the first work describing a

universal joint A universal joint (also called a universal coupling or U-joint) is a joint or coupling connecting rigid shafts whose axes are inclined to each other. It is commonly used in shafts that transmit rotary motion. It consists of a pair of hinges ...

and providing the classification of gear teeth. Among his most famous works is the book ''Magia universalis naturæ et artis'' (4 vols., Würtzburg, 1657–1659), filled with many mathematical problems and physical experiments, mostly from the areas of

optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of optical instruments, instruments that use or Photodetector, detect it. Optics usually describes t ...

and

acoustics Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...

. His ''Mechanica hydraulica-pneumatica'' (Würtzburg, 1657) contains the first description of von Guericke's air pump. He also published ''

Pantometrum Kircherianum ''Pantometrum Kircherianum'' is a 1660 work by the Jesuit scholars Gaspar Schott and Athanasius Kircher. It was dedicated to Christian Louis I, Duke of Mecklenburg and printed in Würzburg by Johann Gottfried Schönwetter. It was a descripti ...

'' (Würtzburg, 1660); ''Physica curiosa'' (Würtzburg, 1662), a supplement to the ''Magia universalis''; ''Anatomia physico-hydrostatica fontium et fluminum'' (Würtzburg, 1663), '' Technica Curiosa'' (1664), "Organum Mathematicum" (1668) and several editions of a ''Cursus mathematicus.'' He was also the editor of the ''Itinerarium extaticum'' of

Athanasius Kircher Athanasius Kircher (2 May 1602 – 27 November 1680) was a German Society of Jesus, Jesuit scholar and polymath who published around 40 major works of comparative religion, geology, and medicine. Kircher has been compared to fellow Jes ...

and the ''Amussis Ferdinandea'' of Albert Curtz. * * * * *

In fiction

Gaspar Schott served as an inspiration for the creation of Gaspar Wanderdrossel, one of the main characters of

Umberto Eco Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian Medieval studies, medievalist, philosopher, Semiotics, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular ...

's novel '' The Island of the Day Before''.

Linda Hall Library The Linda Hall Library is a privately endowed American library of science, engineering and technology located in Kansas City, Missouri, on the grounds of a urban arboretum. It claims to be the "largest independently funded public library of sc ...

* Gaspar Schott (1658
''Magia universalis naturae et artis''
- digital facsimile from the

A selection of high-resolution scans from books by Gaspar Schott
-

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schott, Gaspar 1608 births 1666 deaths 17th-century German scientists 17th-century physicists 17th-century German mathematicians 17th-century German Jesuits 17th-century German philosophers German optical physicists University of Palermo alumni Jesuit scientists People from Bad Königshofen Natural philosophers

Biography

Works

In fiction

See also

External links