José Vizinho, (also known in English as ''Joseph Vecinho''), was a Portuguese Jew, born in the town of

Covilhã Covilhã (), officially Covilhã City (), is a city and a concelho, municipality in the Centro, Portugal, Centro region, Portugal. The city proper had 33,691 inhabitants in 2021. The municipality population in 2021 was 46,455 in an area of . It is ...

, court physician and scientist at the end of the fifteenth century. He was a pupil of

Abraham Zacuto Abraham Zacuto (, ; 12 August 1452 – ) was a Sephardic Jewish astronomer, astrologer, mathematician, rabbi and historian. Born in Castile, he served as Royal Astronomer to King John II of Portugal before fleeing to Tunis. His astrolabe of cop ...

, with whom he studied mathematics and

cosmography The term cosmography has two distinct meanings: traditionally it has been the protoscience of mapping the general features of the cosmos, heaven and Earth; more recently, it has been used to describe the ongoing effort to determine the large-sca ...

, and was regarded as an authority on the subject by King

John II of Portugal John II (; ; 3 May 1455 – 25 October 1495), called the Perfect Prince (), was King of Portugal from 1481 until his death in 1495, and also for a brief time in 1477. He is known for reestablishing the power of the Portuguese monarchy, reinvigo ...

. He was sent by the king to the

Gulf of Guinea The Gulf of Guinea (French language, French: ''Golfe de Guinée''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Golfo de Guinea''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Golfo da Guiné'') is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean from Cape Lopez i ...

in 1483, to measure the altitude of the sun, using an

astrolabe An astrolabe (; ; ) is an astronomy, astronomical list of astronomical instruments, instrument dating to ancient times. It serves as a star chart and Model#Physical model, physical model of the visible celestial sphere, half-dome of the sky. It ...

improved by Jacob ben Machir. This was one of several voyages that resulted in the production of detailed maps of areas of the eastern Atlantic that had been unknown to Europeans until then. In 1484,

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

presented his plans to the king for a western route to the Indies, which was evaluated by a committee of experts headed by

Martin Behaim Martin Behaim (6 October 1459 – 29 July 1507), also known as and by various forms of , was a German textile merchant and cartographer. He served John II of Portugal as an adviser in matters of navigation and participated in a voyage to Wes ...

and "Mestre José", as José Vizinho was called, and also including the

Bishop of Ceuta The Catholic diocese of Ceuta, first Portuguese and afterwards Spanish, existed from 1417 to 1879. It was a suffragan of the Patriarchate of Lisbon until 1675, with the end of the Iberian Union, when Ceuta chose to remain linked to the king of Spa ...

, the court physician Rodrigo, and a Jewish mathematician named Moisés. The Committee finally decided against Columbus' plans to sail west across the Atlantic to the Indies, correctly judging that Columbus had seriously underestimated the size of the world. When the matter came up before the council of state, Pedro de Menezes opposed them also, basing his arguments on José Vizinho's criticisms. Although Vizinho had not favored Columbus' plan, Columbus interacted with him, and obtained a translation of Zacuto's astronomical tables from him. Columbus carried this translation with him on his voyage, and found it extremely useful; it was found in his library after his death. José Vizinho's translation of Zacuto's tables was published by the Jewish printer

Samuel d'Ortas Samuel is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition from Saul to David. He is venerated a ...

Leiria Leiria () is a city and municipality in the Central Region, Portugal, Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, after Coimbra, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat o ...

under the title "Almanach Perpetuum," 1496.

References

Further reading