Ludwik Antoni Birkenmajer (18 May 1855 - 20 November 1929), Polish historian of science, physicist, astronomer, professor of the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

Biography

Descended from the German family settled in Galicia (Southern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

) during the time of the Napoleon wars, later a part of the Austrian

Habsburg Empire The Habsburg monarchy, also known as Habsburg Empire, or Habsburg Realm (), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities (composite monarchy) that were ruled by the House of Habsburg. From the 18th century it is ...

. He was the son of Józef Herman and Petronela

de domo The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Stefanowski. Educated in the

Franz Joseph Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I ( ; ; 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the ruler of the Grand title of the emperor of Austria, other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 1848 until his death ...

High School (so called Gymnasium at that time) in

Lvov Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

(1865–1873), than studied physics, chemistry and mathematics at the

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

University till 1878. Supplementary studies in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

(1879–1880). In 1879 he defended his Ph. D. thesis in

based on the study: ''On general methods of integration of the algebraic and

transcendental function In mathematics, a transcendental function is an analytic function that does not satisfy a polynomial equation whose coefficients are functions of the independent variable that can be written using only the basic operations of addition, subtraction ...

s'' (in Polish: ''O ogólnych metodach całkowania funkcyj algebraicznych i przestępnych''). Since 1878 for nearly two decades was a teacher of mathematics and physics in the renowned agricultural school in Czernichów near

. In 1897 he started his academic career at the

, where he continued to work till the end of his life. At the beginning he was an extraordinary professor, than - since 1919 – he became an ordinary professor and lecturer of the history of mathematics, physics, astronomy and physical geography, simultaneously being a Chair of the History of

Exact Science The exact sciences or quantitative sciences, sometimes called the exact mathematical sciences, are those sciences "which admit of absolute precision in their results"; especially the mathematical sciences. Examples of the exact sciences are ma ...

s. In 1893 he was elected the correspondent member of Kraków Academy of Sciences and Letters, and in 1927 became its regular member. He was one of the organizers of the Library Commission of the Academy (1901). In 1910-1913 he held the post of the secretary of its Commission for the History of Mathematical and Natural Sciences. Since 1918 the Academy was renamed into the Polish Academy of Sciences and Letters. Birkenmajer was also the member of Scientific Society in

Toruń Toruń is a city on the Vistula River in north-central Poland and a World Heritage Sites of Poland, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its population was 196,935 as of December 2021. Previously, it was the capital of the Toruń Voivodeship (1975–199 ...

(Thorn) and of the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

. In 1923 took significant part in the jubilee celebration of the 450 anniversary of the

Copernicus Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath who formulated a mathematical model, model of Celestial spheres#Renaissance, the universe that placed heliocentrism, the Sun rather than Earth at its cen ...

birth with the series of lectures presented in

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

and

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

Scientific output

He analyzed the Copernicus main work ''

De revolutionibus orbium coelestium ''De revolutionibus orbium coelestium'' (English translation: ''On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres'') is the seminal work on the heliocentric theory of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) of the Polish Renaissance. The book ...

'', and came to the conclusion that the

Heliocentric Theory Heliocentrism (also known as the heliocentric model) is a superseded astronomical model in which the Earth and planets orbit around the Sun at the center of the universe. Historically, heliocentrism was opposed to geocentrism, which placed th ...

was created by Copernicus before he became acquainted with the

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

Almagest The ''Almagest'' ( ) is a 2nd-century Greek mathematics, mathematical and Greek astronomy, astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths, written by Ptolemy, Claudius Ptolemy ( ) in Koine Greek. One of the most i ...

''. He also elaborated the biographical materials and records of the Copernicus life till 1500, as well discovered - an unknown earlier - letter of the astronomer to the king

Sigismund I the Old Sigismund I the Old (, ; 1 January 1467 – 1 April 1548) was List of Polish monarchs, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1506 until his death in 1548. Sigismund I was a member of the Jagiellonian dynasty, the son of Casimir IV of P ...

concerning the

Teutonic Order The Teutonic Order is a religious order (Catholic), Catholic religious institution founded as a military order (religious society), military society in Acre, Israel, Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Sa ...

. He also studied scientific output of Marcin Bylica of Olkusz, and prepared the history of

geodesy Geodesy or geodetics is the science of measuring and representing the Figure of the Earth, geometry, Gravity of Earth, gravity, and Earth's rotation, spatial orientation of the Earth in Relative change, temporally varying Three-dimensional spac ...

and

gravimetry Gravimetry is the measurement of the strength of a gravitational field. Gravimetry may be used when either the magnitude of a gravitational field or the properties of matter responsible for its creation are of interest. The study of gravity c ...

. Prepared the scientific edition of

Tito Livio Burattini Tito Livio Burattini (, 8 March 1617 – 17 November 1681) was an inventor, architect, Egyptologist, scientist, instrument-maker, traveller, engineer, and nobleman, who spent his working life in Poland and Lithuania. He was born in Agordo, Ita ...

''Misura universale'' (1897), the ''Practical geometry'' of Marcin Król (1895), as well as the ''Commentariolum super theoreticas planetarum'' of Albert of Brudzewo (1900). Moreover in his academic interests he studied

theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental p ...

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

algebraic functions In mathematics, an algebraic function is a function that can be defined as the root of an irreducible polynomial equation. Algebraic functions are often algebraic expressions using a finite number of terms, involving only the algebraic operatio ...

and

geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and Physical property, properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct i ...

. In 1883 he won the prize of the Kraków Academy in

geometry Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

for solving what would (17 years) later be known as

Hilbert's third problem The third of Hilbert's problems, Hilbert's list of mathematical problems, presented in 1900, was the first to be solved. The problem is related to the following question: given any two polyhedron, polyhedra of equal volume, is it always possible t ...

, and later received Swedish Order of the Polar-Star, and Polish Commander Cross of the Republic of Poland (1924).

Birkenmajer family

Ludwik was the founder of the renown Polish family of scholars. He was married Zofia (Sophie), the daughter of Franciszek Karliński, the professor of astronomy in the

, and inherited his library embracing mostly the books on mathematics and physics. They had three sons: Aleksander Ludwik (historian of culture and exact sciences, and bibliologist), Józef (poet, interpreter and literature historian), and Wincenty (Polish philologist, teacher and renown Tatra Mountains-climber). His grandson is Krzysztof Birkenmajer (professor of geology, member of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...

). In 2011 the

Institute for the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences The Institute for the History of Science was established in 1954 as an institution of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Poland. Overview The Institute is located in the Staszic Palace in the center of Warsaw, near the Copernicus monument. Among i ...

received the name of father and son: Ludwik & Aleksander Birkenmajer.

Selected works

· ''O rozszerzalności ciał'' (1876) · ''O całkowaniu algebraicznem funkcyj algebraicznych'' (1879) · ''O przezroczystości powietrza'' (1879) · ''O kształcie i grawitacyi sferoidu ziemskiego'' (1885) · ''Tables des syzygies, calculées à Cracovie pour l'an 1379 et 1380 : contribution à l'histoire de l'astronomie en Pologne du XIVe siècle'' (1890) · ''Marcin Bylica z Olkusza oraz instrumenta astronomiczne, legowane przez niego Uniwersytetowi Jagiellońskiemu w roku 1493'' (1892–1893) · ''Mikołaj Kopernik. Studya nad pracami Kopernika oraz materyały biograficzne'' (1900) · ''Marco Beneventano, Kopernik, Wapowski a najstarsza karta geograficzna Polski'' (1901) · ''Nicolas Copernic'' (1902) · ''Niccolò Copernico e l'Università di Padova'' (1922) · ''Mikołaj Kopernik jako uczony, twórca i obywatel'' (1923) · ''Stromata Copernicana'' (1924) · ''Mikołaj Wodka z Kwidzyna, zwany Abstemius'' (1926) · ''Nicolaus Copernicus und der Deutsche Ritterorden'' (1937)

Source editions

, ''Misura universale'' (1897) ·

Giovanni Bianchini Giovanni Bianchini (in Latin, Johannes Blanchinus) (1410 – c. 1469) was a professor of mathematics and astronomy at the University of Ferrara and court astrologer of Leonello d'Este. He was an associate of Georg Purbach and Regiomontanus. ...

, ''Flores Almagesti : ein angeblich verloren gegangener Traktat Giovanni Bianchini's, Mathematikers und Astronomen von Ferrara aus dem XV. Jahrhundert'' (1911) · Barthélemy Berp de Valentia, ''De diebus naturalibus earumque aequatione'' (1912) · Marcin Biem, ''Martini Biem de Olkusz Poloni nova calendarii Romani reformatio: opusculum ad requisitionem V-ti Concilii Lateranensis A. D. 1516 compositum'' (1918) · Mikołaj Kopernik, ''Wybór pism w przekładzie polskim'' (1920) · Mikołaj Kopernik, ''O obrotach ciał niebieskich i inne pisma'' (2004)

References

External links

Polski słownik filozoficzny, Towarzystwo Tomasza z Akwinu

Ludwik & Aleksander Birkenmajer Institute for the History of Science Polish Academy of Sciences
{{DEFAULTSORT:Birkenmajer, Ludwik 1855 births 1929 deaths Jagiellonian University alumni University of Vienna alumni Polish schoolteachers 19th-century Polish astronomers 20th-century Polish historians Polish male non-fiction writers Academic staff of Jagiellonian University 20th-century Polish astronomers 19th-century Polish historians Historians from Austria-Hungary Astronomers from Austria-Hungary