Placidus Fixlmillner (May 28, 1721 – August 27, 1791) was a

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

and priest, and was one of the first astronomers to compute the orbit of

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is a gaseous cyan-coloured ice giant. Most of the planet is made of water, ammonia, and methane in a Supercritical fluid, supercritical phase of matter, which astronomy calls "ice" or Volatile ( ...

Biography

Born in the village of Achleuthen Schloss Achleiten bei Limbach (de) near

Kremsmünster Kremsmünster is a town in Kirchdorf an der Krems District, in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Settled in 777, it is home to the Kremsmünster Abbey. The Abbey was founded 777 by Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria and is one of the oldest abbeys ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, Fixlmillner was educated in

Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

, where he displayed an aptitude in mathematics. At the age of 16, he joined the

monks of

Kremsmünster Abbey Kremsmünster Abbey () is a Benedictine monastery located in Kremsmünster, Upper Austria. History Founded in 777 AD by Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria, Kremsmünster Abbey is steeped in legend. It is said that Tassilo established the abbey on t ...

, where his uncle was the

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

. In 1756, he published a small non-astronomical treatise entitled , which was interrupted in 1761 when he returned to studying the

transit of Venus A transit of Venus takes place when Venus passes directly between the Sun and the Earth (or any other superior planet), becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a transit, Venus is visible as ...

. He was appointed director of an observatory at the abbey, which had been established by his uncle. He continued in charge of the observatory until his death. Outside astronomy, he was in charge of the college connected with the abbey and acted as professor of

canon law Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...

. He was honoured by the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

with the office of Notary Apostolic of the Roman Court. He was one of the first to compute the orbit of Uranus after its discovery by Herschel. His numerous observations of Mercury were of much service to Lalande in constructing tables of that planet. Besides the treatise already mentioned he was the author of (Steyer, 1765), which treats of his observations in connexion with the latitude and longitude of his observatory, and (Steyer, 1776). After his death, his successor, Thaddäus Derflinger, published the (Steyer, 1791), which contain his observations from 1776 to 1791. He died at Kremsmünster on 27 August 1791.

References

* 1721 births 1791 deaths 18th-century Austrian Roman Catholic priests Austrian Benedictines Benedictine scholars Catholic clergy scientists 18th-century Austrian astronomers 18th-century astronomers from the Holy Roman Empire People from Amstetten District People from Kirchdorf an der Krems District {{Europe-astronomer-stub

Biography

See also

References