Jean-Baptiste Morin (nonfiction)
Jean-Baptiste Morin (February 23, 1583 – November 6, 1656), also known by the Latinized name as Morinus, was a French mathematician, astrologer, and astronomer.
Born in Villefranche-sur-Saône, in the Beaujolais, he began studying philosophy at Aix-en-Provence at the age of 16. He studied medicine at Avignon in 1611 and received his medical degree two years later. He was employed by the Bishop of Boulogne from 1613 to 1621 and was sent to Germany and Hungary during this time. He served the bishop as an astrologer and also visited mines and studied metals. He subsequently worked for the Duke of Luxembourg until 1629.
Morin published a defense of Aristotle in 1624. He also worked in the field of optics, and continued to study in astrology.
He worked with Pierre Gassendi on observational astronomy.
In 1630, Morin was appointed professor of mathematics at the Collège Royal, a post he held until his death.
A firm believer of the idea that the Earth remained fixed in space, Morin is best known for being an opponent of Galileo and the latter's ideas. He continued his attacks after the Trial of Galileo. Morin seems to have been a rather contentious figure, as he also attacked Descartes' ideas after meeting the philosopher in 1638. These disputes isolated Morin from the scientific community at large.
Morin attempted to solve the longitude problem. In 1634, he proposed his solution, based on measuring absolute time by the position of the Moon relative to the stars. His method was a variation of the lunar distance method first put forward by Johann Werner in 1514. Morin added some improvements to this method, such as better scientific instruments and taking lunar parallax into account. In 1645, Cardinal Mazarin awarded Morin a pension of 2,000 livres for his work on the longitude problem.
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External links:
- Jean-Baptiste Morin (mathematician) @ Wikipedia