Simon Marius and His Research

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

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2. The World of Jupiter, English Translation of Mundus Iovialis

   • Arthur Octavius Prickard, Albert Van Helden

   Pages 1-53

3. Concerning the Biography of Simon Marius (1573–1624)

   • Hans Gaab

   Pages 55-138

4. Hans Philip Fuchs von Bimbach (ca. 1567–1626), Patron of Simon Marius

   • Wolfgang R. Dick

   Pages 139-177

5. Georg Caesius as Official Court Astronomer of the Margrave Georg Friedrich of Brandenburg-Ansbach

   • Dieter Kempkens

   Pages 179-189

6. Simon Marius’s Mundus Iovialis and the Discovery of the Moons of Jupiter

   • Jay M. Pasachoff

   Pages 191-203

7. Simon Marius’s Reports on the Comets of 1596 and 1618, in the Context of the Comet Research of His Times

   • Jürgen Hamel

   Pages 205-221

8. Sunspot Observations by Simon Marius

   • Dagmar L. Neuhäuser, Ralph Neuhäuser

   Pages 223-238

9. An Astronomer Too Excellent: Simon Marius, the Telescope, and the Problem of the Stars During the Copernican Revolution

   • Christopher M. Graney

   Pages 239-247

10. In the Turmoil of the Early Seventeenth-Century Cosmology Debate: Simon Marius as a Supporter of the Tychonic System

    • Pierre Leich

    Pages 249-271

11. Simon Marius as a Calendar Writer

    • Klaus Matthäus

    Pages 273-320

12. Simon Marius as a Tychonic Calendar Maker

    • Richard L. Kremer

    Pages 321-362

13. Simon Marius: Tabulae Directionum Novae—A First Approach

    • Thony Christie

    Pages 363-369

14. Translating the Mundus Iovialis into German

    • Joachim Schlör

    Pages 371-385

15. Prickard’s English Translation of Mundus Iovialis, Completed

    • Albert Van Helden

    Pages 387-388

16. Priority, Reception, and Rehabilitation of Simon Marius: From the Accusation of Plagiarism to the Marius-Portal as His Virtual Collected Works

    • Pierre Leich

    Pages 389-412

17. A Word of Caution About the “Rehabilitation” of Simon Marius

    • Albert Van Helden, Huib Zuidervaart

    Pages 413-416

18. The Marius Portal: Simon Marius as Digital Human in the Twenty-First Century

    • Norman Anja Schmidt, Pierre Leich

    Pages 417-436

19. The Franconian Asteroid 7984 Marius

    • Thomas Müller

    Pages 437-447

20. Planet Model 1: 50 Billion

    • Rudolf Pausenberger

    Pages 449-454

The margravial court astronomer Simon Marius, was involved in all of the new observations made with the recently invented telescope in the early part of the seventeenth century. He also discovered the Moons of Jupiter in January 1610, but lost the priority dispute with Galileo Galilei, because he missed to publish his findings in a timely manner.

The history of astronomy neglected Marius for a long time, finding only the apologists for the Copernican system worthy of attention. In contrast the papers presented on the occasion of the Simon Marius Anniversary Conference 2014, and collected in this volume, demonstrate that it is just this struggle to find the correct astronomical system that makes him particularly interesting. His research into comets, sunspots, the Moons of Jupiter and the phases of Venus led him to abandon the Ptolemaic system and adopt the Tychonic one. He could not take the final step to heliocentricity but his rejection was based on empirical arguments of his time.


This volume presents a translation of the main work of Marius and shows the current state of historical research on Marius.

• Simon Marius
• Moons of Jupiter
• Sunspots
• Comets
• Tychonic System
• Calendar Maker
• Mundus Iovialis
• Fuchs von Bimbach
• Copernican Revolution
• Astronomical system
• Observations of Jovian moons

“Marius’ major works are reproduced in full. It is rewarding, thorough, academic, comprehensive, and well-illustrated. It is just the sort of major work that will grace the shelves of an astronomy library for many decades to come.” (David W. Hughes, The Observatory, Vol. 39 (1273), December, 2019)

• Simon Marius Society, Fürth, Germany

  Hans Gaab

• Simon Marius Society, Nürnberg, Germany

  Pierre Leich

About the Editors: 

Dr. Hans Gaab, born 1956 in Ansbach, is a teacher for mathematics and physics at the Labenwolf-Gymnasium in Nuremberg and lives with his wife in Fuerth. From 1986–1989 he worked as a math’s teacher for the Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst DED (German Development Service) in the capital of Tanzania, Dodoma. Since many years he has been studying local history of astronomy and published numerous articles. In 2006 he was awarded the Silver Medal “Bene Merenti de Astronomia Norimbergensi” from the Nuremberg Astronomical Society. In 2010 he gained his doctorate for a thesis about Abdias Trew (1597–1669). It was published as volume 42 of the Acta Historica Astronomiae. In 2015 he published an extensive work about Albrecht Duerer’s star charts. From 2015 to 2017 he was Vice President of the Simon Marius Society.

Pierre Leich, born 1960, is a freelancer in science communication and the history of astronomy. For 10 years he was chairman of the art fair ART Nuremberg, edited an art magazine for 6 years and for 4 years he was managing director of Theatresports World Championship to FIFA WM 2006. Since 2003 Leich has been project manager of the Long Night of Sciences in Nuremberg / Fuerth / Erlangen and for the Science Day of the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region. Leich is honorary second chairman of the Cauchy-Forum-Nuremberg, curator of the Society of Astronomy Nuremberg, member of the advisory board of the Nicolaus-Copernicus-Planetarium Nuremberg and member of the Science Forum of the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region. In the “International Year of Astronomy 2009” he was branch manager for Northern Bavaria. Sind 2014 he has been editor of the Marius-Portal and President of the Simon Marius Society.

Policies and ethics