Alena Hadravová:
A Brief Overview of the History of Astronomy in the Czech Lands from the Middle Ages to the First Half of the 17th Century

Abstract

This work is an updated version of a paper that was supposed to be printed in a volume on the history of natural sciences a few years ago, but the volume was not published. The contribution summarizes the most important milestones in the development of astronomy from the chroniclers’ records in the 12th century through the reception and development of Alfonsine astronomy, which spread from Paris to the whole of Europe after 1320, to the teaching of astronomy at the University of Prague, founded by King Charles IV in 1348, and the astronomical codices of his son Wenceslas IV. The Prague Astronomical Clock, built in 1410, or the widely disseminated treatise on the astrolabe by Master Cristannus de Prachatice, as well as the design of an instrument for calculating eclipses by Master Jan Šindel, also deserve mention. In the period after the publication of Copernicus’ De revolutionibus, the focus is mainly on the Rudolfine period of the early 17th century, when Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler were active in Prague.

Language: czech

Keywords: history of astronomy; history of science in the Czech lands; PreCopernican period; Post-Copernican period