Abstract
Poniatowski’s Bull (Fig. 25.1) was introduced by Marcin Odlanicki Poczobut (1728–1810), a Jesuit astronomer educated at Vilnius University (then in Poland; now in Lithuania) and Charles University at Prague, with additional stints in France, Italy, and Germany from 1754 to 1764. For a time he was based at Marseille Observatory, studying under the French Jesuit astronomer Esprit Pézenas (1692–1776); it was this experience that inspired him to pursue astronomy as a career. After completing his doctorate, he became a professor at Vilnius and director of its Observatory in 1764. Only recently established, the Observatory was fairly lacking in modern instrumentation and Poczobut went to great lengths to equip it as well as possible. Despite official suppression of the Jesuits in the 1770s, the Observatory won the patronage of the Polish king, King Stanisław II August Poniatowski; it was renamed the Royal Observatory and Poczobut became the Astronomer Royal.
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Notes
- 1.
“Contiguous to the shoulder of Ophiuchus” (Green, 1824); “The face of the animal is near the point where the solstitial colure crosses the equinoctial ” (Bouvier, 1858); “Midway between Altair in Aquila, and Ras Algethi in Hercules.” (Rosser, 1879); “Between Aquila and Ophiuchus on the borders of Hercules” (Cottam, 1891); “About fifteen minutes [of arc] east of the star γ Ophiuchi” (Olcott, 1911).
- 2.
“Thus you shall go and the stars. Well deserving of praise given by thePoniatowski, Stanisław Antoni Stanisław II Poniatowski of PolandAugust King Stanislaw, 1775.” The first sentence is probably an erroneous rendering ofVirgil (poet)Virgil’s famous line from Aeneid IX, 641, “Sic itur ad astra” (“thus you shall go to the stars”), said byApollo (Greek mythology)Apollo toAeneas (Greek mythology)Aeneas’s sonIulus (Greek mythology)Iulus.
- 3.
Poczobut, abbé de Wilna, plaça ce taureau au nobre des constellations en l’honeur de Stanislas Poniatowsky, roi de Pologne. Il est contigu à l’épaule du serpentaire en tirant vers l’orient, & situé dans la voie lactée; on le reconnoit à cinq étoiles situées a la tête de taureau, & qui auparavant apprtenoient à Ophiuchus. Ces étoiles forment un V, comme celles situées à la tête du taureau dans le zodiaque. (p. 10)
- 4.
Recorded in The Scots Magazine, Edinburgh, Vol. 53, page 291 (June 1791).
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Barentine, J.C. (2016). Taurus Poniatovii. In: The Lost Constellations. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22795-5_25
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