Born Johannesberg, (Hessen, Germany), November 1554
Died Heidelberg, (Germany), 16 June 1613
Jacob Christmann's scientific work was directed, above all, toward Arabic astronomy and chronology.
Christmann was born in Johannisberg near Mainz and subsequently educated in Neuhausen. In Heidelberg he dedicated himself principally to oriental studies and became a teacher at the Dionysianum there. When in 1579 he refused to sign the Lutheran Concordat, on account of his Calvinist beliefs, Christmann had to leave Heidelberg and went first to Basel, and then to the reformed Gelehrtenschule (classical grammar school) in Neustadt an der Haardt in the Pfaelzer Wald. Following the death of the elector, Christmann was able to return to Heidelberg in 1584, becoming professor of Hebrew language, and in 1591 professor of logic. In 1608 he became the second professor of Arabic in Europe. (The first was in 1538 in Paris.) In the year 1602 Christmann became rector of Heidelberg University. The view,...
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Selected References
Alfraganus (1590). Chronologica et astronomica elementa, translation with commentary by J. Christmann. Frankfurt am Main.
Christmann, Jacob (1582). Alphabetum arabicum cum isagoge scribendi legendique arabice. Neustadt.
——— (1593). Epistola. chronologica ad clarissimum virum Iustum Lipsium. Frankfurt am Main.
——— (1593). Disputatio de anno, mense, et die passionis dominicae. Frankfurt am Main.
——— (1595). Tractatio geometrica, de quadratura circuli. Frankfurt.
——— (1601). Observationum solarium libri tres. Basel.
——— (1611). Theoria Lunae ex novis hypothesibus et observationibus demonstrata. Heidelberg.
——— (1612). Nocus Gordius ex doctrina sinuum explicatus. Acc. appendix observationum, quae per radium artificiosum habitae sunt circa Saturnum, Iovem et lucidiores stellas affixas. Heidelberg.
Copernicus, Nicolaus (1974). De revolutionibus: Faksimile des Manuskriptes. Nicolaus Copernicus Gesamtausgabe. Vol. 1. Hildesheim: Gerstenberg, 1974.
Isaac Argyricus (circa 1612). Computus Graecorum de solennitate Paschatis celebranda, translation with commentary by J. Christmann. Heidelberg.
Ludendorff, Hans (1921). “Über die erste Verbindung des Fernrohres mit astronomischen Meβinstrumenten.” Astronomische Nachrichten 213: 385–390.
Riekher, Rolf (1990). Fernrohre und ihre Meister. 2nd ed. Berlin, p. 78.
Uri ben Simeon (Ori, Rabbi) (1594). Calendarium Palaestinorum et universorum iudaeorum ad annos quadraginta supputatum, translation with commentary by J. Christmann. Frankfurt am Main.
Zinner, Ernst (1956). Deutsche und niederländische astronomische Instrumente des 11.–18. Jahrhunderts. Munich: Beck, p. 280.
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Translated by: Peter Nockolds
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Hamel, J. (2007). Christmann, Jacob. In: Hockey, T., et al. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30400-7_280
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