Recent searches
Search options
Astronomer Georg Busch on the great comet of 1577:
“…the comet was composed of a sort of obnoxious gas generated by human sin, which floated heavenward until ignited by the wrath of God. As it burned the comet became a prolific celestial polluter, showering its effluence widely over Earth and thereby causing pestilence, Frenchmen, sudden death, bad weather…”
I got this from an interesting blog article by @rmathematicus:
https://thonyc.wordpress.com/2019/02/27/the-emergence-of-modern-astronomy-a-complex-mosaic-part-v/
@swym @johncarlosbaez @rmathematicus They erupt from the ground in marshy areas during the full moon, don't you know? Oh wait no that's Tom Bombadil, my bad.
I think the Georg Busch is my all time favourite history of astronomy quote
@johncarlosbaez @rmathematicus It's the skyline of my hometown. 
![historical print
Komet über Nürnberg im November 1577
Entwurf: Georg d.Ä. Mack
Ausführung: Georg d.Ä. Mack
[Bilddatenbank: Mack, Georg d.Ä.. DB Spezial: Deutsche Einblattholzschnitte, S. 2228]](https://morphnet.de/system/media_attachments/files/113/888/667/825/082/309/original/373f87fcf8b91dee.jpg "historical print
Komet über Nürnberg im November 1577
Entwurf: Georg d.Ä. Mack
Ausführung: Georg d.Ä. Mack
[Bilddatenbank: Mack, Georg d.Ä.. DB Spezial: Deutsche Einblattholzschnitte, S. 2228]")
@morph @johncarlosbaez I live just outside Erlangen
@rmathematicus Hey neighbour! 
@morph @rmathematicus - I spent half a year in Erlangen but I didn't recognize that skyline. 
@johncarlosbaez It's Nuremberg. A little bit changed since that time around the towers. 
@rmathematicus
@johncarlosbaez when were you in Erlangen John?
@rmathematicus @morph - My wife went to the Internationales Kolleg für Geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung in Erlangen in 2014, and I trailed along.
Now I *do* remember that this skyline reminds me a bit of Nuremberg.
@johncarlosbaez What’s your wife’s name? I was active in the IKGF from 2014 till it closed in 2022, our paths might have crossed
@rmathematicus - oh wow! Her name is Lisa Raphals and she was involved in the IKGF's project on fate. I hadn't known the IKGF closed down - why did that happen? Anyway, its website lives on and she's on it, here:
It's really too bad that I didn't meet you in 2014, or maybe met you and don't remember. I worked in Lisa's office a lot.
@johncarlosbaez It was originally a five year research project which got extended twice. It has been superseded by a new research project called CAS_E
@rmathematicus - Now that you mention it, I think Lisa said the new project is run solely by medievalists, while before it was a mix of classicists and medievalists. Since she's in classics, this was a bad thing.
(I though the IKGF was the building, not the project.)
@johncarlosbaez The new project is anthropology with lots of rather weird research projects
@johncarlosbaez In 2014 I was still very much lurking on the fringes. I was never officially part of it but I ended up holding a lecture there in 2019. I became good friends with Michael Lackner the director and am now good friends with his successor Andrea Bréard. I still work with/for Petra Schmidl who was also a fellow there
https://www.ikgf.uni-erlangen.de/people/index.shtml/petra-g.-schmidl.shtml
@rmathematicus - nice! Lisa is also friends with Michael Lackner. I'll tell her about this.
@johncarlosbaez How I discovered the IKGF in January 2014
@johncarlosbaez @rmathematicus As a french man, I can confirm.
@johncarlosbaez @rmathematicus
I've got a bad bout of Frenchmen.
@johncarlosbaez @rmathematicus The witch hunt.
@johncarlosbaez @rmathematicus Also greetings from Nuremberg. The building with the big roof seen between the two towers on the left is a youth hostel nowadays, probably one of the most interesting youth hostels in Germany!
@FMarquardtGroup - greetings! What makes this youth hostel interesting? (Or if you tell me it's name, I'll have fun looking it up.)
@johncarlosbaez @rmathematicus It is part of the famous Nuremberg castle and has this medieval type interior.
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Nürnberg-jh.jpg
@johncarlosbaez @rmathematicus When humans don't know what's causing something, they explain it in terms of something they do know. Busch clearly didn't know what was causing Frenchmen.
@anne_twain @rmathematicus - what *does* cause them? Frenchwomen?