Celio Calcagnini (

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

, 17 September 1479 – Ferrara, 24 April 1541), also known as Caelius Calcagninus, was an Italian humanist and scientist from

. His learning as displayed in his collected works is very broad. He had a wide experience: as soldier, academic, diplomat and in the chancery of

Ippolito d'Este Ippolito (I) d'Este ( hu, Estei Hippolit; 20 March 1479 – 3 September 1520) was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal, and Archbishop of Esztergom. He was a member of the ducal House of Este of Ferrara, and was usually referred to as the C ...

. He was consulted by

Richard Croke Richard Croke (or Crocus) (c. 1489–1558) was an English classical scholar, and a royal tutor and agent. Early life and education He was educated at Eton College.''Concise Dictionary of National Biography''. He took his BA at King's College, C ...

on behalf of

Henry VIII of England Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

in the question of the latter's divorce. He was a major influence on Rabelais's literary and linguistic ideas and is presumed to have met him in Italy, as well as being a teacher of

Clément Marot Clément Marot (23 November 1496 – 12 September 1544) was a French Renaissance poet. Biography Youth Marot was born at Cahors, the capital of the province of Quercy, some time during the winter of 1496–1497. His father, Jean Marot (c.&n ...

and was praised by

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...

Giovanni Battista Giraldi Giovanni Battista Giraldi (12 November 1504 – 30 December 1573) was an Italian novelist and poet. He appended the nickname Cinthio to his name and is commonly referred to by that name (which is also rendered as Cynthius, Cintio or, in Italian, ...

was a student of his, and succeeded him at the

University of Ferrara The University of Ferrara ( it, Università degli Studi di Ferrara) is the main university of the city of Ferrara in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. In the years prior to the First World War the University of Ferrara, with more than 5 ...

. He had a contemporary reputation as an astronomer, and wrote on the

rotation of the Earth Earth's rotation or Earth's spin is the rotation of planet Earth around its own axis, as well as changes in the orientation of the rotation axis in space. Earth rotates eastward, in prograde motion. As viewed from the northern polar star Pola ...

. He knew

Copernicus Nicolaus Copernicus (; pl, Mikołaj Kopernik; gml, Niklas Koppernigk, german: Nikolaus Kopernikus; 19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath, active as a mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic canon, who formulated ...

in Ferrara at the beginning of the sixteenth century. His ''Quod Caelum Stet, Terra Moveatur'' is a precursor of the ''

De Revolutionibus ''De revolutionibus orbium coelestium'' (English translation: ''On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres'') is the seminal work on the heliocentric theory of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) of the Polish Renaissance. The book, ...

'' of Copernicus, though A. C. Crombie qualifies his rotational theory as "vague", and is often dated to about 1525.R. J. Schoeck, ''The Geography of Erasmus'', p. 201, in Fokke Akkerman, Arie Johan Vanderjagt, A. H. Van Der Laan, ''Northern Humanism in European Context, 1469-1625: From the 'Adwert Academy' to Ubbo Emmius'' (1999).

Works

''Opera aliquot''
(1544)

Notes

External links

Online Galleries, History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries
High resolution images of works by and/or portraits of Celio Calcagnini in .jpg and .tiff format. 1479 births 1541 deaths Scientists from Ferrara Italian male writers 16th-century Italian astronomers Italian Renaissance humanists Academic staff of the University of Ferrara {{Italy-writer-stub