Rasmus Bartholin (; Latinized: ''Erasmus Bartholinus''; 13 August 1625 – 4 November 1698) was a
Danish physician and grammarian.
Biography
Bartholin was born in
Roskilde
Roskilde ( , ) is a city west of Copenhagen on the Danish island of Zealand. With a population of 51,916 (), the city is a business and educational centre for the region and the 10th largest city in Denmark. It is governed by the administrative ...
. He was the son of
Caspar Bartholin the Elder
Caspar Bartholin the Elder (; 12 February 1585 – 13 July 1629) was a Danish physician, scientist and theologian.
Biography
Caspar Berthelsen Bartholin was born at Malmö, Malmø, Denmark (modern Sweden). His precocity was extraordinary; at thr ...
(1585–1629) and Anna Fincke, daughter of the mathematician
Thomas Fincke.
As part of his studies, he travelled in Europe for ten years. He stayed in the Netherlands, England, France and Italy. In 1647, he took a
Master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. at the
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...
. In 1654, he received a Doctoral degree at the
University of Padua
The University of Padua ( it, Università degli Studi di Padova, UNIPD) is an Italian university located in the city of Padua, region of Veneto, northern Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from ...
.
He was a professor at the
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...
, first in
Geometry
Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...
, later in Medicine. He was also dean of the faculty of medicine, librarian, and rector. He wrote, in Latin, the first grammar of the
Danish language
Danish (; , ) is a North Germanic language spoken by about six million people, principally in and around Denmark. Communities of Danish speakers are also found in Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and the northern German region of Southern Schl ...
, the 1657 ''De studio lingvæ danicæ''.
Rasmus Bartholin is remembered especially for his discovery (1669) of the
double refraction of a light ray by
Iceland spar
Iceland spar, formerly called Iceland crystal ( is, silfurberg , ) and also called optical calcite, is a transparent variety of calcite, or crystallized calcium carbonate, originally brought from Iceland, and used in demonstrating the polarizati ...
(
calcite
Calcite is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, based on scratc ...
). He published an accurate description of the phenomenon, but since the physical nature of light was poorly understood at the time, he was unable to explain it. It was only after
Thomas Young proposed the wave theory of light, c. 1801 that an explanation became possible.
Personal
He was a younger brother of
Thomas Bartholin
Thomas Bartholin (; Latinized as ''Thomas Bartholinus''; 20 October 1616 – 4 December 1680) was a Danish physician, mathematician, and theologian. He is best known for his work in the discovery of the lymphatic system in humans and for hi ...
(1616–1680).
References
External links
* "De figura nivis". In Thomas Bartolin, . Copenhagen: P. Haubold, 1661
*
Bartholin, Erasmus 1625-1698 worldcat.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartholin, Rasmus
1625 births
1698 deaths
17th-century Danish physicians
17th-century Danish scientists
University of Copenhagen alumni
University of Padua alumni
University of Copenhagen faculty
Medical educators
Mathematics educators
People from Roskilde
Rectors of the University of Copenhagen
Bartholin family