Maria Cunitz
Encyclopedia
Maria Cunitz or Maria Cunitia (other versions of surname include: Cunicia, Cunitzin, Kunic, Cunitiae, Kunicia, Kunicka) (Wołów, Silesia
, 1610 – Świdnica
, Silesia, August 22, 1664) was an accomplished Silesia
n astronomer
, and one of the most notable female astronomers of the modern era. She authored a book Urania propitia, in which she provided new tables, new ephemera, and a more elegant solution to Kepler's problem. The Cunitz crater
on Venus
is named after her. The minor planet
12624 Mariacunitia
is named in her honour.
, Holy Roman Empire
, as the eldest daughter of Baltic German immigrant Dr. Heinrich Cunitz, a physician and landowner who had lived in Schweidnitz for most of his life, and Maria Scholtz from Liegnitz
, daughter of German
scientist Anton von Scholtz (1560–1622), a mathematician and counselor to Duke Joachim Frederick of Liegnitz
. The family eventually moved to Schweidnitz in Lower Silesia
(today Świdnica, Poland). At an early age Maria married (in 1623) the lawyer David von Gerstmann. After his death in 1626, she married (in 1630) Dr. Elias von Löwen, also from Silesia. Elias and Maria had three sons: Elias Theodor, Anton Heinrich and Franz Ludwig.
Maria's most significant work was composed on the estate of the Cistercian convent in Łubnice under Ołobok near Kalisz
, Poland
where, with her husband, she had taken refuge at the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War
(they were of Protestant religion; her siblings, who stayed in Silesia, converted to Roman Catholicism). After their return to Silesia, they published, at their own expense, Maria's book in 1650. The work was dedicated to Holy Roman emperor Ferdinand III
. In 1655, a catastrophic fire of Pitschen
destroyed their scientific papers, and also the instruments and chemicals used for making medicines. This undercut their source of income. Maria became a widow in 1661, and died at Pitzen in 1664.
The year of Maria's birth is somewhat uncertain. No birth, baptism or similar documents have ever been located. The year was speculated about in the first major German-language publication about Maria Cunitz of 1798. Dr. Paul Knötel appears to be the first to give the year 1604 as the year of Maria's birth. This date seemed to make sense since her parents married the previous year. Other authors later appear to have repeated the same year. The proof that Maria was actually born in 1610 is furnished by an anthology with congratulation poems on her first wedding, in connection with a letter of Elias A Leonibus to Johannes Hevelius
from the year 1651, found recently by Dr. Ingrid Guentherodt.
-Silesia, 1650) gained Cunitz a European reputation. She was acclaimed as the most learned woman since Hypatia of Alexandria
. Significantly for a technical publication of that period, her book was written both in Latin
and German
(stating that it was to increase the accessibility to her work). Urania propitia was a simplification of the Rudolphine Tables
. It provided new tables, new ephemera, and a more elegant solution to Kepler's Problem, which is to determine the position of a planet in its orbit as a function of time. Today, her book is also credited for its contribution to the development of the German scientific language.
Because of her many talents and accomplishments, Cunitz was called the "Silesian Pallas
". In his 1727 book Educated Silesian Women and Female Poets, Johan Kaspar Elberti wrote that
Maria Cunitz is usually characterized as Silesia
n, for example in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
of 1911. She was born and spent most of her life in the Holy Roman Empire
, which included non-German minorities, ruled by the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy
. The fragment of Silesia in which Maria lived was part of Bohemia before 990, the united Poland between 990 and 1202 and part of Bohemia between 1038 and 1050. In 1202 the Polish seniorate
was abolished and all Polish Duchies, including Silesia, became independent, although four Silesian dukes of the 13th century were rulers of Kraków
and held the title Duke of Poland. In 1331 the region again became part of Bohemia. In 1742 it become part of Prussia and in 1871 the German Empire. About three centuries after Maria's lifetime it was reassigned to Poland
after World War II
.
During Maria's lifetime, nationality
did not play as significant a role in determining person's identity
as it does today. Nevertheless, multiple later sources felt the need to assign to Maria Cunitz a nationality relevant to their own time. She has mostly been described as German
, for example in Bibliographical Dictionary of Woman in Science. She published in German. She has been also described as Polish and some consider her to be the first Polish woman astronomer.
Cunitz spoke not only German and Polish but also French, Greek, Italian, Latin and Hebrew.
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
, 1610 – Świdnica
Swidnica
Świdnica is a city in south-western Poland in the region of Silesia. It has a population of 60,317 according to 2006 figures. It lies in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, being the seventh largest town in that voivodeship. From 1975–98 it was in the former Wałbrzych Voivodeship...
, Silesia, August 22, 1664) was an accomplished Silesia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
n astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
, and one of the most notable female astronomers of the modern era. She authored a book Urania propitia, in which she provided new tables, new ephemera, and a more elegant solution to Kepler's problem. The Cunitz crater
Cunitz (crater)
Cunitz is a crater on Venus at latitude 14.5, longitude 350.9 in western Eistla Regio. It is 48.6 km in diameter and was named for a 17th century Silesian astronomer Maria Cunitz....
on Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
is named after her. The minor planet
Minor planet
An asteroid group or minor-planet group is a population of minor planets that have a share broadly similar orbits. Members are generally unrelated to each other, unlike in an asteroid family, which often results from the break-up of a single asteroid...
12624 Mariacunitia
12624 Mariacunitia
12624 Mariacunitia is a main-belt minor planet. It was discovered by Cornelis Johannes van Houten, Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld, and Tom Gehrels at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, on October 17, 1960. It is named after Maria Cunitz, a Silesian astronomer of the 17th...
is named in her honour.
Life
Maria Cunitz was born in ŚwidnicaSwidnica
Świdnica is a city in south-western Poland in the region of Silesia. It has a population of 60,317 according to 2006 figures. It lies in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, being the seventh largest town in that voivodeship. From 1975–98 it was in the former Wałbrzych Voivodeship...
, Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
, as the eldest daughter of Baltic German immigrant Dr. Heinrich Cunitz, a physician and landowner who had lived in Schweidnitz for most of his life, and Maria Scholtz from Liegnitz
Legnica
Legnica is a town in south-western Poland, in Silesia, in the central part of Lower Silesia, on the plain of Legnica, riverside: Kaczawa and Czarna Woda. Between 1 June 1975 and 31 December 1998 Legnica was the capital of the Legnica Voivodeship. It is currently the seat of the county...
, daughter of German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
scientist Anton von Scholtz (1560–1622), a mathematician and counselor to Duke Joachim Frederick of Liegnitz
Joachim Frederick of Brieg
Joachim Frederick of Brieg Joachim Frederick of Brieg Joachim Frederick of Brieg , , was a Duke of Oława and Wołów and Brzeg and Legnica ....
. The family eventually moved to Schweidnitz in Lower Silesia
Lower Silesia
Lower Silesia ; is the northwestern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia; Upper Silesia is to the southeast.Throughout its history Lower Silesia has been under the control of the medieval Kingdom of Poland, the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy from 1526...
(today Świdnica, Poland). At an early age Maria married (in 1623) the lawyer David von Gerstmann. After his death in 1626, she married (in 1630) Dr. Elias von Löwen, also from Silesia. Elias and Maria had three sons: Elias Theodor, Anton Heinrich and Franz Ludwig.
Maria's most significant work was composed on the estate of the Cistercian convent in Łubnice under Ołobok near Kalisz
Kalisz
Kalisz is a city in central Poland with 106,857 inhabitants , the capital city of the Kalisz Region. Situated on the Prosna river in the southeastern part of the Greater Poland Voivodeship, the city forms a conurbation with the nearby towns of Ostrów Wielkopolski and Nowe Skalmierzyce...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
where, with her husband, she had taken refuge at the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
(they were of Protestant religion; her siblings, who stayed in Silesia, converted to Roman Catholicism). After their return to Silesia, they published, at their own expense, Maria's book in 1650. The work was dedicated to Holy Roman emperor Ferdinand III
Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand III was Holy Roman Emperor from 15 February 1637 until his death, as well as King of Hungary and Croatia, King of Bohemia and Archduke of Austria.-Life:...
. In 1655, a catastrophic fire of Pitschen
Byczyna
Byczyna is a town in Kluczbork County, Opole Voivodeship, Poland, with 3,708 inhabitants .The town of Byczyna was first mention in 1054 when it temporarily served as the capital of the Bishopric of Wrocław...
destroyed their scientific papers, and also the instruments and chemicals used for making medicines. This undercut their source of income. Maria became a widow in 1661, and died at Pitzen in 1664.
The year of Maria's birth is somewhat uncertain. No birth, baptism or similar documents have ever been located. The year was speculated about in the first major German-language publication about Maria Cunitz of 1798. Dr. Paul Knötel appears to be the first to give the year 1604 as the year of Maria's birth. This date seemed to make sense since her parents married the previous year. Other authors later appear to have repeated the same year. The proof that Maria was actually born in 1610 is furnished by an anthology with congratulation poems on her first wedding, in connection with a letter of Elias A Leonibus to Johannes Hevelius
Johannes Hevelius
Johannes Hevelius Some sources refer to Hevelius as Polish:Some sources refer to Hevelius as German:*Encyplopedia Britannica * of the Royal Society was a councilor and mayor of Danzig , Pomeranian Voivodeship, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...
from the year 1651, found recently by Dr. Ingrid Guentherodt.
Accomplishments
The publication of the book Urania propitia (OlseOlesnica
Oleśnica is a town in the Trzebnickie Hills in southwestern Poland with 36,951 inhabitants . It is situated in Lower Silesian Voivodeship...
-Silesia, 1650) gained Cunitz a European reputation. She was acclaimed as the most learned woman since Hypatia of Alexandria
Hypatia of Alexandria
Hypatia was an Egyptian Neoplatonist philosopher who was the first notable woman in mathematics. As head of the Platonist school at Alexandria, she also taught philosophy and astronomy...
. Significantly for a technical publication of that period, her book was written both in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
(stating that it was to increase the accessibility to her work). Urania propitia was a simplification of the Rudolphine Tables
Rudolphine Tables
The Rudolphine Tables consist of a star catalogue and planetary tables published by Johannes Kepler in 1627 using data from Tycho Brahe's observations.-Previous tables:...
. It provided new tables, new ephemera, and a more elegant solution to Kepler's Problem, which is to determine the position of a planet in its orbit as a function of time. Today, her book is also credited for its contribution to the development of the German scientific language.
Because of her many talents and accomplishments, Cunitz was called the "Silesian Pallas
PALLAS
This article is about the research group. See Pallas for other uses of this word.PALLAS stands for Parallel Applications, Libraries, Languages, Algorithms, and Systems. It is a research group in of the at , led by...
". In his 1727 book Educated Silesian Women and Female Poets, Johan Kaspar Elberti wrote that
(Maria) Cunicia or Cunitzin was the daughter of the famous Henrici Cunitii. She was a well-educated woman, like a queen among the Silesian womanhood. She was able to converse in 7 languages, German, Italian, French, Polish, Latin, Greek and Hebrew, was an experienced musician and an accomplished painter. She was a dedicated astrologist and especially enjoyed astronomical problems.
Nationality
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
n, for example in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time...
of 1911. She was born and spent most of her life in the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
, which included non-German minorities, ruled by the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
. The fragment of Silesia in which Maria lived was part of Bohemia before 990, the united Poland between 990 and 1202 and part of Bohemia between 1038 and 1050. In 1202 the Polish seniorate
Seniorate Province
Seniorate Province, also known as the Senioral Province , Duchy of Kraków , Duchy of Cracow, Principality of Cracow, Principality of Kraków, was the superior among the five provinces established in 1138 according to the Testament of Bolesław III Krzywousty...
was abolished and all Polish Duchies, including Silesia, became independent, although four Silesian dukes of the 13th century were rulers of Kraków
Seniorate Province
Seniorate Province, also known as the Senioral Province , Duchy of Kraków , Duchy of Cracow, Principality of Cracow, Principality of Kraków, was the superior among the five provinces established in 1138 according to the Testament of Bolesław III Krzywousty...
and held the title Duke of Poland. In 1331 the region again became part of Bohemia. In 1742 it become part of Prussia and in 1871 the German Empire. About three centuries after Maria's lifetime it was reassigned to Poland
Recovered Territories
Recovered or Regained Territories was an official term used by the People's Republic of Poland to describe those parts of pre-war Germany that became part of Poland after World War II...
after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
During Maria's lifetime, nationality
Nationality
Nationality is membership of a nation or sovereign state, usually determined by their citizenship, but sometimes by ethnicity or place of residence, or based on their sense of national identity....
did not play as significant a role in determining person's identity
Identity (social science)
Identity is a term used to describe a person's conception and expression of their individuality or group affiliations . The term is used more specifically in psychology and sociology, and is given a great deal of attention in social psychology...
as it does today. Nevertheless, multiple later sources felt the need to assign to Maria Cunitz a nationality relevant to their own time. She has mostly been described as German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
, for example in Bibliographical Dictionary of Woman in Science. She published in German. She has been also described as Polish and some consider her to be the first Polish woman astronomer.
Cunitz spoke not only German and Polish but also French, Greek, Italian, Latin and Hebrew.
External links
- Digital-Library of Wroclaw
- Web page on Maria Cunitz at University of Florida
- Zedler Zedler's Universallexikon, Bd. 15, Sp. 2134f, Stichwort: Kunitzin