Abstract

Although he was the margravial court astronomer in Ansbach and was responsible for at least three notable achievements in the history of astronomy, the history of science has paid little attention to Simon Marius. Outside of the Netherlands, Marius may have been the first-ever professional astronomer to hear about the telescope, which was only presented to the world in September 1608. He claimed to have independently devised the Tychonic world system, and he observed the moons of Jupiter at roughly the same time as Galileo. Of course, there are reasons for this lack of attention. Marius could begin to exploit his early knowledge of the telescope only when his patron was able to purchase one. Tycho Brahe had already published his geo-heliocentric system years earlier, and whereas Galileo Galilei published his observations of the Jupiter moons in 1610, Marius first published in 1614, bringing down a charge of plagiarism on his head. The accusation of plagiarism was largely accepted by contemporary astronomers, and Marius had to wait until the early twentieth century before the quality of his telescopic observations and their independence were finally proved. His opus magnum was therefore translated comparatively late and only into very few languages. Many of his other writings and calendars remained difficult to access until the Marius-Portal was launched in 2014.