Achilles Gasser

Born in Lindau, he studied mathematics, history, and philosophy, as well as astronomy.{{cite web|url=http://www.theiet.org/about/libarc/archives/biographies/peregrinus.cfm |title=Archived copy |access-date=22 September 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929004254/http://www.theiet.org/about/libarc/archives/biographies/peregrinus.cfm |archive-date=29 September 2011 }} He was a student in Sélestat under {{ill|Johannes Sapidus|it}};Peter G. Bietenholz and Thomas Brian Deutscher, Contemporaries of Erasmus: a biographical register of the Renaissance and Reformation (2003), Volume 3, p. 196; [https://books.google.com/books?id=hruQ386SfFcC&q=Gasser&pg=RA2-PA92 Google Books]. he also attended universities in Wittenberg, Vienna, Montpellier, and Avignon.{{citation | first = Dennis | last = Danielson | title = Achilles Gasser and the birth of Copernicanism | journal = Journal for the History of Astronomy | volume = 35 Part 4 | number = 121 | year = 2004 | pages = 457–474 | doi = 10.1177/002182860403500406 | issn = 0021-8286 | url = http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2004JHA....35..457D | bibcode = 2004JHA....35..457D | s2cid = 115298364 }}.

In 1528, German cartographer Sebastian Münster appealed to scientists across the Holy Roman Empire{{cite journal|last1=Burmeister|first1=Karl Heinz|date=1970|title=Achilles Gasser as Geographer and Cartographer|location=Bregenz|publisher=Imago Mundi|volume=24|page=57}} to assist him with his description of Germany. Gassar accepted this and was later recognized by Münster as a close collaborator for his cartography of the country.{{cite journal|last1=Burmeister|first1=Karl Heinz|date=1970|title=Achilles Gasser (1505–1577) as Geographer and Cartographer|journal=Imago Mundi|location=Bregenz|publisher=Imago Mundi, Ltd.|volume=24|pages=57–58|doi=10.1080/03085697008592350|jstor=}}

Rheticus lost his physician father Georg Iserin in 1528 when he was executed on sorcery charges. Gasser later took over the practice in Feldkirch, in 1538; he taught Rheticus some astrology, and helped his education, in particular by writing to the University of Wittenberg on his behalf.[http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Rheticus.html MacTutor page on Rheticus] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110827145802/http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Rheticus.html |date=27 August 2011 }}Repcheck, pp. 113–114.

When Rheticus printed his Narratio prima—the first published account of the Copernican heliocentric system—in 1540 (Danzig), he sent Gasser a copy. Gasser then undertook a second edition (1541, Basel) with his own introduction{{Cite book|chapter-url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/copernicus/|title=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|chapter=Nicolaus Copernicus|year=2019|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University}} in the form of a letter from Gasser to Georg Vogelin of Konstanz. The second edition (1566, Basel) of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium contained the Narratio Prima with this introduction by Gasser.{{Cite web|url=http://copernicus.torun.pl/en/archives/De_revolutionibus/3/|title = Nicolaus Copernicus Thorunensis the history of the editions of de revolutionibus}}

File:Epistola de Magnete.jpg

He prepared the first edition (Augsburg, 1558) of the Epistola de magnete of Pierre de Maricourt.{{CathEncy|wstitle= Pierre de Maricourt}}

Other works include:

• Historiarum et Chronicorum totius mundi epitome (1532)
• Prognosticon (1544) dedicated to {{ill|Thomas Venatorius|de}}Anthony Grafton, Cardano's Cosmos: the worlds and works of a Renaissance astrologer (1999), p. 56; [https://books.google.com/books?id=GhkxjStiZfwC&q=Gasser+&pg=PA216 Google Books]
• Edition of the Evangelienbuch of Otfried of Weissenburg. His edition did not appear until 1571, under the name of Matthias Flacius who had taken over.[https://am4wuhz3zifexz5u.tor2web.org/Library/English/MISC/A_pile_of_files_to_be_sorted/Dictionaries%20early%20europe.pdf Dictionaries in Early Modern Europe (PDF)]{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, p. 122.
• Observations on comets[http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1981JHA....12...95K Kokott, W., The Comet of 1533], p. 105.

Gasser belonged with Flacius to the humanist circle around {{ill|Kaspar von Niedbruck|de}}, concerned with the recovery of monastic manuscripts. Others in the group were John Bale, Conrad Gesner, Joris Cassander, Johannes Matalius Metellus, and Cornelius Wauters.Kees Dekker and Cornelis Dekker, The Origins of Old Germanic Studies in the Low Countries (1999), p. 21; [https://books.google.com/books?id=sOV5_giY6ssC&dq=%22conrad+Gesner%22+Gasser&pg=PA21 Google Books].

{{reflist}}

• Jack Repcheck (2007), Copernicus' Secret: How the Scientific Revolution Began
• Karl Galle, Scientist of the Day – Achilles Pirmin Gasser{{Cite web|last=Galle|first=Karl|date=3 November 2021|title=Scientist of the Day – Achilles Pirmin Gasser|url=https://www.lindahall.org/achilles-pirmin-gasser/}}

• {{ill|Karl Heinz Burmeister|de}} (1970), Achilles Pirmin Gasser, 1505–1577. Arzt u. Naturforscher, Historiker und Humanist. (3 volumes.)
• Karl Heinz Burmeister, Achilles Pirmin Gasser (1505–1577) as Geographer and Cartographer, Imago Mundi Vol. 24, (1970), pp. 57–62; {{jstor|1150458}}

• {{in lang|de}} :de:s:ADB:Gasser, Achilles Pirminius
• [http://thesaurus.cerl.org/record/cnp01235131 CERL page]
• {{in lang|fr}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=Nj_ML3fir6gC&dq=Scelhorn+Gasser&pg=RA1-PA86 Old dictionary entry]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gasser, Achilles}}

Category:1505 births

Category:1577 deaths

Category:16th-century German physicians

Category:German astrologers

Category:16th-century astrologers

Category:German Renaissance humanists

Category:16th-century German writers

Category:16th-century German male writers