Gaspar Schott

GASPAR SCHOTT (Germany, 1608- 1666).
"Physica curiosa sive mirabilia naturae et artis Libris XII Comprehensa".
Printer: Johann Andrés Endteri.
Has 20th century engravings and parchment covers.
In good condition with rust stains.
Measurements: 21.5 x 17 x 10 cm.
Gaspar Schott was a German Jesuit and scientist, specialized in the fields of physics, mathematics and natural philosophy, and known for his industry. At the age of 19 he entered the Society of Jesus, entering the novitiate in Trier on October 30, 1627. After two years of training at the novitiate, he enrolled at the University of Würzburg on November 6, 1629 to begin a three-year study of philosophy, following the normal academic path prescribed for Jesuit seminarians. Due to the Swedish invasion of Würzburg in October 1631, the Jesuit community fled the city. Schott went first to the Jesuit seminary in Tournai, Belgium, and then, in 1633, to Caltagirone, Sicily, where he continued his theological studies. After two years in Caltagirone, he was transferred to Palermo for his final year of theology, after which, in 1637, he was ordained a priest. For the next fifteen years he held various teaching and pastoral positions in various Jesuit colleges in Sicily. In 1652, after corresponding with his former mathematics professor at Würzburg, Athanasius Kircher, now an internationally acclaimed scholar at the Collegio Romano, Schott was transferred to the Collegio to work as Kircher's assistant. He spent the next two and a half years assisting Kircher, but also gathering material of his own for which he would later seek a publisher. Schott was the author of numerous works in the fields of mathematics, physics, and magic. However, these works were mostly compilations of reports, articles or books he read and of his own repeated experiments.