List of Jesuit Scientists - 17th Century

17th Century

• José de Acosta (1540–1600), one of the first naturalists and anthropologists of the Americas.
• Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), Spanish mathematician, translator, and noted for his importance to the Jesuit China missions.
• Christopher Clavius (1538–1612), German mathematician and astronomer, most noted in connection with the Gregorian calendar, but also his arithmetic books were used by many mathematicians including Leibniz and Descartes.
• François d'Aguilon (1567-1617), Belgian mathematician and physicist who worked on optics.
• Giuseppe Biancani (1566-1624), Italian astronomer and selenographer who wrote Sphaera mundi, seu cosmographia demonstrativa, ac facili methodo tradita.
• Wenceslas Pantaleon Kirwitzer (1588-1626), Czech astronomer and missionary to China.
• Charles Malapert (1581-1630), Belgian astronomer known for observing the stars of the southern sky and being against Copernicus.
• Christoph Grienberger (1561-1636), Austrian astronomer and mathematician.
• Christoph Scheiner (c.1573-1650), German astronomer noted for a dispute with Galileo Galilei over the discovery of Sunspots.
• Giovanni Battista Zupi (c.1590-1650), Italian astronomer who discovered that Mercury had orbital phases.
• Jean-Charles de la Faille (1597-1652), Belgian mathematician.
• Alexius Sylvius Polonus (1593-c.1653), Polish astronomer.
• Gerolamo Sersale (1584-1654), Italian Selenographer, the crater Sirsalis (crater) is named after him.
• Johann Baptist Cysat (1587-1657), Swiss mathematician and astronomer, who did important research on comets and the Orion nebula.
• Mario Bettinus (1582-1657), Italian mathematician and astronomer.
• Michał Boym (c. 1602-1659), Polish missionary to China known for botanical and zoological works.
• André Tacquet (1612-1660), Flemish mathematician whose work prepared the ground for the eventual discovery of calculus.
• Francesco Maria Grimaldi 1618-1663), Italian physicist, who coined the word 'diffraction' and used instruments to measure geological features on the Moon.
• Antoine de Laloubère (1600-1664), French mathematician who studied the properties of the helix.
• Gaspar Schott (1608-1666), German scientist who wrote on various mechanical and scientific topics, example gear, but did little original research.
• Niccolo Zucchi (1586-1670), Italian astronomer known for his study of Jupiter and work on telescope design.
• Giovanni Battista Riccioli (1598-1671), Italian astronomer who was the first to note that Mizar was a "double star."
• Albert Curtz (1600-1671), German astronomer.
• Jacques de Billy (1602-1679), French mathematician who wrote on number theory and astronomy.
• Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680), German who in his Scrutinium Pestis of 1658 he noted the presence of "little worms" or "animalcules" in the blood, and concluded that the disease was caused by micro-organisms. This is antecedent to germ theory.