List of Jesuit Scientists - 18th Century

18th Century

• Valentin Stansel (1621 – 1705), Czech astronomer in Brazil, who discovered a comet, that after accurate positions were made via F. de Gottignies in Goa, became known as Estancel-Gottignies comet.
• Georg Joseph Kamel (1661-1706), Czech missionary and botanist, the genus Camellia is named for him.
• Paolo Casati (1617-1707), Italian scientist, notable in meteorology and speculation on Vacuums.
• Franz Reinzer (1661-1708), Austrian writer who wrote about comets, meteors, lightning, winds, fossils, metals, etc.
• Bartolomeu de Gusmão (1685-1724), Brazilian naturalist noted for developing the first working aerostats.
• Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri (1667-1733), Italian mathematician who was perhaps the first European to write about Non-Euclidean geometry.
• Tommaso Ceva (1648-1737), Italian mathematician and poet who wrote a work on geometry.
• Michel Benoist (1715-1774), missionary to China and scientist.
• Vincenzo Riccati (1707-1775), Italian mathematician and physicist.
• Giuseppe Asclepi (1706-1776), Italian astronomer.
• Christian Mayer (1719-1783), Czech astronomer known for his pioneering study of binary stars.
• Roger Joseph Boscovich (1711–1787), a Croatian Polymath famous for his atomic theory in part. Also for devising perhaps the first geometric procedure for determining the equator of a rotating planet from three observations of a surface feature and for computing the orbit of a planet from three observations of its position.
• Maximilian Hell (1720-1792), Hungarian director of the Vienna Observatory who wrote astronomy tables and observed the Transit of Venus.
• Ignacije Szentmartony (1718-1793), Croatian who 'obtained the title of royal mathematician and astronomer' and used his astronomical knowledge in mapping parts of Brazil.