Jean-Baptiste Morin , Latinized in Morinus (born the February 23rd 1583 with Villefranche-on-Yonne in the Beaujolais wine - died the November 6th 1656 in Paris), is a mathematician and astrologer French in favor of the geocentrism, which at sea proposed an astronomical method discussed for the determination of longitudes.

Biography

He studied the Philosophie with Aix-en-Provence as of the 16 years age, then continued by studies of Médecine in Avignon of 1611 at 1613. Employed as astrologer by the bishop of Boulogne of 1613 with 1621, one sent it on mission in Germany and Hungary in order to visit the Mine S and to initiate itself with the transformation of metals. He then worked for the Duc of Luxembourg until in 1629. He published a Apologie for Aristote in 1624, also cultivated the Optique parallel to his work of Astrologie. He observed the sky with Pierre Gassendi.

In 1630, Morin is lived to entrust the pulpit of mathematics of the Royal Collège, station which it was to preserve until its death.

Declared partisan of the Géocentrisme, Morin is especially known like a burning adversary of the ideas of Galileo in astronomy; besides he continued his attacks even after the judgment of the famous Florentin scientist. Morin also fought the system of Descartes, which it had met in 1638. These controversies isolated Morin from the French scientific community, which had mainly converted with the system of Copernic.

To believe Morin of it, its life was strewn with obstacles and tribulations. He died of old age in Paris, and was buried in the church Saint-Etienne-of-Mount.

The problem of longitudes

Morin proposed in 1634 its solution with the “problem of longitudes”: this one was founded on the comparison between apparent time and the absolute time, which was deduced from the relative position of the the Moon compared to stars; it was, all in all, an alternative of the method of the lunar distances. Morin made its own improvements to make this approach effective, like the improvement of the instruments of aiming and the taking into account of the lunar Parallaxe. It disparaged the proposal of Gemma Frisius to use a clock of embarked precision: “I am unaware of if the Malignant one can succeed in manufacturing a clock with longitude, but it would be madness for the man to test itself there”.

In front of the stakes which this research for the navy represented, the Cardinal of Richelieu planned to reward Morin, but named a committee of evaluation to make sure of the interest of the proposals of the mathematics professor. The committee, composed of Etienne Pascal, Claude Mydorge and Pierre Hérigone, formulated from the start various objections with Morin, which indicated that the process, scientifically founded, was simply not practicable. The controversy lasted five years, Morin refusing to go to the conclusions of its judges: it was enough, according to him, to improve the methods of resolution of the spherical triangles as well as the lunar tables. In the course of its argumentation, it came from there to propose the creation of a astronomical Observatoire in Paris.

Finally, in 1645, the Cardinal of Mazarin, successor of Richelieu, granted a pension of 2.000 Livres to Morin for this work of nautical astronomy.

The astrologer

Towards the end of its life, Morin compiled a great treaty of Astrologie in Latin, the Astrologia Gallica , which appeared only after its death. The 26 pounds which this work includes/understands, published with $the Hague in 1661 in a volume In-folio of 850 pages, recover the Horoscope S, the legal Astrologie, the political Astrologie, the deliberative Astrologie, and the Météorologie. The more technical passages devoted to astrological calculation (in opposition to the presupposed theological ones of the discipline) thereafter were translated or paraphrased as well in French and Spanish, as in English and German. The English astrologers, in particular, admit to him to have systematically studied the achievements of the facts promised in the historical horoscopes. Its techniques rested on the concepts of “direction”, “return” and “passage” of planets.

In its attempts to rationalize its practice, Morin called in question a good part of the techniques of traditional astrology, in particular the astrology of Ptolémée. On another side, he was spent without hoping to promote his own technique of taking into account of the directions in mundo of the stars, founded on former work of Regiomontanus. In its Astrologia Gallica , it produces various examples of prediction of events which could have been predicted with exactitude only with this method.

Works

• Famosi problematis of telluris motu vel quiete hactenus optata solutio (1631, réimpr. 1657), impr. Pierre Ménard, Paris
• Longitudinum terrestrium and caelestium nova and hactenus optata scientia (1634), impr. Jean Libert, Paris
• Astrologia Gallica principiis and atque rationibus propriis stabilita in XXVI libros distributa . (1661), libr. Adriaan Vlacq, $the Hague, 1 vol. in-fol. I-XXI + 850 p.

More…

• a presentation of the treaty of Astrology of Jean-Baptiste Morin, by Thomas Callanan

Sources

• Longitude
• The Galileo Project

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