CUNITZ, MARIE

Astronomer (1610-1664)

She translated and simplified the works of Johannus Kepler into the common tongue. Kepler was an astronomer who determined a way to predict how the planets revolve about the Sun. Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion are still used today. She made his work accessible to the scholars of that time. She even simplified his work by omitting the complicated use of logrithms that Kepler used. For several centuries her translations were the only ones available to scholars. Her abilities in astronomy were so outstanding that she was called by the name of her book Urania Propitia, i.e., "she who is closest to the muse of astronomy".

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