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The title page of the Urania propitia by Maria Cunitz (1650)

Maria Cunitz o Maria Cunitia[1][2] (chiamata anche: Cunicia, Cunitzin,[3] Kunic, Cunitiae, Kunicia, Kunicka) (Wołów, Silesia, 1610 – Byczyna, Silesia, Agosto 22, 1664) era una esperta astronoma tedesca, e una dei più importanti astronomi dell'era moderna. Ha scritto un libro, Urania propitia, in cui ha fornito le nuove tabelle, nuovi effimeri e una soluzione più elegante alle Leggi di Keplero. Il Cratere Cunitz su Venere, prende il suo nome.

La Vita[modifica | modifica wikitesto]

Maria Cunitz è nata Wohlau (ora Wołów, Polonia), as the eldest daughter of a Baltic German, Dr. Heinrich Cunitz,[4][5] un fisico e propietario terriero che è vissuto a Schweidnitz per maggior parte della sua vita e Maria Scholtz da Legnica,[6][7] figlia dello scienziato Tedesco Anton von Scholtz[8] (1560–1622), matematico e consigliere del duca Joachim Frederick di Legnica. La famiglia, poi si trasferì a Schweidnitz in Bassa Slesia (oggi Świdnica, Polonia).In giovane età Maria sposò (nel 1623) l'avvocato David von Gerstmann.Dopo la sua morte nel 1626, si è sposata (nel 1630), con il Dr. Elias von Löwen,[./Maria_Cunitz#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChisholm1911-11 [11]]Template:Sfn anche lui originario dalla Slesia.[9] Elias e Maria hanno avuto tre figli: Elias Theodor, Anton Heinrich e Franz Ludwig.

L'opera più significativa di Maria è stata composta nella tenuta del convento Cistercense a Lubnice sotto Olobok vicino a Kalisz, Polonia dove, con il marito si era rifugiata allo scoppio della Guerra dei trent'anni. Dopo il loro ritorno in Slesia hanno pubblicato, a proprie spese, il suo libro nel 1650. Il suo lavoro è stato dedicato al Sacro Romano Impero di Ferdinando III. Nel 1655, l'incendio catastrofico di Pitschen ha distrutto i loro articoli scientifici, gli strumenti e prodotti chimici utilizzati per la fabbricazione di molti tipi di farmaci. Questo abbassò la loro fonte di reddito. Maria è diventata una vedova (il cui coniuge è morto) nel 1661 e morì a Pitzen nel 1664.


The year of Maria's birth is uncertain. No birth, baptism or similar documents have ever been located. The year was speculated about in the first major German-language publication about Maria Cunitz of 1798.[10] Dr. Paul Knötel appears to be the first to give the year 1604 as the year of Maria's birth.[11] This date seemed to make sense since her parents married the previous year. Other authors later appear to have repeated the same year. The proof that Maria was actually born in 1610 is furnished by an anthology with congratulation poems on her first wedding, in connection with a letter of Elias A Leonibus to Johannes Hevelius from the year 1651, found recentlyTemplate:When by Dr. Ingrid Guentherodt.[12][13]

Accomplishments[modifica | modifica wikitesto]

A memorial to Maria Cunitz in Świdnica, Poland.

The publication of the book Urania propitia (Olse,[14] Silesia, 1650) gained Cunitz a European reputation. She was acclaimed as the most learned woman in astronomy since Hypatia of Alexandria.[15] Significantly for a technical publication of that period, her book was written both in Latin and German (stating that it was to increase the accessibility to her work). Urania propitia was a simplification of the Rudolphine Tables. It provided new tables, new ephemera, and a more elegant solution to Kepler's Problem, which is to determine the position of a planet in its orbit as a function of time. Today, her book is also credited for its contribution to the development of the German scientific language.[16]

Because of her many talents and accomplishments, Cunitz was called the "Silesian Pallas". In his 1727 book Schlesiens Hoch- und Wohlgelehrtes Frauenzimmer, nebst unterschiedenen Poetinnen..., Johan Caspar Eberti wrote[17] that

(Maria) Cunicia or Cunitzin was the daughter of the famous Henrici Cunitii. She was a well-educated woman, like a queen among the Silesian womanhood. She was able to converse in seven languages, German, Italian, French, Polish, Latin, Greek and Hebrew, was an experienced musician and an accomplished painter. She was a dedicated astrologist and especially enjoyed astronomical problems.

Nationality[modifica | modifica wikitesto]

Map from 1645 showing places of Cunitz' life in Silesia like Wolaw, Lignitz and Schweidnitz. In those times both German and Slavic names were in use.

Maria Cunitz is usually characterized as Silesian, for example in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition of 1911.[./Maria_Cunitz#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChisholm1911-11 [11]]Template:Sfn She was born and spent most of her life in the Holy Roman Empire, which included non-German minorities, ruled by the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy. The fragment of Silesia in which Maria lived was part of Bohemia before 990,[18] the united Poland between 990 [19][20] and 1202[21] and part of Bohemia between 1038 and 1050.[22] In 1202 the Polish seniorate was abolished and all Polish Duchies, including Silesia, became independent, although four Silesian dukes of the 13th century were rulers of Kraków and held the title Duke of Poland.[23] In 1331 the region again became part of Bohemia.[24] In 1742 it become part of Prussia and in 1871 the German Empire. About three centuries after Maria's lifetime it was reassigned to Poland after World War II.

During Maria's lifetime, nationality did not play as significant a role in determining person's identity as it does today.[25][26] Nevertheless, multiple later sources felt the need to assign to Maria Cunitz a nationality relevant to their own time. She has mostly been described as German, for example in Bibliographical Dictionary of Woman in Science.[27] She published in German. She has been also described as Polish[28][29][30][31] and some[28] consider her to be the first Polish woman astronomer. Cunitz spoke not only German and Polish but also French, Greek, Italian, Latin and Hebrew.[32]

References[modifica | modifica wikitesto]

  1. ^ Cunitz, Maria.
  2. ^ Reproduction of the signature of Maria Cunitia
  3. ^ Zedler's Universallexikon, Halle-Leipzig, 1737, Bd. 15, Sp. 2134f, Stichwort: Kunitzin [1]
  4. ^ Allgemeines Schriftsteller- und Gelehrten-Lexikon der Provinzen Livland, Esthland und Kurland, Volume 1, J.F. Steffenhagen und Sohn, 1827 [2]
  5. ^ Sigrid Dienel: Die Pestschrift des schlesischen Arztes Heinrich Cunitz (1580-1629) aus dem Jahr 1625: ein zeitgenössisches medizinisch-pharmazeutisches Dokument? : eine vergleichende Untersuchung mit Pestschriften aus dem 16. und 17.
  6. ^ Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie, The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century, 2000, page 309.
  7. ^ Name Lignitz on the map from that period File:Blaeu 1645 - Nova totius Germaniæ descriptio.jpg
  8. ^ Johann Heinrich Zedler, Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon Aller Wissenschafften und Künste, 68 Bände, Leipzig 1732–1754, hier: Band 35, Spalte 1618f. [3]
  9. ^ Article „Löwen, Elias von“ in: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, herausgegeben von der Historischen Kommission bei der Bayrischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Band 19 (1884), ab Seite 311, Digitale Volltext-Ausgabe in Wikisource, URL: http://de.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=ADB:L%C3%B6wen,_Elias_von&oldid=810951 (Version vom 21.
  10. ^ Johann Ephraim Scheibel: Nachrichten von der Frau von Lewen geb.
  11. ^ Paul Knötel: Maria Cunitia.
  12. ^ Ingrid Guentherodt: Maria Cunitia.
  13. ^ Ingrid Guentherodt: Frühe Spuren von Maria Cunitia und Daniel Czepko in Schweidnitz 1623.
  14. ^ Name Olse as on Blaeu's 1645 map of Silesia File:Blaeu 1645 - Silesia Ducatus.jpg
  15. ^ Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, Histoire de l'astronomie moderne, Tome Second, M. V. Courcier, Libraire pour les sciences, Paris, 1821.
  16. ^ Ingrid Güntherodt (Guentherodt), Maria Cunitz und Maria Sibylla Merian: Pionirinnen der Deutsches Wissenschaftssprache im 17.
  17. ^ Johann Caspar Eberti.
  18. ^ Handbuch der historischen Stätten: Schlesien, 2003, Hubert Weczerka, page XXXI, Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner Verlag, ISBN 3-520-31602-1
  19. ^ Handbuch der historischen Stätten: Schlesien, 2003, Hubert Weczerka, page XXXII Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner Verlag, ISBN 3-520-31602-1
  20. ^ Dehio - Handbuch der Kunstdenkmäler in Polen: Schlesien, Badstübner, Ernst; Dietmar Popp, Andrzej Tomaszewski, Dethard von Winterfeld, page 1, 2005, München, Deutscher Kunstverlag 2005, ISBN 3-422-03109-X
  21. ^ Handbuch der historischen Stätten: Schlesien, 2003, Hubert Weczerka, page XXXV, Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner Verlag, ISBN 3-520-31602-1
  22. ^ Handbuch der historischen Stätten: Schlesien, 2003, Hubert Weczerka, page XXXII + XXXIII, Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner Verlag, ISBN 3-520-31602-1
  23. ^ (English) Oskar Halecki, Antony Polonsky, A history of Poland, Routledge, 1978, :36–37, ISBN 0-7100-8647-4.
  24. ^ Handbuch der historischen Stätten: Schlesien, 2003, Hubert Weczerka, page 128, Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner Verlag, ISBN 3-520-31602-1
  25. ^ Anthony D. Smith, National Identity, Reno, University of Nevada Press, 1993, p. 72, ISBN 0-87417-204-7.
  26. ^ "The Dynamics of the Policies of Ethnic Cleansing in Silesia in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries" by Tomasz Kamusella, Open Society Institute, Center for Publishing Development, Budapest, Hungary, 1999, http://rss.archives.ceu.hu/archive/00001016/01/17.pdf
  27. ^ Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie, Joy Dorothy Harvey, "The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century", Routledge, 2000, pg. 309, [4]
  28. ^ a b Storm Dunlop, Michèle Gerbaldi, "Stargazers: the contribution of amateurs to astronomy", Springer-Verlag, 1988, pg. 40
  29. ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=S_NJ7AubQIcC&pg=PA28&dq=Maria+Cunitz+Polish+astronomer&lr=&as_brr=0#v=onepage&q=Maria%20Cunitz%20Polish%20astronomer&f=false
  30. ^ http://www.szlakcysterski.org/?pokaz=obiekty_cysterskie&id=34&zmien_jezyk=en
  31. ^ Margaret Alic, "Hypatia's heritage: a history of women in science from antiquity through the nineteenth century", Beacon Press, 1986, pg. 120
  32. ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=P_oRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA436&dq=Maria+Cunitz+Polish+astronomer&lr=&as_brr=0#v=onepage&q=Maria%20Cunitz%20Polish%20astronomer&f=false

[[Categoria:Nati nel 1610]] [[Categoria:Morti nel 1664]] [[Categoria:Tedeschi del XVII secolo]] [[Categoria:Polacchi del XVII secolo]] [[Categoria:Astronomi tedeschi]] [[Categoria:Astronomi polacchi]]

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