Lansberg, Philip

, a mathematician, was born in Zealand, in 1561, and was a preacher at Antwerp, in 1586, and afterwards for several years; Vossius mentions that he was minister at Goese in Zealand, twenty-nine years; and being then discharged of his functions, on account of his old age, he retired to Middleburgh, where he died in 1632. His works were principally the following: 1. “Six Books of sacred Chronology,” printed in 1626. 2. “Essays on the Restitution of Astronomy,” printed at Middleburgh, 1629. 3. “Four Books of Geometrical Triangles,” printed in 1631. 4. “Of Measuring the Heavens,” in three books, in the same year. 5. “An Account of the diurnal and annual Motion of the Earth and of the true Situation of the visible celestial Bodies.” In this work he declares himself openly for Copernicus’s System, and even pretends to improve it. He composed this work in Dutch, and it was translated into Latin by M-minus Hortensius, and printed at Middleburgh, 1630. Fromond, a doctor of Louvain, wrote an answer to it, and endeavoured to prove the earth stood still; and his son published an answer not only to Fromond, but to Morin, regius professor at Paris, and to Peter Bartholinus, which is entitled “A Defence of the Account,” &c. This occasioned a controversy, but of no long duration. ¹