Fracastorio made many important astronomical observations, and it was he and Peter Apian who first made known in Europe the fact that comets’ tails are always turned away from the sun, so that their line of prolongation passes through its centre.
Gilbert alludes to Fracastorio (De Magnete, Book I. chap. i.; Book II. chaps. ii. iv. xxiv. xxxviii. xxxix.; Book IV. chap. i.), and to his “De Sympathia,” of which the first edition is Venet., 1546. This, says Libri, is “an important work in which universal attraction, as well as electric and magnetic motion, is attributed to an imponderable principle.”
References.—Baillet (Adrien), “Jugement des Savants,” Vol. II; Menken (F. O.), “De Vita,” Leipzig, 1731; Teissier (H. A.), “Eloges des hommes illustres,” tirés de M. De Thou; Libri, “Hist. des. Sc. Mathém.,” Paris, 1838, Vol. III. p. 100; “Biog. Gén.,” Vol. XVIII. pp. 418–420; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. I. p. 86; Vol. II. p. 697; Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. VIII. pp. 692–693; Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibl. Gén.,” Vol. II. p. 135.
Garcia d’Orta—Garzia ab Horto—Garcia del Huerto—Garcie du Jardin—a Portuguese physician and the author of “Coloquios dos simples ... pello douctor Garcia Dorta,” 1563, which was translated into French and united to the works of C. d’Acosta and Nic. Monardes (Christophile de la Coste et M. Nicholas Monard) in 1567, 1574 and 1579. The passage which Gilbert alludes to (in De Magnete, Book I. chap. xiv.), is to be found in the abridged Latin translation of Garcia’s work made by Charles de l’Ecluse, Antwerp, 1593, lib. i. cap. 56, pp. 178–179. Hakewill observes (“Apologie,” 1635, lib. ii. p. 165): “Remarkable indeed, that is which Garzias ab Horto writes concerning the loadstone in Simpl. Indiæ, lib. i. cap. 47.”
References.—“Biog. Gén.,” Vol. XXXVIII. p. 887; Machado (Barb.), “Bibliotheca Lusitana”; Denis (Ferdinand), “Bulletin du Bibliographe”; Pincio (Léon), “Biblioteca Oriental y Occidental”; “Histoire des Drogues par Antoine Collin,” Lyon, 1619; “Thesaur. Lit. Bot.,” 1851, p. 127.
Gauricus, Lucas (1476–1558), Italian mathematician and astronomer, one of whose pupils was César Scaliger, is the author of twenty-one different works (“Opera Omnia,” Basle, 1575), of which the best known are “Rerum naturalium et divinarum ...” 1540; “Isagogicus ... in tot am astrologiam prædictivam ...” 1546; “Tractatus Astrologicus,” 1552; “Tabulæ de primo mobili,” 1560.
Gilbert says (De Magnete, Book I. chap. i.) the astrologer Lucas Gauricus held that beneath the tail of Ursa Major is a loadstone, and that he assigns the loadstone (as well as the sardonyx and the onyx) not only to the planet Saturn, but also to Mars (with the diamond, jasper, and ruby), so that the loadstone, according to him, is ruled by two planets. Further, Lucas says that the loadstone belongs to the sign Virgo—and with a veil of mathematical erudition he covers many similar disgraceful stupidities.
References.—Ughelli (Ferdinando), “Italia Sacra,” Venetiis 1717–1722; Nicodemo (Francesco), “Biblioteca Napoletana”; “Chronicum Mathematicorum,” which prefaces the Almagest of Riccioli; “Biog. Gén.,” Vol. XIX. pp. 681–683; “La Grande Encycl.,” Vol. XVIII. p. 617; Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. VIII. p. 1087.
Geber—Yeber—Djaber—Abū-Mūsa-Jābir—Ibn Haiyān—Al-Tarsūsi—who, according to Aboulwefa (Michaud, “Dict.,” Vol. XVI. p. 100) lived in the eighth century A.D., is the earliest of the Great Arabian chemists or alchemists. Rhazès and Avicenna call him “the master of masters,” and, by the author of “The Lives of Alchemystical Philosophers,” he is designated as “the prince of those alchemical adepts who have appeared during the Christian Era.” As many as five hundred different alchemical works have been attributed to him, and a complete list of the most important will be found in M. F. Hœfer, “Histoire de la Chimie,” Paris, 1842.
References.—“Journal des Savants,” for May 1851, February 1892, pp. 118–128 passim, and for May 1892 (“Geber et ses œuvres alchimiques”), pp. 318–329; Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. VIII. pp. 1114–1115; Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibl. Gén.,” Vol. II. p. 147; Bolton (H. C.), “Chron. Hist. of Chem.,” pp. 985–986; “La Grande Encyclopédie,” Vol. XVIII. pp. 680–682; Gilbert, De Magnete, Book I. chap. vii.