A.D. 1623.—Hervart—Heroart—Herwart—Hörwarth (Joannes Fridericus), son of Johann Georg Hervart ab Hohenburg, the well-known scientist (1554–1622), who during forty-five years occupied the post of Bavarian Chancellor under three reigning princes—completes his father’s work entitled “Admiranda ethnicæ theologiæ ...” which, Larousse says (“Dictionnaire Universel,” Vol. IX. p. 250), was published at Munich, 1624, and in which he demonstrates that the earlier Egyptian divinities were natural phenomena personified and adored under symbolic names. Michaud, who reiterates this (“Biographie Universelle,” Vol. XIX. p. 364), speaks of the edition which appeared at Munich in 1626, and he also states that, at the end of the latter, will be found “Exacta temporum ... chronologiæ vulgaris errores,” which is the continuation of the “Chronologia Nova,” left unfinished by the Bavarian Chancellor. This is, in fact, so mentioned in the only copy possessed by the British Museum, which was published by J. F. Hervart ab Hohenburg at Ingolstadii, 1623, and of which the title reads: “Admiranda Ethnicæ Theologiæ Mysteria propalata. Ubi lapidem magnetem antiquissimis passim nationibus pro Deo-deocultum: et artem qua navigationes magneticæ per universum orbem instituerentur....”
Libri’s “Catalogue,” 1861, Part I. p. 405, No. 3703, has the following entry: “Admiranda Ethnicæ ... ubi Lapidem Magnetem antiquissimis Nationibus pro Deo cultum commonstratur ...” Ingolstadii, 1623. The work itself endeavours to prove that the loadstone’s properties were well known to the ancients.
The “General Biographical Dictionary” of Alexander Chalmers, London, 1814, Vol. XVII. p. 426, makes following entry: “Herwart (or Hervart) John George, Chancellor of Bavaria at the beginning of the seventeenth century, published some works wherein his learning was more displayed than his judgment, in supporting the most extravagant systems. Two of his works are: ‘Chronologia nova et vera,’ in two parts, 1622 and 1626, and ‘Admiranda Ethnicæ Theologicæ Mysteria propalata, de antiquissima veterum nationum superstitione, qua lapis Magnes pro Deo habitus colebatur,’ Monach, 1626, quarto. It was here asserted that the ancient Egyptians worshipped the magnet,” etc. (see Deveria, under B.C. 321).
References.—Allusions to Hervart, made at p. 546, Vol. XXIV. of Dr. Hœfer’s 1861 “Nouvelle Biographie Générale,” or at p. 546, Vol. XXVIII of the 1858 edition, and also at p. 163, Vol. II of the “Bibliographie Générale de l’Astronomie,” by Houzeau et Lancaster, Bruxelles, 1882. Likewise Chr. G. Jöcher, “Compendiöses Gelehrten Lexicon,” Leipzig, 1787, Vol. II. p. 1969, and “A New General Biogr. Dict.,” London, 1850, Vol. VIII. p. 304.
A.D. 1624.—Gunter (Edmund), professor of astronomy at Gresham College, publishes his work “Of the Sector, Cross-Staff, and other Instruments,” at Chap. V of the second book of which he gives the result of the eight observations he made on the variation of the variation “in various parts of the ground” at Limehouse on the 13th of June, 1622. His observations of the declination, as given by Prof. Gellibrand, are detailed at Chap. I of Walker’s “Ter. and Cos. Mag.,” Cambridge, 1866.
References.—De La Rive, “Electricity,” etc., Vol. I. p. 165; Poggendorff, “Geschichte der Physik,” Leipzig, 1879, p. 275.
A.D. 1625.—Carpenter (Nathaniel), Dean of Ireland, well-known mathematician, publishes at Oxford, “Geography delineated forth in two bookes, containing the sphæricall and topicall parts thereof,” wherein he thus alludes to Dr. Gilbert’s “De Magnete”: “Magneticall proprieties, I find in ancient writers, as little knowne as their causes; and if any matter herein were broached, it was merely conjectural, and depending on no certain demonstration; neither had we any certain or satisfactory knowledge of the thing vntill such time as it pleased God to raise vp one of our countrymen, D. Gilbert, who, to his euerlasting praise, hath trodden out a new path to Philosophie, and on the Loadstone, erected a large Trophie to commend him to posterity. This famous Doctor being as pregnant in witty apprehension as diligent in curious search of naturall causes, after many experiments and long enquiry, found the causes of most magneticall motions and proprieties hid in the magneticall temper and constitution of the Earth, and that the earth it selfe was a meere magneticall body challenging all those proprieties, and more than haue expressed themselves in the Loadstone; which opinion of his was no sooner broached than it was embraced, and wel-commed by many prime wits as well English as Forraine. Insomuch that it hath of late taken large root and gotten much ground of our vulgar Philosophie.”
References.—“Nature,” September 26, 1901; “Dict. of Nat. Biogr.,” Vol. IX. pp. 161–162; Larousse, “Dict.,” Vol. IV. p. 438; Prince’s “Worthies” (1810), pp. 173–175, 603.
A.D. 1625.—Naudé (Gabriel), a celebrated French savant and one of the most learned of his day, also physician to King Louis XIII, and an intimate friend of Gassendi, is the author of “Apologie pour tous,” etc. (“Apology for great men falsely accused of magic”), of which other editions appeared in 1652, 1669 and 1712. The magico-theosophical philosophy, as Madame Blavatsky expresses it, is fully indicated in his work, and he proved to be the warmest defender of the doctrines of occult magnetism, of which he was one of the first propounders.
References.—“Biog. Générale,” Vol. XXXVII. pp. 514–518; P. Hallé, “Gab. Naudé Elogium”; N. Sanson, “Hist. Chr. d’Abbeville,” 1653; Sainte Beuve, “Portraits Littéraires,” 1855; Alf. Franklin, “Hist. de la Biblioth. Mazarine,” 1860.