Michael Stifel
Michael Stifel (also: Styfel, Stieffel, boots, * 1487 in Esslingen am Neckar, † April 19, 1567 in Jena ) was a German theologian, mathematician and reformer.
Life
Stifel came from affluent circumstances. Without theological training he entered the Augustinian monastery in Esslingen, where he was ordained a priest in 1511. In the monastery there were tensions when he emerged in 1522 with his work on Martin Luther from the Christian right, founded shaped empty Doctoris Martini Lutheran. He lived entirely in the mind of the Apocalypse. After his controversy with Thomas Murner he was no longer safe and fled to Hartmut von Kronberg to Frankfurt am Main.
Martin Luther brought him as a Protestant preacher under the Count Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld Mansfeld. There he began his mathematical studies, which led him to whimsical interpretations of the Bible. 1524 Stifel was appointed on the recommendation of the Luther Jörgern Castle Tollet at Grieskirchen (Upper Austria ). After aggravation of the situation (death of Leonhard Kaiser) Stifel in 1527 returned to Wittenberg. Stifel was the first Protestant preacher in Austria. When he returned to Wittenberg, Luther gave him the rectory in Lochau, introduced him there and trust him with the widow of his predecessor Günther.
The peaceful life led him back to the computing arts, to calculate the doomsday 1533 and the tragicomedy on the Lochauer Heath. Stifel dealt initially with the so-called " word statement ". He tried to interpret texts and letters of the Bible mathematically and so came in his essay From End of the World ( Wittenberg 1532) to the conclusion that the world on October 19, 1533 go by 8 clock in the morning. He had joined in this sense, with the result that farmers largely ceased their work His parish. Possessions were abandoned, Stifel away his books. Strangers pilgrimage to Lochau, which Stifel continuously decreased confession in advance of the predicted doomsday. As the demise not arrived, he was arrested and returned after four weeks of imprisonment not go back to Lochau. The phrase " expect a boot " or " talking a boot " goes back to this affair.
In 1541 he enrolled to study mathematics in Wittenberg. Luther argued for the harmless computer, which only issued sober arithmetic books and from that time to 1547 in Wood Village, now the district of Jessen ( Elster), as pastor worked. In the Smalcald War chased, he went to Haber Strohm at Konigsberg in Prussia, but returned back in 1554. Now he stood by Matthias Flacius 1559 went to Jena, where he became the first professor of mathematics at the University of Jena. When the trailers were toppled by Flacius in Jena, Nicholas Selnecker has kept him in his old age.
His main work is the Arithmetica integra (Nuremberg 1544), which was a summary of the known arithmetic and algebra ( Cardano's Ars magna appeared in 1545 ). In this he dealt among other negative numbers ( although he called numerical absurdi ), exponents, and logarithms of numbers. Stifel has written several books for everyday computing. He also treated magic triangles.
In Lochau, which had been renamed in the 16th century in Anna Castle, located since 1996 a fountain of sand stone and bronze, which was created by the Dresden sculptor Vincent Wanitschke.
Works
- From the Christ -shaped, quite empty founded Doctoris Martini Luther, a beautiful überuß artificially lyed: sampt his next ußlegung / brother Michael Styfel, Augustinians of Esslingen - sl, sa - 30 Bl: Woodcut, . (Eng. ). Go ahead and edit in: pamphlets from the early years of the Reformation, ed. by Otto Clemen, band 3.7, Leipzig 1909.
- Resist Doctor Murnars wrong erdycht lyed of the Undergang christlichs faith, Bruoder Michael Styfels v. Eßlingen Uszleg & Christian Gloß about it. S. L. 1522.
- Gospel of the toes Matthei pounds. at the XXV. mitt beautiful Christian ußlegung. Strasbourg 1522.
- Answer Michel Styfels uff Doctor Thoman Murmars murnarrische Phantasey. With e kurtzen description of the faith of Christ Darzu of Kayserlicher oberkeit, Wittenberg 1523.
- Gospel of the Prodigal Son Luce, xv. had about Ain human hatt Zwen fon [ et ] c. , sl, 1523.
- A rake Büchlin From EndChrist. Wittenberg 1532 ( digitized the University Library of Regensburg ).
- Arithmetica integra. Nuremberg 1544th Translation: Full course of arithmetic. German translation by Eberhard Knobloch and Otto Schönberger. King & Neumann, Würzburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8260-3561-6.