Martin Mijtens the Elder
Peter Martin Mijtens the Elder spelled Meytens or Mytens was a Dutch-Swedish painter. Trained in the Netherlands, he worked principally in Sweden, he was born at The Hague in the Netherlands into a family of artists. His father, Isaac Mijtens and son Martin van Meytens, known as "The Younger", were both painters, his uncle Daniël Mijtens and his cousins Daniel Mijtens the Younger and Johannes Mytens were painters as well. He went to Stockholm with his older brother Dietrich Mijtens. In 1681, he decided shortly after was married to Johanna de Bruyn, his earliest works were simple compared with nobleman David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl, the most popular portrait painter at that time. To maintain his clientele, Mijtens' works became more colorful and dramatic, although it has been said that he sacrificed character. Many of his paintings were left unsigned, which has led to them being confused with Ehrenstrahl's work, although certain small stylistic differences can be perceived. Despite the competition from Ehrenstrahl and his nephew David von Krafft, he earned a sufficient income to amass a significant art collection.
He had several students, including Lucas von Breda. He trained his son, who went to Vienna and adopted the surname "Van Meytens", he suffered from some sort of senility or insanity in his years. He died in Stockholm during 1736. After his death, his collection was sold to Prussian diplomat Count Gustav Adolf von Gotter. Much of it came into the possession of Charles Eugene, Duke of Württemberg. Posthumous criticism was harsh. Swedish diplomat Carl Gustaf Tessin called him "an old paint-spoiler", he was forgotten until 1841, when his work was reevaluated by literary and art critic Nils Arfwidsson who wrote about him in Frey, a magazine devoted to the arts and sciences. Boo von Malmborg Martin van Meytens d.a. - En konstnär från Sveriges storhetstid Marije Osnabrugge Netherlandish immigrant painters in Naples Self-portrait of Mijtens @ the Östergötlands County Museum
Alfred Nobel
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was a Swedish businessman, engineer and philanthropist. Nobel held 355 different patents; the synthetic element nobelium was named after him. Known for inventing dynamite, Nobel owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments. After reading a premature obituary which condemned him for profiting from the sales of arms, he bequeathed his fortune to institute the Nobel Prizes, his name survives in modern-day companies such as Dynamit Nobel and AkzoNobel, which are descendants of mergers with companies Nobel himself established. Born in Stockholm, Alfred Nobel was the third son of Immanuel Nobel, an inventor and engineer, Carolina Andriette Nobel; the couple had eight children. The family was impoverished, only Alfred and his three brothers survived past childhood. Through his father, Alfred Nobel was a descendant of the Swedish scientist Olaus Rudbeck, in his turn the boy was interested in engineering explosives, learning the basic principles from his father at a young age.
Alfred Nobel's interest in technology was inherited from his father, an alumnus of Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Following various business failures, Nobel's father moved to Saint Petersburg in 1837 and grew successful there as a manufacturer of machine tools and explosives, he started work on the torpedo. In 1842, the family joined him in the city. Now prosperous, his parents were able to send Nobel to private tutors and the boy excelled in his studies in chemistry and languages, achieving fluency in English, French and Russian. For 18 months, from 1841 to 1842, Nobel went to the only school he attended as a child, the Jacobs Apologistic School in Stockholm; as a young man, Nobel studied with chemist Nikolai Zinin. There he met Ascanio Sobrero. Sobrero opposed the use of nitroglycerin, as it was unpredictable, exploding when subjected to heat or pressure, but Nobel became interested in finding a way to control and use nitroglycerin as a commercially usable explosive, as it had much more power than gunpowder.
At age 18, he went to the United States for one year to study, working for a short period under Swedish-American inventor John Ericsson, who designed the American Civil War ironclad USS Monitor. Nobel filed his first patent, an English patent for a gas meter, in 1857, while his first Swedish patent, which he received in 1863, was on'ways to prepare gunpowder'; the family factory produced armaments for the Crimean War, but had difficulty switching back to regular domestic production when the fighting ended and they filed for bankruptcy. In 1859, Nobel's father left his factory in the care of the second son, Ludvig Nobel, who improved the business. Nobel and his parents returned to Sweden from Russia and Nobel devoted himself to the study of explosives, to the safe manufacture and use of nitroglycerin. Nobel invented a detonator in 1863, in 1865 designed the blasting cap. On 3 September 1864, a shed used for preparation of nitroglycerin exploded at the factory in Heleneborg, killing five people, including Nobel's younger brother Emil.
Dogged and unfazed by more minor accidents, Nobel went on to build further factories, focusing on improving the stability of the explosives he was developing. Nobel invented dynamite in 1867, a substance easier and safer to handle than the more unstable nitroglycerin. Dynamite was patented in the US and the UK and was used extensively in mining and the building of transport networks internationally. In 1875 Nobel invented gelignite, more stable and powerful than dynamite, in 1887 patented ballistite, a predecessor of cordite. Nobel was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1884, the same institution that would select laureates for two of the Nobel prizes, he received an honorary doctorate from Uppsala University in 1893. Nobel's brothers Ludvig and Robert exploited oilfields along the Caspian Sea and became hugely rich in their own right. Nobel amassed great wealth through the development of these new oil regions. During his life Nobel was issued 355 patents internationally and by his death his business had established more than 90 armaments factories, despite his pacifist character.
In 1888, the death of his brother Ludvig caused several newspapers to publish obituaries of Alfred in error. One French newspaper published an obituary titled "Le marchand de la mort est mort". Nobel was appalled at the idea that he would be remembered in this way, his decision to posthumously donate the majority of his wealth to found the Nobel Prize has been credited at least in part to him wanting to leave a behind a better legacy. Nobel found that when nitroglycerin was incorporated in an absorbent inert substance like kieselguhr it became safer and more convenient to handle, this mixture he patented in 1867 as "dynamite". Nobel demonstrated his explosive for the first time that year, at a quarry in Redhill, England. In order to help reestablish his name and improve the image of his business from the earlier controversies associated with the dangerous explosives, Nobel had considered naming the powerful substance "Nobel's Safety Powder", but settled with Dynamite instead, referring to the Greek word for "power".
Nobel combined nitroglyce
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the emperors Tiberius, Claudius and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors; these two works span the history of the Roman Empire from the death of Augustus, in 14 AD, to the years of the First Jewish–Roman War, in 70 AD. There are substantial lacunae in the surviving texts, including a gap in the Annals, four books long. Tacitus' other writings discuss oratory and the life of his father-in-law, the general responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain focusing on his campaign in Britannia. Tacitus is considered to be one of the greatest Roman historians, he lived in what has been called the Silver Age of Latin literature, is known for the brevity and compactness of his Latin prose, as well as for his penetrating insights into the psychology of power politics. Details about his personal life are scarce.
What little is known comes from scattered hints throughout his work, the letters of his friend and admirer Pliny the Younger, an inscription found at Mylasa in Caria. Tacitus was born in 57 to an equestrian family. One scholar's suggestion of Sextus has gained no approval. Most of the older aristocratic families failed to survive the proscriptions which took place at the end of the Republic, Tacitus makes it clear that he owed his rank to the Flavian emperors; the claim that he was descended from a freedman is derived from a speech in his writings which asserts that many senators and knights were descended from freedmen, but this is disputed. His father may have been the Cornelius Tacitus who served as procurator of Germania. There is no mention of Tacitus suffering such a condition, but it is possible that this refers to a brother—if Cornelius was indeed his father; the friendship between the younger Pliny and Tacitus leads some scholars to conclude that they were both the offspring of wealthy provincial families.
The province of his birth remains unknown, though various conjectures suggest Gallia Belgica, Gallia Narbonensis or Northern Italy. His marriage to the daughter of Narbonensian senator Gnaeus Julius Agricola implies that he came from Gallia Narbonensis. Tacitus' dedication to Lucius Fabius Justus in the Dialogus may indicate a connection with Spain, his friendship with Pliny suggests origins in northern Italy. No evidence exists, that Pliny's friends from northern Italy knew Tacitus, nor do Pliny's letters hint that the two men had a common background. Pliny Book 9, Letter 23 reports that, when he was asked if he was Italian or provincial, he gave an unclear answer, so was asked if he was Tacitus or Pliny. Since Pliny was from Italy, some infer that Tacitus was from the provinces Gallia Narbonensis, his ancestry, his skill in oratory, his sympathetic depiction of barbarians who resisted Roman rule have led some to suggest that he was a Celt. This belief stems from the fact that the Celts who had occupied Gaul prior to the Roman invasion were famous for their skill in oratory, had been subjugated by Rome.
As a young man, Tacitus studied rhetoric in Rome to prepare for a career in law and politics. In 77 or 78, he married daughter of the famous general Agricola. Little is known of their domestic life, save that Tacitus loved the outdoors, he started his career under Vespasian, but entered political life as a quaestor in 81 or 82 under Titus. He advanced through the cursus honorum, becoming praetor in 88 and a quindecimvir, a member of the priestly college in charge of the Sibylline Books and the Secular games, he gained acclaim as an orator. He served in the provinces from c. 89 to c. 93, either in command of a legion or in a civilian post. He and his property survived Domitian's reign of terror, but the experience left him jaded and ashamed at his own complicity, giving him the hatred of tyranny evident in his works; the Agricola, chs. 44–45, is illustrative: Agricola was spared those years during which Domitian, leaving now no interval or breathing space of time, but, as it were, with one continuous blow, drained the life-blood of the Commonwealth...
It was not long before our hands dragged Helvidius to prison, before we gazed on the dying looks of Mauricus and Rusticus, before we were steeped in Senecio's innocent blood. Nero turned his eyes away, did not gaze upon the atrocities which he ordered. From his seat in the Senate, he became suffect consul in 97 during the reign of Nerva, being the first of his family to do so. During his tenure, he reached the height of his fame as an orator when he delivered the funeral oration for the famous veteran soldier Lucius Verginius Rufus. In the following year, he wrote and published the Agricola and Germania, foreshadowing the literary endeav
Anatomical theatre
An anatomical theatre was an institution used in teaching anatomy at early modern universities. The theatre was a room of amphitheatrical shape, in the centre of which would stand the table on which the dissections of human or animal bodies took place. Around this table were several circular, elliptic or octagonal tiers with railings, steeply tiered so that students or other observers could stand and get a good view of the dissection from above and unencumbered by the spectators in the rows in front, it was common to display skeletons at some place in the theatre. The first anatomical theatre is still preserved. Other early examples include the Theatrum Anatomicum of Leiden University, built in 1596 and reconstructed in 1988, the Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginnasio in Bologna; the anatomical theatre completed in 1663 by medical professor and amateur architect Olaus Rudbeck for the University of Uppsala is located in the idiosyncratic cupola which Rudbeck placed on top of the Gustavianum building, at the time the main building of the university.
Rudbeck had spent time in Leiden, both the anatomical theatre and the botanical garden he founded in Uppsala in 1655 were influenced by his experiences there. Today Gustavianum is open for the public under the name Museum Gustavianum. Thomas Jefferson built an anatomical theatre for the University of Virginia, it was demolished in 1939 after the construction of Alderman Library nearby. History of anatomy Operating theater "Anatomical Theatre". CTSNet: The Cardiothoracic Surgery Network. Archived from the original on May 19, 2006. Retrieved December 15, 2005. - A model of the anatomical theatre in Padua "Anatomical Theatre". CTSNet: The Cardiothoracic Surgery Network. Archived from the original on May 19, 2006. Retrieved December 15, 2005. - Engraving of the anatomical theatre at Leiden University. "The history of Bologna University's Medical School over the centuries. A short review". Acta Dermatovenerologica Alpina, Pannonica et Adriatica. Archived from the original on 3 December 2005. Retrieved December 15, 2005.
- with an image of the Renaissance anatomical theatre at the Bologna University "Digging in the Dirt". Decweb. Retrieved December 15, 2005. - has a section on Jefferson's anatomical theatre "Anatomical Theatre". Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities. Retrieved December 15, 2005
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer and astrologer. He lived in the city of Alexandria in the Roman province of Egypt, wrote in Koine Greek, held Roman citizenship; the 14th-century astronomer Theodore Meliteniotes gave his birthplace as the prominent Greek city Ptolemais Hermiou in the Thebaid. This attestation is quite late, and, according to Gerald Toomer, the translator of his Almagest into English, there is no reason to suppose he lived anywhere other than Alexandria, he died there around AD 168. Ptolemy wrote several scientific treatises, three of which were of importance to Byzantine and Western European science; the first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest, although it was entitled the Mathematical Treatise and known as the Great Treatise. The second is the Geography, a thorough discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world; the third is the astrological treatise in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day.
This is sometimes known as the Apotelesmatika but more known as the Tetrabiblos from the Greek meaning "Four Books" or by the Latin Quadripartitum. Ptolemaeus is a Greek name, it occurs once in Greek mythology, is of Homeric form. It was common among the Macedonian upper class at the time of Alexander the Great, there were several of this name among Alexander's army, one of whom made himself pharaoh in 323 BC: Ptolemy I Soter, the first king of the Ptolemaic Kingdom. All male kings of Hellenistic Egypt, until Egypt became a Roman province in 30 BC ending the Macedonian family's rule, were Ptolemies; the name Claudius is a Roman nomen. It would have suited custom if the first of Ptolemy's family to become a citizen took the nomen from a Roman called Claudius, responsible for granting citizenship. If, as was common, this was the emperor, citizenship would have been granted between AD 41 and 68; the astronomer would have had a praenomen, which remains unknown. The ninth-century Persian astronomer Abu Maʿshar presents Ptolemy as a member of Egypt's royal lineage, stating that the descendants of Alexander's general Ptolemy I, who ruled Egypt, were wise "and included Ptolemy the Wise, who composed the book of the Almagest".
Abu Maʿshar recorded a belief that a different member of this royal line "composed the book on astrology and attributed it to Ptolemy". We can evidence historical confusion on this point from Abu Maʿshar's subsequent remark "It is sometimes said that the learned man who wrote the book of astrology wrote the book of the Almagest; the correct answer is not known." There is little evidence on the subject of Ptolemy's ancestry, apart from what can be drawn from the details of his name. Ptolemy can be shown to have utilized Babylonian astronomical data, he was a Roman citizen, but was ethnically either a Greek or a Hellenized Egyptian. He was known in Arabic sources as "the Upper Egyptian", suggesting he may have had origins in southern Egypt. Arabic astronomers and physicists referred to him by his name in Arabic: بَطْلُمْيوس Baṭlumyus. Ptolemy's Almagest is the only surviving comprehensive ancient treatise on astronomy. Babylonian astronomers had developed arithmetical techniques for calculating astronomical phenomena.
Ptolemy, claimed to have derived his geometrical models from selected astronomical observations by his predecessors spanning more than 800 years, though astronomers have for centuries suspected that his models' parameters were adopted independently of observations. Ptolemy presented his astronomical models in convenient tables, which could be used to compute the future or past position of the planets; the Almagest contains a star catalogue, a version of a catalogue created by Hipparchus. Its list of forty-eight constellations is ancestral to the modern system of constellations, but unlike the modern system they did not cover the whole sky. Across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa in the Medieval period, it was the authoritative text on astronomy, with its author becoming an mythical figure, called Ptolemy, King of Alexandria; the Almagest was preserved, in Arabic manuscripts. Because of its reputation, it was sought and was translated twice into Latin in the 12th century, once in Sicily and again in Spain.
Ptolemy's model, like those of his predecessors, was geocentric and was universally accepted until the appearance of simpler heliocentric models during the scientific revolution. His Planetary Hypotheses went beyond the mathematical model of the Almagest to present a physical realization of the universe as a set of nested spheres, in which he used the epicycles of his planetary model to compute the dimensions of the universe, he estimated the Sun was at an average dis
Johannes Rudbeckius
Bishop Johannes Rudbeckius or Bishop Johannes Rudbeck, bishop at Västerås, from 1619 until his death, personal chaplain to King Gustavus II Adolphus. In his capacity of bishop he was restlessly active in organising, he founded the Swedish system of parish registers, ordering his parsons to file comments on every person in the parish. In 1623 he founded the first gymnasium, a school of secondary education, in Västerås, but he took care to introduce a rough kind of compulsory schooling for all children in his diocese, he founded the first school for girls in Sweden. Rudbeckius was considered politically suspect by his superiors but his reforms were introduced in the whole country. With his second wife Magdalena Hising, he had a son Olaus Rudbeckius, Sr., to become the most important Swedish scientist of the 17th century. Bishop Rudbeckius' granddaughter, Wendela Rudbeck, married Peter Olai Nobelius, from whom descends Alfred Nobel. Bishop Rudbeckius is notable for calling what is now known as the Dalecarlian horse "the Devil's plaything."
Church of Sweden Rudbeckius, Johannes Johannis i Herman Hofberg, Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon
Rector (academia)
A rector is a senior official in an educational institution, can refer to an official in either a university or a secondary school. Outside the English-speaking world the rector is the most senior official in a university, whilst in the United States the most senior official is referred to as President and in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth of Nations the most senior official is the Chancellor, whose office is ceremonial and titular; the term and office of a rector can be referred to as a rectorate. The title is used in universities in Europe, and is common in Latin American countries. It is used in Brunei, Russia, the Philippines, Indonesia and the Middle East. In the ancient universities of Scotland the office is sometimes referred to as Lord Rector, is the third most senior official, is responsible for chairing the University Court; the head of a university in Germany is called a president, rector magnificus or rectrix magnifica, as in some Belgian universities. In Dutch universities, the rector magnificus is the most publicly prominent member of the board, responsible for the scientific agenda of the university.
In the Netherlands, the rector is, not the chair of the university board. The chair has, in the most influence over the management of the University. In some countries, including Germany, the position of head teacher in secondary schools is designated as rector. In the Netherlands, the terms "rector" and "conrector" are used for high school directors; this is the case in some Maltese secondary schools. In the Scandinavian countries, the head of a university or a gymnasium is called a rektor. In Sweden and Norway, this term is used for the heads of primary schools. In Finland, the head of a primary school or secondary schools is called a rector provided the school is of sufficient size in terms of faculty and students, otherwise the title is headmaster; the head of some Finnish universities is called chancellor. In the Iberian Peninsula, Portugal's and Spain's university heads or presidents have the title; those universities whose foundation has been approved by the Pope, as e.g. the rector of the University of Coimbra, the oldest Portuguese university, is referred to as Magnífico Reitor.
The others are referred to as Excelentíssimo Senhor Reitor. In Spain, all Rectors must be addressed as Señor Rector Magnífico according to the law, but the Rector of the University of Salamanca, the oldest on the Iberian Peninsula, is styled according to academic protocol as Excelentísimo y Ilustrísimo Señor Profesor Doctor Don, Rector Magnífico de la Universidad de Salamanca. In a few "Crown lands" of the Austrian Empire, one seat in the Landtag was reserved for the rector of the capital's university, notably: Graz in Steiermark, Innsbruck in Tirol, Wien in Nieder-Österreich. Today Austrian universities are headed by a Rectorate consisting of one Rector and 3-5 additional Vizerectors; the Rector is the CEO of the university. The heads of Czech universities are called the rektor; the rector acts in the name of the university and decides the university's affairs unless prohibited by law. The rector is nominated by the University Academic Senate and appointed by the President of the Czech Republic.
The nomination must be agreed by a simple majority of all senators, while a dismissal must be agreed by at least three fifths of all senators. The vote to elect or repeal a rector is secret; the term of office is four years and a person may hold it for at most two consecutive terms. The rector appoints vice-rectors. Rectors' salaries are determined directly by the Minister of Education. Among the most important rectors of Czech universities were reformer Jan Hus, physician Jan Jesenius and representative of Enlightenment Josef Vratislav Monse. Jiřina Popelová became the first female Rector in 1950; the rectors are addressed "Your Magnificence Rector". In Danish, rektor is the title used in referring to the heads of universities, schools of commerce and construction, etc. Rektor may be used for the head of any educational institution above the primary school level, where the head is referred to as a'skoleinspektør'. In universities, the second-ranked official of governance is known as prorektor. Most English universities are formally headed by "chancellors".
In a few colleges, the equivalent person is called a "president", "provost", or "warden". At two Oxford colleges, Lincoln College and Exeter College, the head is called "rector". At Oxford and Cambridge, the university's overall head is called "chancellor", but this is chiefly a ceremonial position while the academic head of each university is the "vice-chancellor". At St Chad's College, one of the two so-called "recognised colleges" of the University of Durham, there is a "rector" as titular head while the academic head is the "principal"; the University of London has a chancellor (a
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 188–221. (See p. 216.)
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 