Jan Marek Marci

Jan Marek Marci was a Renaissance scientist and the head physician of the Kingdom of Bohemia in the 17th century. He made his name in history as the founder of spectroscopy and the author of many specialised treatises on astronomy, mechanics and medicine. He was the personal physician of Emperor Ferdinand III and Emperor Leopold I, rector of Charles-Ferdinand University and dean of its Faculty of Medicine.

Jan Marek Marci was born in Lanškroun in 1595. He studied at the Jesuit grammar school in Jindřichův Hradec and later philosophy and theology at the Jesuit college in Olomouc. He then went on to study medicine, graduating in 1625. Soon afterwards he himself started to teach at the Faculty of Medicine. Owing to his talent and skills as a physician he was appointed the head physicist (which at that time meant the head physician or hygienist) of the Kingdom of Bohemia. He treated many prominent figures of the time, including Emperor Ferdinand III and Emperor Leopold I. However, the name of J. M. Marci is still more associated with science than with his clinical work. He was a polyhistor in the true sense of the word. He devoted himself to astronomy, mathematics, biology and, to a great extent, physics, in which he achieved worldwide acclaim. His physics experiments were mostly related to optics, since, as a believer in Neoplatonism, he was fascinated by light. He studied the decomposition of light, refraction and reflection, examined the colours of soap bubbles and strove to explain the essence of phenomena associated with the behaviour of light at the interface of the mediums. He correctly explained, for instance, the essence of how rainbows are formed. In many of his optical experiments and claims he was ahead of some of the great names of his time, such as Newton, Boyle and Grimaldi. Owing to this he is still an important figure in the history of optics and was the founder of spectroscopy. In recognition of his work in astronomy the International Astronomical Union named one of the craters on the far side of the Moon after him. He also wrote this country’s first comprehensive treatise on the mechanics and collisions of bodies. His experiments with the collisions of bodies of various shapes and weights were the forerunner to today's theory of elasticity and plasticity, and he formulated the basis of this science twenty years before the famous Christian Huygens. The merits of his work led to his being granted noble status, and he chose the epithet “of Kronland” (an anagram of the name of his birthplace Landskron, or Lanškroun).

ŠTOLL, I.: Jan Marek Marci z Lanškrouna. Vesmír 75/1996, č. 9

 

ŠTOLL, I.: Jan Marek Marci – první český fyzik. Pokroky matematiky, fyziky a astronomie, 41/1996, č. 6, s. 285─291.

Jan Marek Marci (Author: Public domain)