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Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers pp 369Cite as

Capra, Baldassarre

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Born Milan, (Italy), 1580

Died Milan, (Italy), 8 May 1626

Baldassarre Capra was involved in controversies with Galileo Galilei . Capra was born of noble parents. He studied medicine, astrology, and mathematics at Padua University. Both he and his father, Count Marco Aurelio Capra, became friends of Galilei, but this friendship soon ended. In October 1604, Capra observed a new star in Ophiucus or Serpens – it was the nova that inspired Johannes Kepler ’s De Stella novain pede Serpentarii, 1606 – and Galilei discussed the subject in three lectures without ever mentioning Capra. Capra’s response was to publish Consideratione astronomica … (Padua 1605) in which he claimed credit for the discovery. Galilei did not reply, at least in writing, but a second more serious episode happened. In 1607, Capra published Usus et fabrica circini … (Use and construction of geometrical dividers) at Padua, a book that was largely copied from Galilei’s Operazioni del compasso geometrico e militare(Use of...

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Selected References

  • Abetti, G. (1945). Amici e nemici di Galileo. Milan: Bompiani.

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  • Gliozzi, G. (1976). “Capra, Baldassarre.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani. Vol. 19, pp. 106–108. Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana.

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  • Heilbron, J.L. (2010). Galileo. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Università del Molise, Campobasso, Italy

    Ennio Badolati

Authors
  1. Ennio Badolati
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Correspondence to Ennio Badolati .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Science, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA, USA

    Thomas Hockey

  2. University of California, Irvine School of Physical Sciences, Irvine, CA, USA

    Virginia Trimble

  3. Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Thomas R. Williams

  4. Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA, USA

    Katherine Bracher

  5. York Univesity, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Richard A. Jarrell

  6. University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA

    Jordan D. Marché II

  7. University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    JoAnn Palmeri

  8. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Daniel W. E. Green

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Badolati, E. (2014). Capra, Baldassarre. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_237

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