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Sajnovics, Johann

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Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers

Alternate Name

Sajnovics, János

Born Tordas (Hungary), 12 May 1733

Died Pest (Budapest, Hungary), 4 May 1785

Johann Sajnovics is best known in astronomy for observations of the transit of Venus in 1769. He is also known for work in linguistics.

Sajnovics was born in the small town of Tordas and received his first education from private tutors. At the age of 15 he entered the Jesuit order and studied theology, philology, and astronomy at the Jesuit College in Tyrnau (Trnava). This boasted a well-equipped observatory where, in 1766, Sajnovics was appointed assistant. Maximilian Hell , who was the director of the Vienna Observatory, took a keen interest in the work of the Tyrnau observatory and became acquainted with Sajnovics, both men being of Hungarian origin.

Sajnovics’ participation in the expedition to observe the transit of Venus on 3 June 1769 was a turning point in his life. Hell undertook this expedition at the invitation of the Danish king, and when he departed for Vardoe...

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Selected References

  • Kisbán, Emil (1943). Tordasi és kálózi Sajnovics János 1733–1785. Debrecen, Budapest.

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  • Kisbán, Emil (1943). Johann Sajnovics. Leben und Werk eines ungarischen Bahnbrechers und Gelehrten. Budapest.

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  • Littrow, Karl Ludwig (1835). P. Hell’s Reise nach Wardoe bei Lappland und seine Beobachtung des Venus-Durchganges im Jahre 1769. Wien.

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  • Reprint. With an Introduction by Thomas A. Sebeck. Bloomington, Indiana University 1968 (Indiana University Publications; Uralic and Altaic Series 91); Bloomington 1997.

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  • Sajnovics, Johann (1770). Demonstratio. Ideoma Ungarorum et Lapponum idem esse. Regiae Scientiarum Societati Danicae praelecta Hafniae mense Januario Anno MDCLXX. Kopenhagen and Tyrnau.

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  • Sajnovics, Johann. Beweis da die Sprache der Ungarn und Lappen dieselbe ist. Aus dem Lateinischen übertragen von Monika Ehlers. Mit Anm. und Nachwort hrsg. von Gyula Décsy und Wolfgang Veenker. Wiesbaden 1972 (Veröffentlichungen der Societats Uralo-Altaica 5).

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  • Sajnovics, Johann (1778). Idea astronomiae honoribus Regiae Universitatis Budensis dicata. Buda: Landerer; Reprint Székesfehérvár 1993.

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  • Die Geschichte der Universitätssternwarte Wien. Dargestellt anhand ihrer historischen Instrumente und eines Typoskripts von Johann Steinmayr. Hrsg. von Jürgen Hamel, Isolde Müller und Thomas Posch. Frankfurt a. M. 2010 (Acta Historica Astronomiae 38).

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Acknowledgments

Translated by Peter Nockolds.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universität Landau, Landau in der Pfalz, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany

    Jürgen Hamel

Authors
  1. Jürgen Hamel
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Correspondence to Jürgen Hamel .

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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Hamel, J. (2014). Sajnovics, Johann. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_9369

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