Quotes:Metius, Adriaan Adriaanszoon

Zirkoff, Boris

Metius, Adriaan Adriaanszoon (also Schelven). Netherlandish astronomer, geometer and philosopher, b. at Alkmaar, Dec. 9, 1571; d. at Franeker, Sept. 6, 1635. At first studied law and medicine at Franeker and Leyden, but did not practise. Stayed for a while at Uraniborg, with Tycho Brahe, to perfect himself in astronomy which he had studied with his father. Continued studies at Rostock and Jena. From 1598 on, held the chair of philosophy and mathematics at Univ, of Franeker; also taught navigation, topography and fortification, and made astronomical tools. He published, 1600, a new value for π, namely 355/113’, which had been calculated by his father, Adriaan Anthoniszoon. Accorded title of doctor of medicine by the Senate, for his knowledge of the healing art. Works: Doctrinae sphericae libri, Franeker, 1598.— Universae astronomicae. . . institutio, ibid., 1605. 4 vols.—Calendarium perpetium, Rotterdam, 1627.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 7, p. 383