Giovanni Antonio Magini

Giovanni Antonio Magini (1555 to 1617), known in Latin as Maginus, was an Italian astronomer, astrologer, cartographer and mathematician born in Padua. After philosophy studies at Bologna he published his Ephemerides of the heavenly motions in 1582, and in 1588 he was chosen over Galileo for the mathematics chair at the University of Bologna after the death of Egnatio Danti. He defended an earth-centred cosmos and devised a system of eleven rotating spheres, wrote De Planis Triangulis on quadrants in surveying and astronomy, and published trigonometric tables in 1606. His reduced edition of Ptolemy's Geographia went through many printings, and his Atlas of Italy appeared after his death. He corresponded with Tycho Brahe, Clavius and Kepler and was an early critic of Galileo's telescopic discoveries. The lunar crater Maginus is named for him.