Copernicus: Body-Snatchers and Astronomical Revolution

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a Fellows Lecture by Dr. Karl Galle at Linda Hall Library, “The Unknown Copernicus: Spies, Printers, Amazons, and Body Snatchers in an Age of Astronomical Revolution.” I’ve included a few images from the lecture and reception in the library’s Rare Book Room.

Dr. Galle’s April 28th lecture capped a six month visit to the library in order to study more on the life and work of Copernicus, a subject that began as a simple sidebar in his dissertation.

Copernicus' De revolutionibus orbium coelestium

While the place of Copernicus in the history of astronomy is well documented and quite secure, there were other aspects of his life that are far less appreciated, and paint a more fascinating portrait of a man that until now is usually only thought of as a ‘sixteenth century astronomer.’

Georg von Peuerbach's
Theoricae novae planetarium (1542)

What Dr. Galle found from his time among the open and closed stacks of the LHL’s rare books was that in addition to being next to impossible to make a living as an astronomer in Copernicus’s time, his ‘day job’ as a government functionary contained high adventure and intrigue, including when his apartment ransacked for a map that was thought to show geographic boundaries. He also had a physiologist acquaintance that were known to snatch bodies of the executed for truly scientific purposes.

Dr. Galle is now returning to his day job at the American University in Cairo, and hopes to have developed a book proposal by the end of 2016 dealing with his findings at the LHL.

Follow Dr. Galle on academia.edu

Georg von Peuerbach's
Theoricae novae planetarium...ab Erasmo Reinholdo...auctae (1553)

The Value of History at KCEPS: A Recap

Last Thursday and Friday saw the 35^th annual Kansas City Estate Planning Symposium set up shop inside the Overland Park Convention Center.

The symposium’s goal is as an educational resource for estate planners, wealth managers, trust officers and business advisors within our region on legal, tax, insurance, planning and practice issues, utilizing national speakers and resources wherever possible. This year’s topics included “Exploring the Tax Space Continuum, Planning for the Modern Family, Cyber Estate Planning and Administration, Hot Button Tax Issues for the IRS, Undue Influences, Ethics, Estate Planning Issues With Intra-Family Loans and Notes, Charitable Gift Planning Strategies Involving Closely-Held Businesses, and more.

What drew me to it was the networking opportunity it provided. All manner of estate planning attorneys, business and tax attorneys, CPAs, trust officers, planned giving professionals, financial planners and life underwriters were present.

Exhibitors tended to be those in orbit around the estate planning industry – banks, trusts, business valuers, an auctioneer, MU, etc, and we made many great contacts throughout the estate planning community here locally and nationally.

Noted jewelry appraiser Tracey Kahle and I set up shop together as exhibitors, and as it happened, had one of the better spots – near the end of the foyer, across from the main ballroom, dining room – not to mention the all-important restrooms, and beside the only easy access to the outdoors from that floor, the sun patio.

In an effort to make our table stand out, Tracey brought her microscope and works on gems and jewelry, while I brought my Edwardian British Diplomat uniform, circa 1900 Baden Police Spike Helmet, a pair of Belleek pieces, Majollica, and Orefors crystal in order to illustrate the range of items that are most often worth appraising in an estate planning setting.

After two days of great conversations and sitting in on a lecture or two, I was wiped out. I’d like to thank my colleague Tracey Kahle for alerting me to it, and the various underwriters.  I’m really glad I did it and look forward to next year!

Comet Hunter David Levy's Observing Logs at the Linda Hall Library

After finishing an appraisal inspection in midtown Kansas City a last month, I stopped by the Linda Hall Library of Science and Engineering on the UMKC campus.

Opened in 1946, the library is privately funded and is "the world’s foremost independent research library devoted to science, engineering, and technology."

It had been a while since I last visited and was reminded of the fact when I found a story online about how Canadian comet hunter David Levy had donated his observing logs to the library last September. How I missed that, I don't know.

The library has seen several significant renovations since I ast visited, including the William M. Deramus III Cosmology Theater, and an expanded area for Special Collections and Rare Books.

I was chatting with the assistant librarian for the History of Science about our both having attended the University of Virginia's Rare Book School and endured the Principles of Descriptive Bibliography course, when Bill Ashworth, instructor for the university’s History of Astronomy course I took over 20 years ago, came by. I had not seen him since Dr. J.A. Stack's memorial service at the library in 1997, and it was good to catch up.

Anyway, apart from getting a new library card, I wanted to see David Levy's observing logs, which are now on display. I was very pleasantly surprised to see his observing log from when he was eleven looked very much like my own at that age. Of course he went on to become of the 20^th century’s most prolific comet hunters. 

Perhaps the most famous of his discoveries was Shoemaker-Levy 9, a comet that fragmented and crashed into Jupiter over the course of six days in July 1994.

Here are some pics from the exhibit:

David Levy and Clyde Tombaugh

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