Zach’s Collected Correspondence

ZACH'S COLLECTED CORRESPONDENCE The Collected Correspondence of Baron Franz Xaver von Zach. Edited by Clifford J. Cunningham (Star Lab Press, Kitchener, Ontario, 2004-2009). Pp. 100, 150, 190, 166, 232, 82 in 6 vols. $60 per vol. ISBN 978-0-9822411-1-0.A very important figure in the European scientific community in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Baron Franz Xaver von (Pest 1754 - Paris 1832) was an astronomer, surveyor, geographer and science historian. But his major achievements, write Peter Brosche and Magda Vargha in their introduction to vol. ii, were rather of a 'catalytic' nature: as stimulant, mediator for science. . . . The history of astronomy and the exact geoscience of Goethe's time cannot be written ignoring Zach (ii, 55). In particular, played a catalytic role in 1798, when Lalande's visit to the Seeberg Observatory led to a meeting between astronomers that is today seen as the first German Astronomical Congress, and again two years later when he promoted the foundation of the first Astronomical Society. also founded and edited three journals which for a quarter of a century served as a point of reference and platform for debate for numerous scientists in Germany and other countries, including Gauss, Bessel, Encke, Struve, Lindenau, Horner, Olbers, Herschel, Littrow, Ciccolini, Inghirami, Carlini, Plana and Amici. His dream was the discovery of the missing planet between Mars and Jupiter. He organised the hunt by founding an astronomical society and igniting a systematic survey - both first achievements! When Giuseppe Piazzi found the first planetoid it was who sped up and promoted the development of the entire field by his scientific magazines. He maybe even made it possible, for several of the newly discovered planets would have been lost again if a speedy exchange of observations and calculations of the orbit had not been arranged by him (ii, 15).Baron von corresponded regularly with scientists in many European countries. The letters published here are only a selection of the surviving portion of what must have been an enormous correspondence. The chief merit of this edition by Cliff Cunningham is to have made them available for the first time in an English translation.Vol. i contains the correspondence (1800-1803) between and the Polish mathematician and astronomer Jan Sniadecki (1756-1830), who worked at the Krakow Observatory. These letters convey the excitement of the discovery of the first two asteroids, Ceres and Pallas, but they also discuss the duties of the members of the Astronomical Society, of which served as secretary. …

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