Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/691

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MULLER


629


MULLOCK


work. The fruits soon appeared. The latitude of the place (49° 24') and the obliquity of the ecliptic (23° 28') were determined free from the effects of re- fraction; the planet Venus was Miadi" llic link between the fixed stars and the sun, iiislind nf (he moon; the great comet of 1472 was obser\ rd ilmini; January and February in such a way that its orbit could be calcu- lated. Halley writes: "This comet is the very first of which any proper observations have been handed down to us"" (Phil. Trans., XXIV, 1706, p. 1883). The earlier observations of the comet of 1456 by Tosca- nelli, were unknown to Halley, although the comet happened to be the one that bears his name. The printing office of Wall her, with the improved methods and types of Mullcr, turned out Peurbach's New Theory of the Comets and an astronomical poem of Manilius (1472-73); then MUller's own "Calendarium Novum" and his astronomical " Ephemerides " 1473-74) with the positions of the sun, moon, and planets, ami the eclipses from 1475 to 1506. The lat- ter guided Cciluinbiis to America and enabled him to predict the lunar eclipse of 29 February, 1504.

Muller's scientific activity in Nuremberg was brought to a close by a letter of Sixtus IV calling him to Rome for the purpose of finally settling the reform of the calendar. Gassendi relates, on the authority of Peter Ramus (1515-72) and of Paul Jovius (Giovio; 1483-1552), both humanists, that Miiller was created Bishop of Ratisbon. Jovius writes in his "Eulogies appended to the true pictures of celebrated men" in the museum of Como (p. 75): "Ab hac commenda- tione cruditi nominis creatus est a Xysto Quarto Ratisponcnsis Episcopus" etc. This testimony of a man contemporary of Regiomontanus is not improb- able, since by this dignitary title the pope could give more force to his invitation. Yet it seems certain that Miiller never occupied the episcopal chair. Whether a papal coiniiiand was needed, or whether I I'e world's problem of ailjustiuK the calendar had in it.srlf sufficient attraction, MiUk'r was again in Rome towards the end of 1475. Death overtook him in less than a year at the age of forty, and the Pantheon is said to be his resting-place, although his tomb is unknown. The cause of his death was, according to Jovius, a pesti- lence then raging in Rome; but according to Ramus, poison administered to him by the sons of his enemy, George of Trebizond. The historical exactness of Ramus, however, is very doubtful from his poetical stories of the iron fly and the wooden eagle, said to have been constructed in the laboratories of Nu- remberg. In consecjuence of the untimely death of Muller, many of his works and manuscripts were lost, in particular everything on the reform of the calendar. Some works were published posthumously, like the five books on triangles and the quadrature of the circle (Niirenil)erg, 1533); his trigonometry (1541); the "Scriiita CI. Math. fo. Regiomontani" (1544); the "Epitome" on Ptolemy's Almagest (Venice, 1496) ; and jjart of his correspondence with Bessarion, Roder, Bianchini, and other scientists. The principal works are reviewed by Gassendi; the astronomical books are described by Delambre; and the mathe- matical treatises are discussed by Cantor. Bibli- ographies on Regiomontanus are enumerated by Stern and Ziegler. A statue of MUUer was erected in the market-place of Konigsberg in 1873.

Jovius, rmn^/u"' rlnmrnm inrorum; Ramu.s, Scholarum malhe- matkarum 1:1, n \ \ \ I I Hasle, 1569), 65; Gassendi. Opera, V (Lyons, lll.'.S}, 1// ^ilhiwn; Montucla, Ilialoire des Mathe- Tnatique.-i (Ann. \'ll>, I, "itI-5-17: DEi.AMnnE. Hi^tnire de I'a^tro- nomie du ,U" ;. ' 1;. '['iri-', ivvn, ■>s-,-Xli'-,- Stern in EscH-

Gesch. der II , ' - / l' \ ■ ' I -. .;7-.").57: Zeig^

LER, Regiuiw/ >:i ' '< ,-,.,,'. 1 ' ■! " mbus (Dres-

den, 1874); W ,.li.. (,. ,. A. .;. , 1 .,.- . \1 ui.i. h. 1S77) ; GuN-

THETi in Atlaeiueiue Dciiliih. l-;,...in, ,.l. .. . \\ll i l.iipzig, 1885), 564-581; Cantor in Schi . imi i mis /../-Awi/. .\IX (1874), Mera(urz., 41 -.5.3; Idem, VmU.-mii.iu, uI„ i <:. , h. d.r Mathematik, II (Leipzig, 1900), 254-289. J. G. HaGEN.


Miiller, Karl, professor at DUsseldorf , b. at Darm- stadt, 29 Oct., ISIS; d. at Neuenahr, 15 Aug., 1893, be- longs to the more recent members of a school of German religious painters known as the "Nazarenes", who suc- ceeded felicitously in popular but beautiful representa- tion of religious devotion, and gave new renown to the DUsseldorf school even in foreign lands. His style, deh- cate even to softness, exhibits, however, as much nat- uralness, fresh, simple piety and spiritual peace as the subjects demand. Schadow, director of the DUs- seldorf academy, had selected in 1837 the nineteen year old student, along with his brother Andreas, and Deger (who were later joined by Ittenbach) , for the con- templated fresco paintings in the Furstenburg church on the Apollinarisberg at Remagen. They had first to study carefully in Italy the technique of fresco paint- ing, then little known. Karl MUller arrived in Rome at the end of 1839. The study and imitation of the art treasures of the Eternal City, as later of those of Florence, Pisa, Assist, and other places, brought to maturity his great natural talent. His taste for land- scape, which he brought with him from DUsseldorf, now found the greatest encouragement ; he regarded more- over the study of models as indispensable in the prac- tical exercise of his art. A large circle of German and Italian friends mutually helped each other by artistic excursions. His evenings he spent in composition and the like. At the end of four years the master brought home his characteristic German religious style, lightly mingled with some southern elements. In his principal paintings of the "Crowning" and the " Birth of Mary" (entirely finished in 1850) he showed himself, according to the judgment of connoisseurs, the equal of the elder Deger. The former painting unfor- timately is in a bad light the greater part of the year. The lower part, the Apostles by the grave, out of which spring lilies and roses, is widely known. The leading scene in the upper part presents the Virgin Mother bowed before the Saviour in a Raphaelite beauty of colour. The painter worked so long over the " Birth of Mary" that he hoped to succeed in some degree in satisfying the spirit at once of Raphael and of DUrer. In this work the eight typical women es- pecially deserve to be noticed. Besides these there belong to Muller in the same church the "Annuncia- tion", the "Visitation", the "Wedding of the Vir- gin", and the "Lamb of God", adored by angels in the midst of the symbols of the Evangelists on a tri- umphant arch. In 1859 a contract was made with the authorities of the church of Notre-Dame de La Garde at M:u-s(>ill('s in regard to a great pictorial scheme, unfortunately never carried out. The upper part of the cartoon of a new "Coronation of Mary", wonderful in execution, is in the Berlin National Gallery. For the cathedral church at Bonn, under- taken in ISdti, ciglifeen paintings were contemplated. The objcctidiis nf the ecclesiastical authorities also caused this monumental work, to the master's un- utterable sorrow, to fail. His easel pictures, how- ever, are all the better known: "The Magnificat", "Wonder of Ro.ses", "Immaculate Conception", "Joseph with the Boy Jesus", "The Disciples in Em- maus"; the popular round pictures; "Mary and Elizabeth", the "Holy Family at Work", also "The Holy Family", "The Holy Night", and so on. Of the highest value in art are the altar painting, "Christ with the Disciples at Emmaus," which he undertook for the church of St. Remigius at Bonn, and his last cartoon for the same church, completed by his nephew Franz MUller.

Karl Mailer, A usleltung (Frankfort, 1893) ; Finke, Kurt Muller, Leben u. Schajfen (Cologne, 1896) ; Schaarsciimidt. Gesch. der Diisseldorfer Kunst (Diisseidorf, 1902). G. GlETMANN.

Mullock, John T., Bi.shop of St. John's, New- foundhmd, b. in 1807 at Limerick, Ireland; d. at St. John's, Newfoundland, 26 March, 1869. He became