Charles Malapert

Charles Malapert (1581–1630) was a Jesuit writer, astronomer and proponent of Aristotelian cosmology, from the Spanish Netherlands.

He used observations of comets and stars of the southern sky to attack the hypotheses of Copernicus and Galileo.

He is also known for observations of sunspots and of the lunar surface, and the crater Malapert on the Moon is named after him.

In 1630, Malapert was called to Spain to occupy a newly created chair in the Jesuit Colegio Imperial de Madrid.

Apart from being an astronomer and a mathematician, Malapert also wrote Latin poems and theatre plays that became modest bestsellers during the 17th century.