Philippe van Lansberge

Johan Philip Lansberge (25 August 1561 – 8 December 1632) was a Flemish Calvinist Minister, astronomer and Mathematician.

He is best known as the author of a set of astronomical tables, Tabulae motuum coelestium perpetuæ, for predicting planetary positions.

These were later found to contain certain errors, in part because he (erroneously) did not accept Kepler's discovery of elliptical orbits.

The fifty-two-year-old Lansbergen decided to move to Middelburg to devote himself to astronomical research, which he did until the end of his life.

Lansbergen supported the heliocentric theory of Copernicus, who claimed that the Earth revolves around the Sun.

One could say that Lansbergen was the first Dutch author that wrote a popular book about the movements of the planets around the Sun.