Theodorus Moretus

His aptitude for science (particularly mathematics) was appreciated early on by Father Gregorius van St-Vincent, who had arranged for Moretus to be able to continue his studies in Louvain without first having to spend a few years in colleges.

While van Vincent first went to Vienna to recover, Moretus was sent to Olomouc (now in the Czech Republic), where he taught philosophy and other subjects until 1634.

The dissertation was entitled Propositiones mathematicae de celeri et tardo, naturae et armorum and was defended by Moretus in 1633 or 1635.

[7][8] From 1642 to 1645, Theodorus left his teaching post as he was sent as a preacher and missionary to the home that the Jesuits owned in Brzezenica, a small town in Galicia.

It was during his stay at Kłodzko that he published his Principatus incomparabilis primi filii hominis messiae et primae parentis Matris Virginis : in conceptione illius immaculata exhibitus in Cologne.

[4] Moretus submitted in 1664 a paper entitled Propositiones mathematicas ex harmonica de Soni Magnitude, which was later published.

[9] It is from Breslau that Moretus sent the Tractatus physico-mathematicus de aestu mari (Physio-mathematical Treatise of the Tides), one of his best-known works, to Antwerp for publication.

[10] The scientific work undertaken by Moretus was very successful: he made various discoveries in physics and astronomy, hydraulics and music theory but mainly mathematics.

His research in optics brought him even fame among such scientists as was Robert Hooke, Athanasius Kircher, Cornelis Drebbel and Jan Marek Marci.

[6] Moretus' scientific diaries containing technical notes and drafts as well as his correspondence with eminent European scholars of that time such as Athanasius Kircher, Balthasar Conrad, Giovanni Battista Riccioli are preserved in the National Library of the Czech Republic.