Andreas Jaszlinszky (September 1715 in Abaújszina – January 1783 in Rozsnyó) was the Slovak-born author of the early physics textbooks Institutiones physicae pars prima, seu physica generalis (Trnava/Nagyszombat, 1756/1761, 471 pp) and Institutiones physicae pars altera, seu physica particularis (Trnava/Nagyszombat, 1756/1761, 341 pp).[1][2][3][4]
Biography
Physica Generalis (1756).Physica Particularis (1756).
These textbooks (1750s) at least somewhat ambiguously reflect incorrect Cartesian vortex mechanics, rather than the correct Newtonian mechanics fully embraced by Horvath (1770s).[21][22][23] Indeed, modern Newtonian mechanics (1687) was only widely accepted in Hungary by the 1760s and 1770s.[24] Between 1616 and 1759, three years after first publication of Physica Generalis and Physica Particularis, Jesuit scientists could not publish textbooks overtly favoring Copernican models of the Solar System, although the heliocentric theory was allowed to be presented along with other theories (for example Ptolemaic as shown below in Plate 1 of Physica Particularis). However, since Nagyszombat had an astronomical observatory (1755–1773), historians speculate that local Jesuit professors would have observed phenomena that would have convinced them that heliocentrism was correct.[25] Indeed, Jaszlinszky essentially rejected the Ptolemaic approach.[26]
Jaszlinszky was also the author of Tractatus Theologicus de Angelis, Beatitudine et Actibus Humanis (Trnava, 1762/1769, 574 pp) and possibly Geographica (1761), in addition to Institutiones logicae (Trnava, 1754, 164 pp) and Institutiones metaphysicae (Trnava, 1755, 288 pp), consistent with how the Ratio Studiorum (1599) was applied following Christopher Clavius.[27][28][29][30][31][32][33]
A copy of Physica Generalis is provided by Google Books.[34] Images of the textbook title pages are also available.[35] Each of these textbooks is worth approximately $150 depending on condition.[36][37][38]
The plates shown below are from a copy owned by multiple professors at the Collegio Romano around 1762.