Christian Wursteisen

Christian Wurstisen (Latin: Christianus Urstisius) (23 December 1544 – 29 March 1588) was a mathematician, theologician, historian from Basel. His name is also given as Wursteisen, Wurzticius, Ursticius, Urstisius, or Urstis.

In 1565, he became professor of mathematics at the Basel University, and in 1585 professor of theology. The next year, the city magistrate appointed him to the academy as a town historian, a position he held until his death. He was buried in Münster.

The second edition of Nicolaus Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium had been printed in Basel. Wurstisen is credited to have first introduced Copernicus' work to Galileo Galilei, while Galilei's adoption of heliocentrism was often attributed to Michael Maestlin. Christian Wurstisen is mentioned by name in Galileo's Dialogue. This attribution has been challenged, however, and another similarly named man, Christopher Wursteisen, has been credited with introducing Copernicus's theories to Padua.

His mathematical book Elementa arithmeticae was read by John Milton and the Hungarian philosopher Andreas Dudith.

In his chronicle of Basel from 1580, Wurstisen named the heraldic tinctures after the initials of the given colours, a principle called tricking. Painter Gregor Sickinger (1558-?) from Solothurn illustrated it.

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