Jan Marek Marci
| Jan Marek Marci | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | June 13, 1595 Lanškroun |
| Died | April 10, 1667 Prague |
| Nationality | Czech |
| Fields | Medicine, Mechanics, Optics, Mathematics |
| Institutions | Charles University, Prague |
| Alma mater |
University of Olomouc, Olomouc Charles University, Prague |
Jan Marek Marci FRS (13 June 1595 – 10 April 1667), or Johannes (Greek: Ioannes) Marcus Marci, was a Bohemian doctor and scientist, rector of the University of Prague, and official physician to the Holy Roman Emperors. The crater Marci on the far side of the Moon is named after him.
Marci was born in Lanškroun, near the border between historical lands Bohemia and Moravia (presently parts of the Czech Republic). He studied under Athanasius Kircher, and spent most of his career as a professor of Charles University in Prague, where he served eight times as Dean of the medical school and once as Rector in 1662. He was also the personal doctor of Emperors Ferdinand III and Leopold I, and distinguished himself in the defense of Prague against the Swedish armies in 1648. In October 1654 he was given the nobility title (falckrabě) "de Kronland" (anagram of "Landskron", German name for the city of Lanškroun). In 1667, he was elected as a member of the Royal Society. He joined the Jesuit order shortly before his death.
Marci's studies covered the mechanics of colliding bodies, epilepsy, and the refraction of light, as well as other topics. Prior to Marci, the prevailing theory of color assumed that light was modified by the action of a medium to produce color. Most theories were based upon the assumption that color was simply a modification of light varying between whiteness and blackness. Marci preceded Isaac Newton in his belief that "Light is not changed into colors except by a certain refraction in a dense medium; and the diverse species of colors are the products of refraction." Although he thought that different colors were caused by varying angles of incidence across the 1/2 degree apparent diameter of the sun, he stated that each color was condensed or disentangled from the others after refraction into homogeneous or elementary colors of red, green, blue and purple, and that no further change in color was obtained by additional refraction of elementary colors.
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