Franz Xaver Kugler

Franz Xaver Kugler (27 November 1862 – 25 January 1929) was a German chemist, mathematician, Assyriologist, and Jesuit priest.[1]

F. X. Kugler

For other people named Franz Kugler, see Franz Kugler.

Kugler was born in Königsbach, Palatinate, then part of the Kingdom of Bavaria. He earned a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1885, and the following year he entered the Jesuits. By 1893 he had been ordained as a priest. Four years later at the age of 35, he became a professor of Mathematics at Ignatius-College in Valkenburg in the Netherlands.[1]

He is most noted for his studies of cuneiform tablets and Babylonian astronomy.[2] He worked out the Babylonian theories on the Moon and planets, which were published in 1907. However his full work on Babylonian astronomy was never completed, with only three volumes out of a planned five published.

He died in Lucerne, Switzerland.[1]

Bibliography

• Die Babylonische Mondrechnung, Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, (1900).
• Die Sternenfahrt des Gilgamesch: Kosmologische würdigung des babylonischen Nationalepos. (1904).
• Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel. Münster in Westfalien: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchandlung, (1907). 2 Vols.
  • Volume 1
  • Volume 2 part 1
  • Volume 2, part 2.1
  • Volume 2, part 2.2
  • Supplement 1
  • Supplement 2 pt. 1-8
  • Supplement 2 pt. 9-14
• Darlegungen und Thesen über altbabylonische Chronologie, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete, 22 (1909), pp. 63–78 (*).
• GUR, masihu sa sattuk, KA, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete, 23 (1909), pp. 267–273
• Im Bannkreis Babels : panbabylonistische Konstruktionen und religionsgeschichtliche Tatsachen. Münster: Aschendorff (1910).
• Zwei Kassitenkönige der Liste A, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete, 24 (1910), 173-178.
• Chronologisches und Soziales aus der Zeit Lugalanda’s und Urukagina’s, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete, 25 (1911), 275-280.
• Contribution à la météorologie babylonienne, Revue d’assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale, 8 (1911), 107-130.
• Bemerkungen zur neuesten Königsliste, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete, 27 (1912), 242-245.
• Von Moses bis Paulus: Forschungen zur Geschichte Israels. Münster: Aschendorff, (1922).
• Sibyllinischer Sternkampf und Phaëthon in naturgeschichtlicher Beleuchtung Münster in Westfalen : Aschendorff (1927).

Honors

• The crater Kugler on the Moon is named after him.[3]

See also

• Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa
• List of Jesuit scientists
• List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics

References

1. Große Bayerische Biographische Enzyklopädie (in German), Walter de Gruyter, 2005, p. 1111, ISBN 9783110973440.
2. Neugebauer, Otto (1975), A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy, Studies in the history of mathematics and physical science, Springer, p. 348, ISBN 9783540069959, All serious studies of Babylonian astronomy are founded on the work of three Jesuit fathers, Johann Nepomuk Strassmeier (1846–1920), Joseph Epping (1835–1894), and Franz Xaver Kugler (1862–1929).
3. Menzel, D. H.; Minnaert, M.; Levin, B.; Dollfus, A.; Bell, B. (1971), "Report on Lunar Nomenclature by The Working Group of Commission 17 of the IAU", Space Science Reviews, 12 (2): 136–186, Bibcode:1971SSRv...12..136M, doi:10.1007/bf00171763, S2CID 122125855. P. 157: "Kugler, F. X. (1862–1929), German Jesuit; deciphering of the Babylonian tablets on planetary motions; Babylonian chronology. (M) (53S, 104E)"