Education
He studied in Prague and Vienna, and subsequently succeeded his tutor, Christopher Clavius, as professor of mathematics at the Collegio Romano in 1612.
Astronomer university professor
He studied in Prague and Vienna, and subsequently succeeded his tutor, Christopher Clavius, as professor of mathematics at the Collegio Romano in 1612.
Born in Hall in Tirol, in 1580 Christoph Grienberger joined the Jesuits. Grienberger sympathized with Galileo"s theory of motion. Grienberger was not a prolific author–in his lifetime, his name was attached only to a thin volume of star-charts and a set of trigonometric tables-but he occupied a post that allowed him to review and evaluate the works of many other authors.
His contemporaries acknowledged their debt to him.
Mario Bettinus, author of Apiaria Universae Philosophiae Mathematicae, an encyclopedic collection of mathematical curiosities, includes in this text the following confession: "I have benefited, my Reader, from the mind and industry of the very learned and exceedingly modest man, Grienberger, who, while he would have discovered many marvellous things by himself, preferred to make himself serviceable to other people"s inventions and other people"s praises". Giuseppe Biancani also corresponded with Grienberger, with whom he discussed his doubts over Galileo"s assertion that there were mountains on the moon.
Grienberger"s lectures in astronomy had also prepared fellow Jesuits for missionary work in China. He also worked in the field of optics.
Grienberger is buried at Rome.
However, he was asked to defend the Aristotelian view of the universe by Claudio Acquaviva, the Father General of the Jesuits.