Henricus Brucaeus

Heinrich Brucaeus, also known as Heinrich van den Brock and sometimes wrongly called Heinrich Brucaeus of Aalst, lived from 1530 to 4 January 1593 and was a German physician, astronomer and mathematician. Born in Aalst in Flanders, the son of a patron named Gerhard van den Brock, he studied at schools and universities in Ghent, Paris and Bologna, reading medicine and philosophy, and took doctorates in both at the University of Paris. He lectured at the University of Leuven and was a professor of mathematics at the University of Rome. In 1565 he became physician to Maria von Braganza, and in 1567 he joined the University of Rostock as professor of medicine and astronomy, serving as its rector in 1569, 1575, 1581 and 1587. From 1571 he was also physician to the Duke of Mecklenburg. He held the Rostock chair until his death, confessing to Lutheranism shortly before, although he had been a Catholic. He knew the work of Copernicus and respected him as a mathematician but, like most of his contemporaries, rejected heliocentrism. His writings include De motu primo, Mathematicarum exercitationum libri duo and Propositiones de scorbuto of 1576.