1553 in science

Astronomy

• Leonard Digges publishes his popular English language ephemeris, A General Prognostication.

Cryptography

• 'Vigenère cipher' first described by Giovan Battista Bellaso in his book La cifra del. Sig. Giovan Battista Bellaso (Venice).

Exploration

• May 10 – Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor set out from the River Thames to seek the Northeast Passage.
  • August 14 – Willoughby sights what is probably Novaya Zemlya.
  • August – Chancellor enters the White Sea and reaches Arkhangelsk.
• Naturalist Pierre Belon publishes Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables trouvées en Grèce, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie et autres pays étrangèrs (Paris).
• Conquistador Pedro Cieza de León publishes the Primera Parte of his Crónicas del Perú.

Physics

• Venetian mathematician Giambattista Benedetti publishes Resolutio omnium Euclidis problematum, proposing a new doctrine of the speed of bodies in free fall.

Physiology and medicine

• Michael Servetus publishes Christianismi Restitutio, including an account of the circulation of the blood.
• Publication in Spain of Libro del Exercicio, considered the first book on the benefits of physical exercise for health.

Births

• November 23 – Prospero Alpini, Italian physician and botanist (d. 1617)
• Robert Hues, English mathematician and geographer (d. 1632)
• Thomas Muffet, English naturalist and physician (d. 1604)
• Luca Valerio, Italian mathematician (d. 1618)

Deaths

• February 19 – Erasmus Reinhold, German astronomer and mathematician (b. 1511)
• August 8 – Girolamo Fracastoro, Italian physician (b. 1478)
• October 27 – Michael Servetus, Aragonese polymath (b. 1511) (executed for heresy)
• Pierre Desceliers, French cartographer and hydrographer (born c. 1500)

References

References

1. Ronan, Colin A.. (1991). "Leonard and Thomas Digges". [[Journal of the British Astronomical Association]].
2. Grun, Bernard. (1991). "The Timetables of History". Simon & Schuster.
3. McDermott, James. (2004). "Willoughby, Sir Hugh (d. 1554?)".
4. [http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/valerio.html The Galileo Project - Valerio (Valeri), Luca] has 1552, but Baldini and Napolitani proved that he was born in 1553.