Giambattista (Gianbattista) Benedetti (1530–1590) was a Venetian mathematician who wrote La gnomonica. He was a Copernican who determined that falling objects fall at the same rate in 1553, a discovery often credited to Galileo. This is called the "equality of fall rates." Events June 25 - Augsburg confession presented to Charles V of Holy Roman Empire. ... Events March 14 - Battle of Ivry - Henry IV of France again defeats the forces of the Catholic League under the Duc de Mayenne. ... Location within Italy Venice (Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venexia), the city of canals, is the capital of the region of Veneto and of the province of Venice, 45°26′N 12°19′E, population 271,663 (census estimate January 1, 2004). ... Nicolaus Copernicus (in Latin; Polish Mikołaj Kopernik, German Nikolaus Kopernikus - February 19, 1473 – May 24, 1543) was a Polish astronomer, mathematician and economist who developed a heliocentric (Sun-centered) theory of the solar system in a form detailed enough to make it scientifically useful. ... // Events June 26 - Christs Hospital in London gets a Royal Charter July 6 - Edward VI of England dies July 10 - Lady Jane Grey is proclaimed Queen of England - for the next nine days July 18 - Lord Mayor of London proclaims Queen Mary as the rightful Queen - Lady Jane Grey... Galileo can refer to: Galileo Galilei, astronomer, philosopher, and physicist (1564 - 1642) the Galileo spacecraft, a NASA space probe that visited Jupiter and its moons the Galileo positioning system Life of Galileo, a play by Bertolt Brecht Galileo (1975) - screen adaptation of the play Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht...

In a letter to the composer Cipriano de Rore dated from around 1563, Benedetti proposed a new theory of the cause of consonance, arguing that since sound consists of air waves or vibrations, in the more consonant intervals the shorter, more frequent waves concurred with the longer, less frequent waves at regular intervals. Isaac Beeckman and Marin Mersenne both adopted this theory in the next century. When they sought Descartes' opinion on Benedetti's theory, Descartes declined to judge the goodness of consonances by such a rational method. Descartes argued that the ear prefers one or another according to the musical context rather than because of any concordance of vibrations.[1] Cypriano de Rore or Cipriano de Rore (1515 or 1516 – September 1565) was a Franco-Flemish composer and teacher. ... Events February 1 - Sarsa Dengel succeeds his father Menas as Emperor of Ethiopia February 18 - The Duke of Guise is assassinated while besieging Orléans March - Peace of Amboise. ... In music, a consonance (Latin consonare, sounding together) is a harmony, chord, or interval considered stable, as opposed to a dissonance, which is considered unstable. ... A schematic representation of hearing. ... Isaac Beeckman (December 10, 1588 - May 19, 1637) was a Dutch philosopher and scientist. ... Marin Mersenne, Marin Mersennus or le Père Mersenne (September 8, 1588 – September 1, 1648) was a French theologian, philosopher, mathematician and music theorist. ... René Descartes René Descartes (IPA: , March 31, 1596 – February 11, 1650), also known as Cartesius, worked as a philosopher and mathematician. ... An ear is an organ used by an animal to detect sound waves. ...

In 1572, the Jesuit Jean Taisner published from the press of Johann Birkmann of Cologne a work entitled Opusculum perpetua memoria dignissimum, de natura magnetis et ejus effectibus, Item de motu continuo. This is considered a piece of plagiarism, as Taisnier presents, as though his own, the Epistola de magnete of Peter of Maricourt and a treatise on the fall of bodies by Benedetti. Events January 16 - Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk is tried for treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England. ... The Society of Jesus (Latin: Societas Iesu), commonly known as the Jesuits, is a Roman Catholic religious order. ... Cologne Cathedral with Hohenzollern Bridge Cologne (German: (help· info) [kœln]; Kölsch: Kölle) is Germanys fourth-largest city after Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. ... Plagiarism is a form of academic malpractice specifically referring to the use of anothers information, language, or writing, when done without proper acknowledgment of the original source. ... Peter of Maricourt (13th century), a French savant, to whom his disciple, Roger Bacon, pays the highest tribute in his opus tertium and other works. ...

Sources

• Dictionary of the History of Ideas
• Fall rates info
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Pierre de Maricourt