Sethus Calvisius, originally Seth Kalwitz (b. February 21, 1556 in Gorsleben, Germany; d. November 24, 1615 in Leipzig) was a German
music theorist, composer, chronologer, astronomer, and teacher of the late Renaissance.
He was born of a peasant family at Gorsleben in Thuringia. By the exercise of his musical
talents he earned money enough for the start, at Helmstedt, of an university career, which the
aid of a wealthy patron enabled him to continue at Leipzig. He became director of the music-school at Pforten in 1572, was transferred to Leipzig in the same capacity in
1594, and retained this post until his death on the 24th of November 1615, despite the offers
successively made to him of mathematical professorships at Frankfurt and Wittenberg. In his Opus Chronologicum (Leipzig, 1605, 7th ed. 1685) he expounded a system based on the
records of nearly 300 eclipses. An ingenious, though ineffective, proposal for the reform of the
calendar was put forward in his Elenchus Calendarii Gregoriani (Frankfurt, 1612); and he
published a book on music, Melodiae condendae ratio (Erfurt, 1592).
References
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