The building, headquarters of the departament d'Astronomia i Astrofísica, is called Jeroni Muñoz building as an hommage to the Valencian astronomer of the XVI century, that was professor of the Universitat de València. It was opened on 1996. The domes of the Astronomy Lab (Aula d'Astronomia) can be seen at its terrace.

JERONI MUÑOZ

(n. València, ?; m. Salamanca, 1584)

He studied arts at the Universitat de València between the years 1530-1540. He travelled all around Europe to complete his formation, becoming professor of Hebraic language at the University of Ancona (Italy), where they said about him: " This Munyocio, called the Valencian,... spoke the Hebraic language with selected perfection, as it was educated among Hebraic people". As a result of this comment it is thought that he was a converse Jew. He returned to València before 1556, where he teach mathematics till 1563. This year he becomes professor of Hebraic language, and , also professor of mathematics on 1565, at the Universitat de València. On 1578 he accept the proposal of the Universidad de Salamanca to teach mathematics and astronomy. He publish several books, leaving other unpublished like a treatise of geography with important data about the land of Valencia. At that time, he had a great reputation as a mathematician, astronomer and Hebraist.

His study of the supernova of the year 1572 is notable (Tycho Brahe supernova). At the beginning of november, 1572, a new star becomes visible in the Cassiopea Constellation. This strange phenomenon was of interest for a lot of astronomers, clergy, philosophers and people of different class scale. The king Felipe II asked Jeroni Muñoz for publishing the book "Libro del nuevo cometa" (Book on the new comet) (1573) where he clearly attacks the traditional belief on the incorruptibility of the sky, he calculates the relative position of the new star and he proves that the new star has to be located beyond the assumed Moon sphere , in the sphere of fixed stars. Even though he called it "comet", he also said that it was a different class of comets, having nothing to do with the comets beeing studied by the classical authors. It was more similar to a fixed star than to a normal comet. Today we call it a supernova.


From:

Científics valencians
Victor Navarro (dep. Història de la Ciència i Documentació, Universitat de València)
Institució Alfons el Magnànim
Diputació de València
1981