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VARENIUS, BERNHARDUS [BERNHARD VAREN]...

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 905 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VARENIUS, BERNHARDUS [BERNHARD VAREN] (1622-165o) , See also:German geographer, was See also:born at See also:Hitzacker on the See also:Elbe, in the See also:Luneburg See also:district of See also:Hanover. His See also:early years (from 1627) were spent at See also:Uelzen, where his See also:father was See also:court preacher to the See also:duke of See also:Brunswick. Varenius studied at the gymnasium of See also:Hamburg (1640-42), and at See also:Konigsberg (1643-45) and See also:Leiden (1645-49) See also:universities, where he devoted himself to See also:mathematics and See also:medicine, taking his medical degree at Leiden in 1649. He then settled at See also:Amsterdam, intending to practise medicine. But the See also:recent discoveries of See also:Tasman, Schouten and other Dutch navigators, and his friendship for Blaeu andother geographers, attracted Varenius to See also:geography. He died in 165o, aged only twenty-eight, a victim to the privations and miseries of a poor See also:scholar's See also:life. In 1649 he published, through L. See also:Elzevir of Amsterdam, his Descriptio Regni Japoniae, an excellent compilation. In this was included a See also:translation into Latin of See also:part of Jodocus Schouten's See also:account of See also:Siam (Appendix de religione Siamensium, ex Descriptione Belgica lodoci Schoutenii), and chapters on the religions of various peoples. Next See also:year (r65o) appeared, also through Elzevir, the See also:work by which he is best known, his Geographia Generalis, in which he endeavoured to See also:lay down the See also:general principles of the subject on a wide scientific basis, according to the knowledge of his See also:day. The work is divided into—(1) See also:absolute geography, (2) relative geography and (3) See also:comparative geography. The first investigates mathematical facts See also:relating to the See also:earth as a whole, its figure, dimensions, motions, their measurement, &c.

The second part considers the earth as affected by the See also:

sun and stars, climates, seasons, the difference of apparent See also:time at different places, See also:variations in the length of the day, &c. The third part treats briefly of the actual divisions of the See also:surface of the earth, their relative positions, globe and See also:map-construction, See also:longitude, See also:navigation, &c. Varenius, with the materials at his command, dealt with the subject in a truly philosophic spirit; and his work See also:long held its position as the best See also:treatise in existence on scientific and comparative geography. The work went through many See also:editions. See also:Sir See also:Isaac See also:Newton introduced several important improvements into the See also:Cambridge edition of 1672 ; in 1715 Dr Jurin issued another See also:Cam-See also:bridge edition with a valuable appendix; in 1733 the whole work was translated into See also:English by See also:Dugdale; and in 1736 Dugdale's second edition was revised by See also:Shaw. In 1716 an See also:Italian edition appeared at See also:Naples; in 1750 a Dutch translation followed; and in 1755 a See also:French version, from Shaw's edition, came out at See also:Paris. Among later geographers d'See also:Anville and A. von See also:Humboldt especially See also:drew See also:attention to Varen's See also:genius and services to See also:science. See Breusing, `` Lebensnachrichten.von Bernhard Varenius " (Geogr. Mittheil., 188o) ; H. Blink's See also:paper on Varenius in Tijdschr. See also:van het Nederl. Aandrijksk. Genotschap (1887), See also:ser. ii. pt.

3; and F. Ratzel's See also:

article " Bernhard Varenius," in Alln'n'.eine I2eutscba. R~nara4hie, yol. xxxix. (See also:Leipzig, 1895).

End of Article: VARENIUS, BERNHARDUS [BERNHARD VAREN] (1622-165o)

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