ASTRONOMER

Ferdinand Verbiest

1623 - 1688

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Icon of person Ferdinand Verbiest

Ferdinand Verbiest, (9 October 1623 – 28 January 1688) was a Flemish Jesuit missionary in China during the Qing dynasty. He was born in Pittem near Tielt in the County of Flanders (now part of Belgium). He is known as Nan Huairen (南懷仁) in Chinese. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Ferdinand Verbiest has received more than 302,987 page views. His biography is available in 29 different languages on Wikipedia. Ferdinand Verbiest is the 47th most popular astronomer (up from 49th in 2019), the 86th most popular biography from Belgium (up from 89th in 2019) and the 2nd most popular Belgian Astronomer.

Ferdinand Verbiest was a Belgian Jesuit missionary who was sent to China to teach Western science and mathematics to the Chinese. He is most famous for being the first person to measure the length of an arc of a meridian, which is the distance from the North Pole to the Equator.

Memorability Metrics

  • 300k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 69.67

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 29

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 8.35

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 1.91

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among ASTRONOMERS

Among astronomers, Ferdinand Verbiest ranks 47 out of 644. Before him are Jan Oort, Sosigenes of Alexandria, Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, Jérôme Lalande, Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, and Gerard Kuiper. After him are Vera Rubin, Clyde Tombaugh, Riccardo Giacconi, William Lassell, Varāhamihira, and Pierre Janssen.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1623, Ferdinand Verbiest ranks 3. Before him are Blaise Pascal, and William Petty. After him are Antonio Cesti, Zhu Youlang, Margravine Hedwig Sophie of Brandenburg, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, François de Laval, Christian Louis I, Reinier Nooms, and Algernon Sidney. Among people deceased in 1688, Ferdinand Verbiest ranks 3. Before him are Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, and Henry Morgan. After him are John Bunyan, Claude Perrault, Joachim von Sandrart, Narai, Philippe Quinault, François Bernier, Constantine Phaulkon, Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange, and Maximilian Henry of Bavaria.

Others Born in 1623

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Others Deceased in 1688

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In Belgium

Among people born in Belgium, Ferdinand Verbiest ranks 86 out of 1,190. Before him are Father Damien (1840), Peyo (1928), Ernest Solvay (1838), Paul-Henri Spaak (1899), Jacky Ickx (1945), and Étienne Lenoir (1822). After him are Matilda of Flanders (1031), Jacques Piccard (1922), Margaret III, Countess of Flanders (1350), Hubert van Eyck (1366), Henry VI, Count of Luxembourg (1240), and Auguste Beernaert (1829).

Others born in Belgium

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Among ASTRONOMERS In Belgium

Among astronomers born in Belgium, Ferdinand Verbiest ranks 2. Before him are Adolphe Quetelet (1796). After him are Petrus Plancius (1552), Eric Walter Elst (1936), Eugène Joseph Delporte (1882), Henri Debehogne (1928), Philippe van Lansberge (1561), Marcel Minnaert (1893), and George Van Biesbroeck (1880).

Belgian born Astronomers

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