The importance of SN 1572 in the history of science is well known. Less known is the fact, that one booklet
dealing with
the 'new star' had a lasting effect, up till the end of the 19th century. It was written by Cyprianus
Leovitius, a Bohemian
astronomer and astrologer. He mentioned two other occurences, quite near the position of the new star, in
A.D. 945 and A.D. 1264, respectively. Soon these three appearances were linked together, supposing they
were the observable maxima of the same star having a period of about 310 years (or, alternatively, 150
years). The first to predict a return of this supposed 'periodic new star' was the Spanish scholastic
philosopher, Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz, in 1670. Due to the influential work of Edward Pigott and the well
known books of John Herschel and Alexander von Humboldt, the idea of 'periodic new stars' and the date of
its expected return became well know in Europe and America. I trace the evolution of this idea, its effects
in the late 1880s, and finally, its afterlife.
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