Michael Falkener

Michael Falkener, Michael of Wroclaw or Michael de Wratislava (; ; ca. 1450 or 1460 in Wrocław – 1534) was a Silesian Scholastic philosopher, astronomer, astrologer, mathematician, theologian, philologist, and professor of the Kraków Academy.

Life Michał Falkener was born in Silesia to a family of wealthy German burghers. In Latin—the language favored by medieval European scholars, and used in his works—he is sometimes referred to as "Vratislaviensis" or "Wratislaviensis" ("the Wrocławian") in addition to "Michaelis de Vratislauia" ("Michael of Wrocław"). In Polish he is, respectively, "Wrocławczyk" and "Michał z Wrocławia" ("Michael of Wrocław"). In German, the place identifier is "of Breslau" —"von Breslau" or "aus Breslau."

Falkener entered the arts faculty of the Kraków Academy in 1478, earning his bachelor's in 1481 and defending his master's thesis in 1488. Later he lectured there on astronomy, astrology, mathematics, physics, logic, grammar, and rhetoric, as well as scholastic and Aristotelian philosophy. His students included Nicolaus Copernicus. In 1495 he entered the Collegium Minus, and in 1501 the Collegium Maius. In 1512 he joined the theological faculty, where he earned a doctorate in 1517. He twice (1499 and 1504) served as rector of the faculty of arts. For several years he headed the Bursa Niemiecka, succeeding John of Głogów.

Falkener was a Thomist but an incomplete one since, in addition to Peripatetic-Thomist proofs for the existence of God, he also accepted St. Anselm's proofs. In addition to more medieval pursuits, Falkener was interested in humanism: he knew and taught on classical and humanist authors, appreciating their linguistic and artistic abilities in particular. He published and edited important introductions to and commentaries on song collections and religious texts. Falkener's first printed astrological predictions were published for the years 1494–95; 1506 saw the first edition of his Introductorium astronomiae Cracoviensis elucidans almanach.

He bequeathed his personal library to the Kraków Academy.