1554 in science

The year 1554 CE in science and technology included a number of events, some of which are listed here.

Astronomy

• Flemish astronomer Johannes Stadius' first published work, Ephemerides novae at auctae, appears in Cologne

Biology

• Bolognese naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi creates a herbarium.^[1]
• Flemish herbalist Rembert Dodoens publishes his herbal Cruydt-Boeck in Antwerp.^[2]
• The guinea pig is first described in the West by Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner.^[3]
• French physician Guillaume Rondelet begins publication of Libri de piscibus marinis in Lyon, a standard work on marine zoology.
• Hippolito Salviani begins publication of Aquatilium animalium historiae in Rome, a foundation of modern ichthyology.
• French anatomist Charles Estienne publishes a collection of tracts on agriculture, Praedium Rusticum.

Exploration

• November – English captain John Lok voyages to Guinea.^[1][4]
• French Franciscan voyager André Thévet publishes his account of an embassy to Constantinople in Cosmographie de Levant (Lyon).

Metallurgy

• Spanish merchant Bartolomé de Medina introduces the patio process, using mercury amalgamation to extract silver from ore, in Pachuca, New Spain (Mexico).^[5]

Physics

• Venetian mathematician Giambattista Benedetti publishes two editions of Demonstratio proportionum motuum localium, developing his new doctrine of the speed of bodies in free fall.

Technology

• Completion of the Church of Sant'Andrea in Via Flaminia, Rome, designed by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, the first church of the Italian Renaissance to have an elliptical dome.^[6]

Births

• March 22 – Catherine de Parthenay, French noblewoman and mathematician (died 1631)
• November – Jakob Christmann, German orientalist and astronomer (died 1613)
• Probable date
  • James Lancaster, English navigator (died 1618)
  • Walter Ralegh, English explorer (died 1618)^[1][7]

Deaths

• February 21 – Hieronymus Bock, German botanist (born 1498)
• September 22 – Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, Spanish conquistador (born c. 1510)
• Tan Yunxian, Chinese physician (born 1461)
• unknown date – Sir Hugh Willoughby, English explorer (in the Arctic Sea)^[8]