HANNOVER, RAPHAEL LEVI:
Mathematician and astronomer; son of Jacob Joseph; born at Weikersheim, Franconia, 1685; died at Hanover May 17, 1779. He was educated at the Jewish school of Hanover and at the yeshibah of Frankfort-on-the-Main, and became bookkeeper in the house of Oppenheimer of Hanover. Here he attracted the attention of Leibnitz, and for a number of years was one of his most distinguished pupils, and afterward teacher of mathematics, astronomy, and natural philosophy. He wrote: "Luḥot ha-'Ibbur," astronomical tables for the Jewish calendar (Leyden-Hanover, 1756); "Tekunat ha-Shamayim," on astronomy and calendar-making, especially commenting on the Talmudical passages on these topics, with glosses of Moses Tiktin (Amsterdam, 1756). An enlarged revision of the latter work, with two other astronomical works of his, is in manuscript. The "Luḥot ha-'Ibbur" has been published with M. E. Fürth's "Yir'at Shamayim," on Maimonides' "Yad," Ḳiddush ha-Ḥodesh (Dessau, 1820-21).
- Fürst, Bibl. Jud. i. 362;
- Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 2127;
- Zeitlin, Bibl. Post-Mendels, p. 135;
- Orient, 1846, pp. 256 et seq.;
- Blogg, Sefer ha-Ḥayyim, p. 324, Hanover, 1867, where a copy of Hannover's epitaph is given.
