Data on the Biography of Johann Heinrich Lambert

1728 26 August Birth in Mulhouse (Alsace), at that time 'allied to the (Swiss) Confederation'

1746 Secretary of Johann Rudolf Iselin in Basel

17 June 1748 – September 1756 private tutor in the House of Swiss Envoy to London, Count Peter von Salis, in Chur (teaching the younger children of Anton von Salis), see DGB II, p.21; a letter from Lambert dated 6 Dec. 1750 to pastor Rissler  in Mulhouse, DGB II, sect. 1, No. 2, informs us about his first philosophical studies; first mathematical and scientific works (e.g. ›Anlage zur Perspektive‹ [~ ›Framing for the Art of Perspective‹] and extensive mss. on formal logic in the literary estate)

1752 the records in the Monatsbuch start

1755 first scientific publication in the Acta Helvetica: ›Tentamen de vi caloris ...‹ (L1755.02)

1756 accompanied by the young counts von Salis in Göttingen; L. studies law under Gebauer; meets Kaestner and the astronomer Tobias Mayer; Member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences.

1757 journey with the pupils: Utrecht, Amsterdam, Den Haag, Leyden

1757-1759 in Leyden; acquaintance with Muschenbroek

1758 ›Routes de la lumiére‹ (L1758.01), Den Haag

1759 trip to Paris (d’Alembert, Messier and others), Marseille, Nice, Turin, Milan; return to Chur; L. in Zurich, where in 1759 the ›Freye Perspective‹ is released in a German (L1759.03) and a French (L1759.02) edition, visits Gessner; Basel (Daniel Bernoulli, Johann Huber),  Members of the medical-scientific Academy of Basel; three months in Mulhouse

1759 end: Augsburg (maker of scientific instruments Georg Friedrich Brander), simple or corresponding [?] member of the newly established Bavarian Academy of Sciences (Lori sending a certificate of appointment on 30 Nov. 1759 [unpubl. letter], see Lambert to Lori, DGB II, p.16, and Spindler No. 137, p.229)

1760 Augsburg ›Photometria‹ (L1760.01); June: work on the CB (L1761.02, ›Cosmological Letters‹) begins; appointment as a salaried member and professor honorarius of the Bavarian Academy (see Westenrieder, p.54, and Spindler No. 173, 189, 197, 200, 203, 208 and 222)

1761 Augsburg ›Insigniores orbitae cometarum‹ (L1761.01), Cosmological Letters [printing in Jan.], Logarithmic slide rules (L1761.03); Nov. transcript of ›Criterium  veritatis‹  (ed. Bopp 1915, L1915.01); in Erlangen to visit the university; Chur; Zurich

1762/63 in Chur with the bankers Massner; April 1762 Ms. ›Über die Methode, die Met., Theol. u. Moral richtiger zu beweisen‹ (~ ›On the methods to improve the proofs of metaphysics, theology and morality‹, draft of a prize essay, L1918.01), work on the ›New Organon‹, meteorological observations, monitoring of the border survey Grisons/Milan

1763 end: Leipzig?

1764 Leipzig ›New Organon‹ (L1764.01); February: on the recommendation of Sulzer call to Berlin as Professor of the Academy; work on the  ›Architectonic‹

1765 Jan. Inaugural speech at the Academy ›Sur la liaison des connaissances …‹ Writings on the controversy about the »logical calculus« Holland/Ploucquet  Berlin vol. 1 of ›Beyträge zum Gebrauche der Mathematik‹(L1765.01, ~ ›Contributions to the application of mathematics‹)

1766 Work on the theory of parallel lines (posthumously published in 1786, L1786.02)

1767 ›De universaliori calculi idea …‹ (L1765.07, written and printed 1767), ›In algebram philosophicam cl. Richeri breves adnotationes‹ (L1768.02, printed 1768)

1768 Jan. ›Observations sur quelques dimensions du monde intellectuel‹ (L1770.08, published 1770), ›De Topicis schediasma‹ (1768.03)

1769 Jan. ›Éssai de taxéometrie ou sur la mésure de l’ordre‹ (L1772.11, published 1772)

1770 ›Beyträge zum Gebrauche der Mathematik‹ Vol. 2 (L1770.01)

1771 July ›Examen d’une espèce de superstition ramenée au calcul des probabilités‹  (L1773.09, published 1773); Riga ›Anlage zur Architectonic‹ (L1771.01~ ›Layout / Framing of an Architectonic‹)

1772 Since at least September (see letter to Röhl, 16 Sept. 1772, DGB II, p. 398) Lambert and J.E. Bode are busy conceiving and preparing the Berlin Astronomisches Jahrbuch (›Astronomical Yearbook‹), whose first volume »for the year 1776« appears in 1774. ›Beyträge zum Gebrauche der Mathematik‹ Vol. 3 (L1772.01, containing another work on the orbits of comets); ›Beschreibung einer... Farbenpyramide‹ (L1772.03, ›Description of a … pyramid of colours‹)

1773 Feb. ›Second éssai de taxéometry …‹ (L1775.07, published 1775)

1774 Zurich: second, augmented edition of the ›Freye Perspektive‹ (L1774.01)

1774/75 Work on hygrometry

1777 on September 25 Lambert dies in Berlin

1779 ›Pyrometrie‹, Berlin: Haude u. Spener,  ed. by J.G. Karsten (L1779.01) with an essay by Joh. August Eberhard on Lambert’s merits in the area of theoretical philosophy (again in LPA II)

1782-1787 ›Lamberts gelehrter deutscher Briefwechsel‹ (L1781.01, L1782.01, L1783.01, L1784.01, L1785.01, L1787.01), edited by Joh. III Bernoulli (the french correspondence remains unedited),  reviewed by Kant in ›Königsberger gel. u. pol. Zeitg.‹ 4 Febr. 1782

1782/87 ›Logische und Philosophische Abhandlungen‹ (Logical and Philosophical Essays), 2 vols., edited by Bernoulli and Christoph Heinrich Müller (L1782.02, L1787.02)

Abbreviations

AA Anlage zur Architectonic
BL Max Steck, Bibliographia Lambertiana, Hildesheim 1970
CB Cosmologische Briefe
DGB Joh. Heinrich Lamberts deutscher gelehrter Briefwechsel, hg. v. Joh. Bernoulli, 5 Bde.
HNA Der handschriftliche Nachlass von Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728-1777), Basel 1977
L0000.00 Publication number in the source bibliography of Lambert’s writings, Philosophische Schriften, supplement, p. 633–713
LPA Joh. Heinrich Lamberts logische und philosophische Abhandlungen, zum Druck befördert von Joh. Bernoulli, 2 Bde. (= Philosophische Schriften, vol. VI–VII)
MB Johann Heinrich Lamberts Monatsbuch, hg. v. K. Bopp, München 1915
NO Neues Organon