Witelo of Silesia or Vitelo, c.1230–75, Silesian physicist, philosopher, and theologian. He studied in Paris and Padua and spent time at the papal palace in Viterbo, Italy. His ten-volume work on optics, Perspectiva, was completed about 1274 and later incorporated into the Opticae thesaurus [thesaurus of optics] (1572), which remained the classic text on optics until the 17th cent. His work on light refraction was probably partly original and partly based on the work of the Arab scholar Ibn al-Haytham. Witelo in turn influenced the work of Johannes Kepler and other scientists.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Physics: Biographies
