title: 1554 in science
text: # 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.
  * Flemish herbalist Rembert Dodoens publishes his herbal Cruydt-Boeck in Antwerp.
  * The guinea pig is first described in the West by Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner.
  * 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.
  * 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).
  
  ## 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.
  
  ## 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)
  
  ## 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)
  