it became part of Prussia and in 1871 the German Empire. About three centuries after Maria's lifetime it was reassigned to Poland after World War II. During Maria's lifetime, nationality did not play as significant a role in determining person's identity as it does today. However, the birthplace of Maria Cunitz and the long reaching effects of the Thirty Years War did have a substantial effect on Maria's work. Her time in hiding helped to develop her simplification of the Rudolphine Tables. Nevertheless, multiple later sources felt the need to assign to Maria Cunitz a nationality relevant to their own time. She has mostly been described as German, for example in the Biographical Dictionary of Woman in Science. She published in German. She has been also described as Polish and some consider her to be the first Polish woman astronomer. Cunitz spoke not only German and Polish but also French, Greek, Italian, Latin and Hebrew. See also Timeline of women in science References Attribution External links Digital-Library of Wroclaw Hatch, Robert Alan, Web page on Maria Cunitz at University of Florida History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries 1610 births 1664 deaths 17th-century German astronomers 17th-century Polish astronomers Women astronomers People from Austrian Silesia People from Świdnica 17th-century women scientists 17th-century Polish women writers 17th-century German writers 17th-century German women writers