1554 in science
# 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)
