Czech astrologer, author of Ephemerides, one of the most important astronomers and astrologers of his time.
Cyprian Karasek came from the family of the noble and later mayor Jan Karasek; after his nobility in 1534 the family added the name Lvovický ze Lvovic, Germanized to Leowitz. After his primary school education he studied from 1540 in Breslau, from 1542 in Leipzig, and afterwards astronomy and mathematics in Wittenberg. In 1547 he moved first to Nuremberg, later to Augsburg to the merchant family of the Fugger, and presented the horoscope to the greats there, including Jakob Fugger. However, after he published his Ephemerides on behalf of Maximilian II in 1557 and dedicated them to Count Palatine Ottheinrich, he called him to his court in Lauingen as Mathematicus. He taught until 1566 at the Latin school there, of which he later became rector. Afterwards he intensified the never-ending contact to his hometown Königgrätz. The school regulations of the school there, dating from 1566, may have been written by him, and he thus campaigned for an increase in the level of education.
Leowitz continued the work of the astronomers Georg von Peuerbach (1423-1463) and Regiomontanus (1436-1476) and observed how these solar and lunar eclipses, as well as the conjunctions of the planets and the moon, examined the accuracy of the existing astronomical tables.
He was one of the most important astronomers of his time. With “Eclipsium omnium ab anno domini 1554, useque in annum 1606” he gave a preview of the eclipses to be expected between 1554 and 1606. His Tabulae Peuerbachii Alphonsiane were highly esteemed by Tycho Brahe. Brahe visited him in 1569 and the two corresponded with each other.
He died on 25.5.1574 in Lauingen.