Regiomontanus | |
|---|---|
 18th-century portrait (Iohannes de Regio Monte dictus alias Müllerus) | |
| Born | 6 June 1436 Königsberg,Electorate of Saxony, Holy Roman Empire |
| Died | 6 July 1476(1476-07-06) (aged 40) |
| Nationality | German |
| Education |
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| Known for |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics (trigonometry),astronomy,astrology |
| Institutions | Universitas Istropolitana |
| Academic advisors | |
| Notable students | Domenico Novara da Ferrara |
Johannes Müller von Königsberg (6 June 1436 – 6 July 1476[1]), better known asRegiomontanus (/ˌriːdʒioʊmɒnˈteɪnəs/), was a mathematician,astrologer andastronomer of theGerman Renaissance, active inVienna,Buda andNuremberg. His contributions were instrumental in the development ofCopernican heliocentrism in the decades following his death.
Regiomontanus wrote under the Latinized name ofIoannes de Monteregio (orMonte Regio;Regio Monte); the toponymRegiomontanus was first used byPhilipp Melanchthon in 1534. He is named afterKönigsberg inLower Franconia, not the largerKönigsberg (modernKaliningrad) in Prussia.
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Although little is known of Regiomontanus' early life, it is believed that at eleven years of age, he became a student at theUniversity of Leipzig,Saxony. In 1451 he continued his studies atAlma Mater Rudolfina, the university inVienna, in the Duchy of Austria, where he became a pupil and friend ofGeorg von Peuerbach. In 1452 he was awarded hisbachelor's degree (baccalaureus), and he was awarded hismaster's degree (magister artium) at the age of 21 in 1457.[2] He lectured inoptics and ancient literature.[3]
In 1460 the papal legateBasilios Bessarion came to Vienna on a diplomatic mission. Being a humanist scholar with a great interest in the mathematical sciences, Bessarion sought out Peuerbach's company.George of Trebizond who was Bessarion's philosophical rival had recently produced a new Latin translation ofPtolemy'sAlmagest from the Greek, which Bessarion, correctly, regarded as inaccurate and badly translated, so he asked Peuerbach to produce a new one. Peuerbach's Greek was not good enough to do a translation but he knew theAlmagest intimately so instead he started work on a modernised, improved abridgement of the work. Bessarion also invited Peuerbach to become part of his household and to accompany him back to Italy when his work in Vienna was finished. Peuerbach accepted the invitation on the condition that Regiomontanus could also accompany them. However Peuerbach fell ill in 1461 and died having completed only the first six books of his abridgement of theAlmagest. On his death bed Peuerbach made Regiomontanus promise to finish the book and publish it.[1][3]
In 1461 Regiomontanus left Vienna with Bessarion and spent the next four years travelling around Northern Italy as a member of Bessarion's household, looking for and copying mathematical and astronomical manuscripts for Bessarion, who possessed the largest private library in Europe at the time. Regiomontanus also made the acquaintance of the leading Italian mathematicians of the age such asGiovanni Bianchini andPaolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli who had also been friends of Peuerbach during his prolonged stay in Italy more than twenty years earlier.[1]
In 1467, he went to work forJános Vitéz, archbishop ofEsztergom. There he calculated extensive astronomical tables and built astronomical instruments.[2] Next he went toBuda, and the court ofMatthias Corvinus of Hungary, for whom he built an astrolabe, and where he collated Greek manuscripts for a handsome salary.[4] Thetrigonometric tables that he created while living in Hungary, hisTabulae directionum profectionumque (printedposthum., 1490), were designed for astrology, including finding astrological houses.[5] TheTabulae also contained severaltangent tables.[6]
In 1471 Regiomontanus moved to the Free City ofNuremberg, inFranconia, then one of the Empire's important seats of learning, publication, commerce and art, where he worked with the humanist and merchantBernhard Walther.[4] Here he founded the world's first scientific printing press, and in 1472 he published the first printed astronomical textbook, theTheoricae novae Planetarum of his teacher Georg von Peurbach.[1]
Regiomontanus and Bernhard Walther observed thecomet of 1472. Regiomontanus tried to estimate its distance from Earth, using the angle of parallax.[a] According to David A. Seargeant:[7]
In agreement with the prevailing Aristotelian theory on comets as atmospheric phenomena, he estimated its distance to be at least 8,200 miles (13,120 km) and, from this, estimated the central condensation as 26, and the entire coma as 81 miles (41.6 and 129.6 km respectively) in diameter. These values, of course, fail by orders of magnitude, but he is to be commended for this attempt at determining the physical dimensions of the comet.
The 1472 comet was visible from Christmas Day 1471 to 1 March 1472 (Julian Calendar), a total of 59 days.[8]
In 1475, Regiomontanus was called to Rome byPope Sixtus IV on to work on the plannedcalendar reform. Sixtus promised substantial rewards, including the title ofbishop of Regensburg,[9][10] but it is unlikely that he was actually appointed to the role.[3]
On his way to Rome, stopping in Venice, he commissioned the publication of hisCalendarium withErhard Ratdolt (printed in 1476).[11] Regiomontanus reached Rome, but he died there after only a few months, in his 41st year, on 6 July 1476. According to a rumor repeated byGassendi in his Regiomontanus biography, he was poisoned by relatives ofGeorge of Trebizond whom he had criticized in his writing; it is however considered more likely that he died from the plague.[1]
During his time in Italy he completed Peuerbach's abridgement ofAlmagest,Epytoma in almagesti Ptolemei. In 1464, he completedDe triangulis omnimodis ("On Triangles of All Kinds").De triangulis omnimodis was one of the first textbooks presenting the current state oftrigonometry and included lists of questions for review of individual chapters. In it he wrote:
You who wish to study great and wonderful things, who wonder about the movement of the stars, must read these theorems about triangles. Knowing these ideas will open the door to all of astronomy and to certain geometric problems.
In 1465, he built a portablesundial forPope Paul II.
InEpytoma in almagesti Ptolemei, he critiqued the translation ofAlmagest byGeorge of Trebizond, pointing out inaccuracies. LaterNicolaus Copernicus would refer to this book as an influence on his own work.
A prolific author, Regiomontanus was internationally famous in his lifetime. Despite having completed only a quarter of what he had intended to write, he left a substantial body of work.Nicolaus Copernicus' teacher,Domenico Maria Novara da Ferrara, referred to Regiomontanus as having been his own teacher. There is speculation that Regiomontanus had arrived at a theory of heliocentrism before he died; a manuscript shows particular attention to theheliocentric theory of thePythagoreanAristarchus, mention was also given to the motion of the earth in a letter to a friend.[12]
Much of the material onspherical trigonometry in Regiomontanus'On Triangles was taken directly[dubious –discuss] from the twelfth-century work ofJabir ibn Aflah otherwise known as Geber, as noted in the sixteenth century byGerolamo Cardano.[13]
Simon Stevin, in his book describingdecimal representation offractions (De Thiende), cites the trigonometric tables of Regiomontanus as suggestive ofpositional notation.[14]
Regiomontanus designed his ownastrological house system, which became one of the most popular systems in Europe.[15]
In 1561,Daniel Santbech compiled a collected edition of the works of Regiomontanus,De triangulis planis et sphaericis libri quinque (first published in 1533) andCompositio tabularum sinum recto, as well as Santbech's ownProblematum astronomicorum et geometricorum sectiones septem. It was published inBasel byHenrich Petri andPetrus Perna.
There is an image of him in Hartmann Schedel's 1493Nuremberg Chronicle. He is holding anastrolabe. Yet, although there are thirteen illustrations of comets in theChronicle (from 471 to 1472), they are stylized, rather than representing the actual objects.[b]
The craterRegiomontanus on the Moon is named after him.
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link). (full text online).
Hagen, Johann Georg (1911). "Johann Müller (Regiomontanus)". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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