1. Johannes Muller von Konigsberg, better known as Regiomontanus, was a mathematician, astrologer and astronomer of the German Renaissance, active in Vienna, Buda and Nuremberg.
11 Facts About Regiomontanus
1. 2.
Regiomontanus's contributions were instrumental in the development of Copernican heliocentrism in the decades following his death.
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Regiomontanus wrote under the Latinized name of Ioannes de Monteregio ; the toponym Regiomontanus was first used by Philipp Melanchthon in 1534.
4.
Regiomontanus is named after Konigsberg in Lower Franconia, not the larger Konigsberg in Prussia.
5.
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.
6.
Regiomontanus made the acquaintance of the leading Italian mathematicians of the age such as Giovanni Bianchini and Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli who had been friends of Peuerbach during his prolonged stay in Italy more than twenty years earlier.
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In 1471 Regiomontanus moved to the Free City of Nuremberg, in Franconia, then one of the Empire's important seats of learning, publication, commerce and art, where he worked with the humanist and merchant Bernhard Walther.
8.
Regiomontanus tried to estimate its distance from Earth, using the angle of parallax.
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In 1475, Regiomontanus was called to Rome by Pope Sixtus IV on to work on the planned calendar reform.
10.
Nicolaus Copernicus' teacher, Domenico Maria Novara da Ferrara, referred to Regiomontanus as having been his own teacher.
11.
Regiomontanus designed his own astrological house system, which became one of the most popular systems in Europe.