Rheticus

Georg Joachim von Lauchen Rheticus

Born: 16 Feb 1514 in Feldkirch, Austria
Died: 4 Dec 1574 in Kassa, Hungary (now Kosice)

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Rheticus was born Georg Joachim de Porris or von Lauchen but took the name Rheticus from the district of his birth. He was appointed to a chair of mathematics and astronomy at Wittenberg in 1537. Two years later he went to study with Copernicus. He persuaded Copernicus to publish his famous work and took it to Nürnberg for publication. He had to leave Germany before Copernicus's book was published due to the religous objections of Martin Luther.

Rheticus wrote an important work on trigonometry Opus Palatinum de triangulis (1596) using all six trigonometric functions. He gave tables of all these six functions, this major work only being completed and published by his student Otto after Rheticus's death. Among visits Rheticus made was one to visit Cardan.

References elsewhere in this archive:

Tell me about Rheticus's work on trigonometry

Other Web sites:

Rice University, USA
Clarke University, USA

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
  3. K H Burmeister, Georg Joachim Rhetikus 1514-1574, eine Bio-Bibliographie II (Wiesbaden, 1967-68).
  4. P Bockslaele, Adrianus Romanus and the trigonometric tables of Georg Joachim Rheticus, in S S Demidov et al. (eds), Amphora : Festschrift for Hans Wussing on the occasion of his 65th birthday (Basel- Boston- Berlin, 1992), 55-66. 
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JOC/EFR February 1996