Georg Joachim Rheticus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Georg Joachim von Lauchen, also known as Rheticus, was born in 1514 at Feldkirch, Austria and died in 1574 at Košice, Hungary. He was a mathematician, cartographer, navigational and other instrument maker, medical practitioner, and teacher. He is perhaps best known for his trigonometric tables, and for facilitating the publication of Nicolaus Copernicus' De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres).

Rheticus' parents both possessed considerable wealth and his father, Georg Iserin, was the town doctor of Feldkirch. Iserin, however, abused the trust of many of his patients, stealing items and money from many of their homes. He was convicted and executed for his crimes in 1528, and his family was stripped of their surname as a result. The son took as his last name a form of the Latin name for his home region, Rhaetia, a Roman province that had included parts of Austria, Switzerland and Germany; he would be called Rheticus.

After Iserin's death, Achilles Gasser took over his medical practice. Gasser helped Rheticus continue his studies and was a strong support to him. Rheticus studied at Feldkirch, Zürich and the University of Wittenberg, where he received his M.A. in 1536.

Philipp Melanchthon, the theologian and educator, greatly assisted Rheticus in obtaining appointments at several universities. During the time of the Reformation Melanchthon reorganized the whole educational system of Germany, reformed and founded several new universities. In 1536 Rheticus was aided by Melanchthon in receiving the appointment to the teaching position in astronomy and mathematics at the Wittenberg university.

Two years later Melanchthon arranged for Rheticus to visit and study with the noted astronomers of the day. Rheticus took this opportunity to visit Copernicus in Frauenburg (Frombork, Poland). On the way he first went to Nuremberg and visited the publisher Johannes Schöner and the printer Petreius. From there to Peter Apian in Ingolstadt and Joachim Camerarius in Tübingen, then to Achilles Gasser in his hometown.

In May 1539 he arrived in Frombork (Warmia) and spent there two years with Copernicus. In September 1539 Rheticus went to Danzig (Gdańsk), just west of Frombork, and visited the mayor who gave Rheticus some financial assistance to publish the First Report or Narratio Prima. This Narratio Prima, published by Rhode in Danzig in 1540, is still considered to be the best introduction to Copernicus' De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. While in Danzig he interviewed the pilots to find out navigational problems. Rheticus had also visited the bishop of Chełmno Tiedemann Giese of Danzig.

In August 1541 Rheticus presented a copy of his work Tabula chorographica auff Preussen und etliche umbliegende lender (map of Prussia and neighboring lands) to Duke Albrecht who had been trying to compute the exact time of sunrise. Rheticus made an instrument for him that determined the length of the day. Rheticus asked and received the permission of the duke for the publication of the Copernicus De revolutionibus. Albrecht requested of Rheticus that he return to his teaching position. He returned to the University of Wittenberg in October 1541, after earlier publishing the trigonometrical sections of the Copernicus De revolutionibus. In 1542 he traveled to Nürnberg to supervise the printing of the Copernicus material, published upon Copernicus' death in 1543.

The canon of Warmia Georg Donner and the bishop of Warmia Johannes Dantiscus were both patrons of Rheticus. Rheticus was also commissioned to make a staff for king Sigismund II of Poland, while he held a position as teacher in Kraków for many years. From there he went to Košice (Kassa) in Hungary, where he died in 1574.

[edit] References

Richard S. Westfall, Indiana University. Rheticus, George Joachim. "Catalog of the Scientific Community of the 16th and 17th Centuries," The Galileo Project.
J.J. O'Connor and E.F. Robertson, University St. Andrews, Scotland.
Dennis Danielson (2006). The First Copernican: Georg Joachim Rheticus and the Rise of the Copernican Revolution. Walker & Company, New York. ISBN 0-8027-1530-3