- Georg von Peuerbach
Infobox Scientist
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name = Georg von Peuerbach
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caption = Georg von Peuerbach: "Theoricarum novarum planetarum testus", Paris 1515
birth_date =May 30 ,1423
birth_place =Peuerbach
death_date =April 8 ,1461
death_place =Vienna
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nationality = German/Austria n
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field =Astronomy
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doctoral_advisor =Johann von Gmünden
doctoral_students =Regiomontanus
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Georg von Peuerbach (also Purbach, Peurbach, Purbachius, his realsurname is unknown) (bornMay 30 ,1423 inPeuerbach nearLinz –April 8 ,1461 inVienna ) was a German/Austria nastronomer andmathematician .About the year 1440 he received the degree of master of philosophy and the free arts, "cum insigni laude", at the
University of Vienna . His teacher in mathematics was probablyJohann von Gmünden .In 1448 he went on a trip to
Italy for the sake of study. There,Giovanni Bianchini ofFerrara and CardinalNicholas of Cusa , then inRome , became interested in the young man and induced him to lecture on astronomy at theUniversity of Ferrara . He refused offers of professorships atBologna andPadua , and also the appointment as court astronomer to King Ladislaus of Hungary, but went back toVienna in 1450 to teach. He lectured on philology and classical literature. His scientific teaching was done chiefly in private, his most famous pupil beingJohann Müller of Königsberg , later known asRegiomontanus .Purbach has been called the father of mathematical and
observational astronomy in the West. He began to work upPtolemy 's "Almagest " and Alhazen's "On the Configuration of the World".cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|title=Ibn al-Haytham|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/738111/Ibn-al-Haytham|accessdate=2008-08-06|year=2008] He replaced Ptolemy's chords with the sines from Arabic mathematics, and calculated tables of sines for every minute of arc for a radius of 600,000 units. This was the first transition from the duodecimal to the decimal system. His observations were made with very simple instruments, an ordinary plumb-line being used for measuring the angles of elevation of the stars. CardinalBessarion invited him to Rome to study Ptolemy in the original Greek and not from a faulty Latin translation. He accepted on condition that Müller go with him. On account of the master's death the pupil went alone to complete the work.Purbach is also noted for his great attempt to reconcile the opposing theories of the universe, the so-called homocentric spheres of
Eudoxus of Cnidus andAristotle , with Ptolemy's epicyclic trains. This work, *"Theoricæ, etc.", had an enormous success and remained the basis of academic instruction in astronomy until years afterNicolaus Copernicus had swept away all these hypotheses.He worked at the Observatory of
Varadinum (also calledGroßwardein /Oradea /Nagyvarad) inTransylvania and established in his "Tabula Varadiensis " the town's observatory as lying on the prime meridian of Earth.Legacy
*He is credited with the invention of several scientific instruments, including the
regula , the geometrical square. By several Purbach is also credited for the "Jacob's Staff " as well, but this is not plausible since the original Jacob's Staff was an instrument developed in the 1300's, prior to his life time. [ [http://www.surveyhistory.org/jacob's_staff1.htm Jacob's Staff ] ]
*The Purbach crater on theMoon is named after him.Works
Twenty works of him are known. Among these, the following are the most important:
*"Theoricæ novæ planetarum , id est septem errantium siderum nec non octavi seu firmamenti" (1st ed., Nuremberg, 1472, byRegiomontanus ; followed by many others in Milan and Ingolstadt);
*"Sex primi libri epitomatisAlmagest i", completed by Regiomontanus (Venice, 1496; Basle, 1534; Nuremberg, 1550);
*"Tabulæ eclypsium super meridiano Viennensi" (2nd ed., Vienna, 1514);
*"Quadratum goemetricum meridiano" (Nuremberg, 1516);
*"Nova tabula sinus de decem minutis in decem per multas, etc.", completed byRegiomontanus (Nuremberg, 1541).External links
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* [http://www.univie.ac.at/hwastro Electronic facsimile-editions of the rare book collection at the Vienna Institute of Astronomy]
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