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Georg Joachim von Lauchen, also known as Rheticus (February 16, 1514 – December 4, 1574), was a mathematician, cartographer, navigational and other instrument maker, medical practitioner, and teacher. Events 1249 - Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khan of the Mongols "December 4th" redirects here For the song by Jay-Z, see December 4th (song. A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of Mathematics. He is perhaps best known for his trigonometric tables, and for being the only pupil of Nicolaus Copernicus, facilitating the major publication of his De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres). Circle-trig6svg|300px|thumb|right|All of the Trigonometric functions of an angle θ can be constructed geometrically in terms of a unit circle centered at O. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium ( On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) first printed in 1543 in Nuremberg, is the seminal work on

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New surname

Rheticus was born at Feldkirch, Austria. Feldkirch is a medieval city in the western Austrian state of Vorarlberg, at, on the border with Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich 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. Raetia (so always in inscriptions classical manuscripts usually use the form Rhaetia) was a province of the Roman Empire, bounded on the west by the country Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe.

Rhaeticus (crater) was named after him. Rhaeticus is a lunar crater that lies astride the Equator of the Moon, on the southeast edge of the Sinus Medii.

Patrons

After Iserin's death, Achilles Gasser took over his medical practice. Georg Joachim von Lauchen, also known as Rheticus ( February 16 1514 &ndash December 4 1574) was a Mathematician, 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. Zürich (, Zürich German: Züri, Zurich, Zurigo; in English generally Zurich) is the largest city in Switzerland and capital of the The Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg also referred to as MLU, is a public University in the cities of A. in 1536.

Philipp Melanchthon, the theologian and educator, greatly assisted Rheticus in obtaining appointments at several universities. Philipp Melanchthon (born Philipp Schwartzerd) ( February 16, 1497 &ndash April 19, 1560) was a German professor and theologian During the Reformation, Melanchthon reorganized the whole educational system of Germany, reforming and founding several new universities. The Protestant Reformation was a reform movement in Europe that began in 1517 though its roots lie further back in time In 1536 Rheticus was aided by Melanchthon in obtaining appointment to a teaching position in astronomy and mathematics at Wittenberg University. Wittenberg University, located in Springfield Ohio, is a private four-year liberal arts college affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Two years later, Melanchthon arranged a two year leave for Rheticus in order to study with noted astronomers of the day. Rheticus took this opportunity to visit Copernicus in Frombork (Frauenburg). Frombork ( is a Town in northern Poland, on the Vistula Lagoon, in Braniewo County, Warmia-Masuria Province. Leaving Wittenberg in October 1538, he first went to Nuremberg to visit the publisher Johannes Schöner and the printer Petreius. Johannes Schöner ( January 16, 1477 in Karlstadt am Main &ndash January 16, 1547 in Nürnberg) (aka Johann Schönner Johann(es Petreius aka Hans Peterlein (c 1497 near Bad Kissingen - March 18 1550, Nuremberg) was a German printer Here, Rheticus was given works of Regiomontanus and others, intended as presents to Copernicus. Johannes Müller von Königsberg ( June 6, 1436 &ndash July 6, 1476) known by his Latin Pseudonym Regiomontanus He proceeded on to Peter Apian in Ingolstadt and Joachim Camerarius in Tübingen, then to Achilles Gasser in his hometown. Petrus Apianus ( April 16, 1495 &ndash April 21, 1552; also known as Peter Apian) was a German Ingolstadt (ˈɪŋgɔlˌʃtat Austro-Bavarian: Inglstådt) is a city in the Free State of Bavaria, Germany Joachim Camerarius ( April 12, 1500 &ndash April 17, 1574) the Elder, German classical scholar was born at Tübingen, a traditional University town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, is situated 30 km (19 miles southwest of Stuttgart, on a ridge between Georg Joachim von Lauchen, also known as Rheticus ( February 16 1514 &ndash December 4 1574) was a Mathematician,

Service to Copernicus

In May 1539 he arrived in Frombork (Frauenburg) and spent two years there with Copernicus. Frombork ( is a Town in northern Poland, on the Vistula Lagoon, in Braniewo County, Warmia-Masuria Province. It is unknown whether he had prior direct access to Copernicus' Commentariolus, and if so, since when. In the Commentariolus ( Little Commentary) Nicolaus Copernicus outlined his revolutionary Copernican heliocentrism theory of the solar system Copernicus had outlined his revolutionary heliocentric theory of the solar system three decades earlier, but handed out only few copies to friends.

In September 1539 Rheticus went to Danzig (Gdańsk) to visited the mayor who gave Rheticus some financial assistance to publish the First Report or Narratio Prima. This article is about the History of Gdańsk (Danzig, a city located on the Baltic Sea. Narratio Prima (first account is an abstract of the heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus, published by the young German Astronomer Georg Joachim Rheticus This Narratio Prima[1], published by Rhode[1] in Danzig in 1540, is still considered to be the best introduction to Copernicus' De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. Rhode may refer to;Persons Franz Rhode, German printer of the 16th century Paul Peter Rhode (1871-1945 Roman Catholic bishop While in Danzig he interviewed the pilots to find out navigational problems. Rheticus had also visited the bishop of Chełmno (Culm) Tiedemann Giese of Danzig. For the concentration camp located near a village with a similar name Chełmno nad Nerem see Chełmno extermination camp. Tiedemann Giese ( June 1, 1480 – October 23, 1550, Heilsberg) was a member of the patrician Giese family of Danzig (Gdańsk

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 of Prussia who had been trying to compute the exact time of sunrise. Albert (Albrecht Albertus 16 May 1490 – 20 March 1568 was the 37th Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights and after converting to Lutheranism, 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 by Johannes Petreius, published upon Copernicus' death in 1543. Johann(es Petreius aka Hans Peterlein (c 1497 near Bad Kissingen - March 18 1550, Nuremberg) was a German printer

Later years

The canon of Warmia Georg Donner and the bishop of Warmia Johannes Dantiscus were both patrons of Rheticus. Warmia (Warmia Latin: Varmia) or Erm(eland ( is a region between Pomerania and Masuria in northeastern Poland see also Georg Donner canon of Warmia and patron of Rheticus in the 16th century Georg Rafael Donner ( 1693 - 1741 This is a list of Prince-Bishops / Bishops / of the Diocese Warmia/Ermland It was founded in 1243 as Bishopric of Ermland as one of four bishoprics of Prussia Johannes Dantiscus, (Johann(es von Höfen or Johann(es Flachsbinder (Jan Dantyszek ( 1 October 1485 in Danzig Gdańsk in Poland Rheticus was also commissioned to make a staff for king Sigismund II of Poland, while he held a position as teacher in Cracow for many years. Kraków, in English also spelled Krakow or Cracow (ˈkrækaʊ M-W: krăk'ou krāk'ō is one of the largest and oldest cities in Poland From there he went to Košice in the Kingdom of Hungary, where he died. Košice (; Hungarian: Kassa; (also known by other alternative names) is a city in eastern Slovakia. The Kingdom of Hungary (short form Hungary) was a considerable state in Central Europe that existed from 1001 to 1918 then from 1919 to 1946

Science of triangles

For much of his life, Rheticus displayed a passion for the study of triangles, or trigonometry. In 1542 he had the trigonometric sections of Copernicus' Revolutions (chapters 13 and 14) published separately under the title, De lateribus et angulis triangulorum (On the Sides and Angles of Triangles). In Leipzig in 1551, Rheticus produced a tract titled, Canon of the Science of Triangles, the first publication of six-function trigonometric tables, though the term trigonometry was not used until 1595. This pamphlet was to be an introduction to Rheticus' greatest work, a full set of tables to be used in angular astronomical measurements. [2]

At his death, the Science of Triangles was still unfinished, but, paralleling his own relationship with Copernicus, Rheticus had acquired a student who devoted himself to completing his teacher's work. Valentin Otto oversaw the hand computation of approximately one hundred thousand ratios to at least ten decimal places. When completed in 1596, the volume, Opus palatinum de triangulus, filled nearly fifteen hundred pages. Its tables of values were accurate enough to be used as the basis for astronomical computation into the early twentieth century. [3]

Work

References

  1. ^ Edward Rosen,Three Copernican Treatises: The Commentariolus of Copernicus; The Letter against Werner; The Narratio Prima of Rheticus; Columbia University Press, 1939
  2. ^ (Danielson, 140-141)
  3. ^ (Danielson, 194-201)

Literature

External links

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