Johannes Regiomontanus Biography

Johannes Regiomontanus was a well known German mathematician, astrologer, and astronomer. He was born June 6th, 1436 in Unfindan. He went through his schooling at a very advanced level. By the age of 21 he was teaching others. He was Georg von Peurbach’s mentee until his death  in 1461. He traveled around Italy and ended up copying various mathematical and astronomical manuscripts. He was one of the first to use symbolic algebra. During this time he followed around Bessarion and helped him in his studies. He accompanied Bessarion to the Venetian Republic and did some lecturing at the University of Padua. While there he witnessed a total lunar eclipse. Later he moved to In 1471 he moved to Nuremberg and he started the first scientific printing press. He used it to publish he first astronomical text book. He also built an observatory to view the stars and create various instruments. He discovered the relation between the distance between earth and the moon and how that could be applied to navigating on the seas. In 1475 he went to Rome to work with the pope and assist with reforming the calendar. He died July 6th, 1476 of unknown causes. It is believed that he died because of a passing epidemic. After his death his massive volumes of research were discovered. It turned out that he was one of the first to have the theory of heliocentrism. In 1561, Daniel Santbeth published a collection of Regiomontanus’ work. There is a crater on the moon named after him. Much of his work has helped in the study of algebra, astronomy, and trigonometry.