Erasmus Reinhold

Erasmus Reinhold (22 October 1511 – 19 February 1553) was a German <a href="/facts/Astronomer/ronF8j4a">astronomer</a> and <a href="/facts/Mathematician/eaFSR8Fx">mathematician</a>, considered to be the most influential astronomical <a href="/facts/Pedagogue/t1LIfLeC">pedagogue</a> of his generation. He was born and died in <a href="/facts/Saalfeld/4lB2rBvP">Saalfeld</a>, <a href="/facts/Electorate_of_Saxony/QEt6bMrs">Saxony</a>.
He was educated, under <a href="/facts/Jacob_Milich/pg0po3hk">Jacob Milich</a>, at the <a href="/facts/University_of_Wittenberg/DXhaJLhH">University of Wittenberg</a>, where he was first elected dean and later became rector. In 1536 he was appointed professor of higher <a href="/facts/Mathematics/pxTouaz4">mathematics</a> by <a href="/facts/Philipp_Melanchthon/hQtzHQjQ">Philipp Melanchthon</a>. In contrast to the limited modern definition, "mathematics" at the time also included <a href="/facts/Applied_mathematics/qyqklXXm">applied mathematics</a>, especially <a href="/facts/Astronomy/0ArJVM1p">astronomy</a>. His colleague, <a href="/facts/Georg_Joachim_Rheticus/nK3AyzCH">Georg Joachim Rheticus</a>, also studied at Wittenberg and was appointed professor of lower mathematics in 1536.
Reinhold catalogued a large number of stars. His publications on astronomy include a commentary (1542, 1553) on <a href="/facts/Georg_Purbach/VCAn8Ecd">Georg Purbach</a>'s Theoricae novae planetarum. Reinhold knew about <a href="/facts/Nicolaus_Copernicus/RvzhHNQR">Copernicus</a> and his heliocentric ideas prior to the publication of his <a href="/facts/De_revolutionibus/8J8EQEY5">De revolutionibus</a>, and made a favourable reference to him in his commentary on Purbach. However, Reinhold (like other astronomers before <a href="/facts/Johannes_Kepler/wk6GTN3C">Kepler</a> and <a href="/facts/Galileo/98VT2z3v">Galileo</a>) translated Copernicus' mathematical methods back into a geocentric system, rejecting <a href="/facts/Heliocentrism/4hoCMs7P">heliocentric</a> <a href="/facts/Cosmology/yM19zM7Y">cosmology</a> on physical and theological grounds.

Duke <a href="/facts/Albert%2c_Duke_of_Prussia/YtMCL3kI">Albert of Brandenburg Prussia</a> supported Reinhold and financed the printing of Reinhold's <a href="/facts/Prutenicae_Tabulae/cU8nth3c">Prutenicae Tabulae</a> (1551, 1562, 1571, and 1585) or <a href="/facts/Prussian_Tables/cU8nth3c">Prussian Tables</a>. These astronomical tables helped to disseminate calculation methods of Copernicus throughout the Empire, however, Gingerich notes that they showed a "notable lack of commitment" to heliocentricity and were "carefully framed" to be independent of the movement of the Earth. Both Reinhold's <a href="/facts/Prutenic_Tables/cU8nth3c">Prutenic Tables</a> and Copernicus' studies were the foundation for the <a href="/facts/Calendar_Reform/UqJwaDvD">Calendar Reform</a> by <a href="/facts/Pope_Gregory_XIII/oxlp2zDf">Pope Gregory XIII</a> in 1582.
It was Reinhold's heavily annotated copy of <a href="/facts/De_revolutionibus_orbium_coelestium/8J8EQEY5">De revolutionibus</a> in the <a href="/facts/Royal_Observatory%2c_Edinburgh/rh6Rht57">Royal Observatory, Edinburgh</a>, that started <a href="/facts/Owen_Gingerich/zHjLTAsG">Owen Gingerich</a> on his search for copies of the first and second editions which he describes in The Book Nobody Read. In Reinhold's unpublished commentary on De revolutionibus, he calculated the distance from the Earth to the Sun. He "massaged" his calculation method in order to arrive at an answer close to that of Ptolemy.
His <a href="/facts/Reinhold_(crater)/sSFHTgSo">name</a> has been given to a prominent <a href="/facts/Moon/zKHqEMPb">lunar</a> <a href="/facts/Impact_crater/nWntooh4">impact crater</a> that lies to the south-southwest of the crater <a href="/facts/Copernicus_(lunar_crater)/SH2l51TU">Copernicus</a>, on the <a href="/facts/Mare_Insularum/wUCcsegq">Mare Insularum</a>.

Erasmus Reinhold open-in-new

Erasmus Reinhold