Mathematical Treasure: Peuerbach’s and Regiomontanus’s Ptolemy

Regiomontanus [Johannes Müller] (1436-1476) was a German mathematician and astronomer. He was a student and friend of the leading European scientist Georg von Peuerbach (1423-1461). Peuerbach began a translation of Ptolemy’s Almagest from Greek into Latin but could not complete the task. Regiomontanus took up the task and published Epytoma Joan[n]is De Mo[n]te Regio in Almagestum Ptolomei [Epitome of the Almagest] in 1496.

Here is the first page of text.

A woodcut print shows an armillary sphere with the zones of the earth designated.

A discussion of epicyclical motion around a circle is presented and illustrated.

This material is obtained through the courtesy of the Peabody Library of Johns Hopkins University.

For images from another copy of this book, see Mathematical Treasure: Epitome of the Almagest. For images from another edition of the Almagest, see Mathematical Treasure: Ptolemy’s Almagest.

Index to Mathematical Treasures