Epact: Scientific Instruments of Medieval and Renaissance Europe

Johann Richter

Johannes Praetorius (Johann Richter) was both a mathematician and an instrument maker and was born in 1537 in Joachimstal. After completing his studies in Wittenberg he worked in Nuremberg (from in about 1562 to in about 1568), Prague, Vienna and Cracow. From 1571 to 1575 he was professor of mathematics in Wittenberg. Following a short sojourn in Warsaw, he took up the same post in Altdorf in 1576 where he remained until his death on 27 October 1616.

Johannes Praetorius made observations of the Super Nova of 1572 with his own instruments and held lectures on the construction of cross staffs and sundials. The surviving instruments made by him (most of which date from his Nuremberg period) include sundials, astronomical compendia, astrolabes, torqueta, and terrestrial and celestial globes

References:

E. Zinner, Deutsche und Niederl?ndische astronomische Instrumente des 11. bis 18. Jahrhunderts (2nd ed., Munich, 1967), pp. 471-2, and p. 684.

Epact Scientific Instruments of Medieval and Renaissance Europe