Henricus Grammateus (also known as Henricus Scriptor, Heinrich Schreyber or Heinrich Schreiber; 1495 – 1525 or 1526) was a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
mathematician. He was born in
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits in ...
. In 1507 he started to study at the University of Vienna, where he subsequently taught.
Christoph Rudolff was one of his students. From 1514 to 1517 he studied in
Cracow and then returned to Vienna. But when the plague affected Vienna Schreiber left the city and went to
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
.
In 1518 he published details of a new
musical temperament, which is now named after him, for the
harpsichord. It was a precursor of the
equal temperament.
In 1525 Schreiber was back in Vienna, where he is listed as "Examinator", i.e. eligible to work holding exams.
Works
* ''Algorithmus proportionum una cum monochordi generalis dyatonici compositione'', pub. Volfgangvm De Argentina, Cracow, 1514
* ''Libellus de compositione regularum pro vasorum mensuratione. Deque arte ista tota theoreticae et practicae'', Vienna, 1518
* ''Ayn new Kunstlich Buech'' (''A New Skill Book''), Vienna 1518, Nuremberg 1521 - contains (besides
Johannes Widmann) the earliest-known use of the
plus and minus signs for addition and subtraction and is the earliest German text on bookkeeping
Inoue, K. "The Neglected Contribution of Grammateus to Bookkeeping History"
/ref>
References
1495 births
1525 deaths
Scientists from Erfurt
16th-century German mathematicians
German music theorists
16th-century German writers
16th-century German male writers
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