The ''Prutenic Tables'' ( la, Tabulae prutenicae from ''Prutenia'' meaning "

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

", german: Prutenische oder Preußische Tafeln), were an

ephemeris In astronomy and celestial navigation, an ephemeris (pl. ephemerides; ) is a book with tables that gives the trajectory of naturally occurring astronomical objects as well as artificial satellites in the sky, i.e., the position (and possibly ...

(astronomical tables) by the astronomer

Erasmus Reinhold Erasmus Reinhold (22 October 1511 – 19 February 1553) was a German astronomer and mathematician, considered to be the most influential astronomical pedagogue of his generation. He was born and died in Saalfeld, Saxony. He was educated, und ...

published in 1551 (reprinted in 1562, 1571 & 1585). They are sometimes called the ''Prussian Tables'' after Albert I, Duke of Prussia, who supported Reinhold and financed the printing. Reinhold calculated this new set of astronomical tables based on

Nicolaus Copernicus Nicolaus Copernicus (; pl, Mikołaj Kopernik; gml, Niklas Koppernigk, german: Nikolaus Kopernikus; 19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath, active as a mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic canon, who formulat ...

' ''

De revolutionibus orbium coelestium ''De revolutionibus orbium coelestium'' (English translation: ''On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres'') is the seminal work on the heliocentric theory of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) of the Polish Renaissance. The book, ...

'', the epochal exposition of

Copernican heliocentrism Copernican heliocentrism is the astronomical model developed by Nicolaus Copernicus and published in 1543. This model positioned the Sun at the center of the Universe, motionless, with Earth and the other planets orbiting around it in circular ...

published in 1543. Throughout his explanatory canons, Reinhold used as his paradigm the position of

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

at the birth of the Duke, on 17 May 1490. With these tables, Reinhold intended to replace the Alfonsine Tables; he added redundant tables to his new tables so that compilers of almanacs familiar with the older Alfonsine Tables could perform all the steps in an analogous manner. Several tables based on the Alfonsine Tables were published after the publication of the Prussian Tables. Copernicus's

heliocentric Heliocentrism (also known as the Heliocentric model) is the astronomical model in which the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun at the center of the universe. Historically, heliocentrism was opposed to geocentrism, which placed the Earth ...

claims were slow to be accepted by all European astronomers. Rather, the Prussian Tables became popular in German speaking countries for nationalistic and confessional reasons, and it is through these tables that Copernicus's reputation was established as a skilled mathematician or an astronomer on a par with

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

, and helped to disseminate the Copernicus' methods of calculating the positions of

astronomical object An astronomical object, celestial object, stellar object or heavenly body is a naturally occurring physical entity, association, or structure that exists in the observable universe. In astronomy, the terms ''object'' and ''body'' are often u ...

s throughout the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 unt ...

. They eventually replaced the Alfonsine tables, which

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

s and

astrologer Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...

s had used for 300 years. The Alfonsine tables in ''Table of the Stars'' by

Regiomontanus Johannes Müller von Königsberg (6 June 1436 – 6 July 1476), better known as Regiomontanus (), was a mathematician, astrologer and astronomer of the German Renaissance, active in Vienna, Buda and Nuremberg. His contributions were instrument ...

also were used by sailors and sea explores during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Christopher Clavius Christopher Clavius, SJ (25 March 1538 – 6 February 1612) was a Jesuit German mathematician, head of mathematicians at the Collegio Romano, and astronomer who was a member of the Vatican commission that accepted the proposed calendar inve ...

used Reinhold's Prutenic Tables and Copernicus' work as a basis for the calendar reform instituted under

Pope Gregory XIII Pope Gregory XIII ( la, Gregorius XIII; it, Gregorio XIII; 7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585), born Ugo Boncompagni, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585. He is best known for ...

. Decades later, in Prague,

Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws ...

compiled the

Rudolphine Tables The ''Rudolphine Tables'' ( la, Tabulae Rudolphinae) consist of a star catalogue and planetary tables published by Johannes Kepler in 1627, using observational data collected by Tycho Brahe (1546–1601). The tables are named in memory of Rudolf ...

, based on

Tycho Brahe Tycho Brahe ( ; born Tyge Ottesen Brahe; generally called Tycho (14 December 154624 October 1601) was a Danish astronomer, known for his comprehensive astronomical observations, generally considered to be the most accurate of his time. He was ...

's lifetime of astronomical observations, which were the most extensive and accurate observations until his time. Kepler completed the work in 1625 and managed to publish it in 1627. In 1970

Owen Gingerich Owen Jay Gingerich (; born 1930) is professor emeritus of astronomy and of the history of science at Harvard University and a senior astronomer emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. In addition to his research and teaching, he has ...

discovered Reinhold's heavily annotated copy of Copernicus' ''De revolutionibus''. This inspired him to explore the dissemination and use of ''De revolutionibus'' in the several decades following its publication. Gingerich wrote about his explorations and their results, and the role of Reinhold's ''Prutenic Tables'', in ''The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus'' (2004).

Literature

* Owen Gingerich, "The role of Erasmus Reinhold and the Prutenic Tables in the Dissemination of Copernican Theory", ''Studia Copernicana'', 6 (1973), 43-62. * Owen Gingerich & B. Welther, "The Accuracy of Ephemerides 1500-1800", ''Vistas in Astronomy'', 28 (1985), 339-34

* Owen Gingerich, "The Alphonsine Tables in the Age of Printing", in: M. Comes et al. (eds), ''De astronomia Alphonsi Regis'' (Barcelona, 1987), pp. 89–95. * Owen Gingerich, ''The Book Nobody Read'', (2004, Walker Publishing Company).

External links

''Prutenicae tabulae coelestium motuum'' (1551)
(ETH Bibliothek Zurich) (in Latin)
''Prutenicae tabulae coelestium motuum'' (1562)
(University of Strasbourg) {{in lang, la

(University of Cambridge) 1551 books Astronomical tables Astrological texts 16th-century Latin books