Hans Holbein and the Nürnberg–Ingolstadt–Vienna Renaissance mathematical nexus.

There is a strong tendency, particularly in the popular history of science, to write about or present scientists as individuals. This leads to a serious distortion of the way that science develops and in particular propagates the lone genius myth. In reality science has always been a collective endeavour with its practitioners interacting in many different ways and on many different levels. In the Renaissance, when travelling from one end of Europe to the other would take weeks and letters often even longer, one might be excused for thinking that such cooperation was very low level but in fact the opposite was the truth, with scholars in the mathematical sciences exchanging information and ideas throughout Europe. A particularly strong mathematical nexus existed in the Southern German speaking area between the cities of Nürnberg, Ingolstadt and Vienna in the century between 1450 and 1550. Interestingly two of the paintings of the Northern Renaissance artist Hans Holbein the Younger open a door into this nexus.

Holbein (c. 1497–1543) was born in Augsburg the son of the painter and draughtsman Hans Holbein the Elder. As a young artist he lived and worked for a time in Basel where he became acquainted with Erasmus and worked for the printer publisher Johann Froben amongst others. Between 1526 and 1528 he spent some time in England in the household of Thomas More and it is here that he painted the second portrait I shall be discussing. The next four years find him living in Basel again before he returned to England in 1532 where he became associated with the court of Henry VIII, More having fallen out of favour. It was at the court that he painted, what is probably his most well know portrait, The Ambassadors in 1533.

Hans Holbein The Ambassadors
Source: Wikimedia Commons

The painting shows two courtiers, usually identified as the French Ambassador Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve, Bishop of Lavaur standing on either side of a set of shelves laden with various books and instruments. There is much discussion was to what the instruments are supposed to represent but it is certain that, whatever else they stand for, they represent the quadrivium, arithmetic, geometry music and astronomy, the four mathematical sciences taught at European medieval universities. There are two globes, on the lower shelf a terrestrial and on the upper a celestial one. The celestial globe has been positively identified, as a Schöner globe and the terrestrial globe also displays characteristics of Schöner’s handwork.

Terrestrial Globe The Ambassadors
Source Wikimedia Commons

Celestial Globe The Ambassadors
Source Wikimedia Commons

Johannes Schöner (1477–1547) was professor for mathematics at the Egidienöberschule in Nürnberg, the addressee of Rheticus’ Narratio Prima, the founder of the tradition of printed globe pairs, an editor of mathematical texts for publication (especially for Johannes Petreius the sixteenth centuries most important scientific publisher) and one of the most influential astrologers in Europe. Schöner is a central and highly influential figure in Renaissance mathematics.

On the left hand side of the lower shelf is a copy of Peter Apian’s Ein newe und wolgegründete underweisung aller Kauffmanns Rechnung in dreyen Büchern, mit schönen Regeln und fragstücken begriffen (published in Ingolstadt in 1527) held open by a ruler. This is a popular book of commercial arithmetic, written in German, typical of the period. Peter Apian (1495–1552) professor of mathematics at the University of Ingolstadt, cartographer, printer-publisher and astronomer was a third generation representative of the so-called Second Viennese School of Mathematics. A pupil of Georg Tannstetter (1482–1535) a graduate of the University of Ingolstadt who had followed his teachers Johannes Stabius and Andreas Stiborious to teach at Conrad Celtis’ Collegium poetarum et mathematicorum, of which more later. Together Apian and Tannstetter produced the first printed edition of the Optic of Witelo, one of the most important medieval optic texts, which was printed by Petreius in Nürnberg in 1535. The Tannstetter/Apian/Petreius Witelo was one of the books that Rheticus took with him as a present for Copernicus when he visited him in 1539. Already, a brief description of the activities of Schöner and Apian is beginning to illustrate the connection between our three cities.

Apian’s Arithmetic Book The Ambassadors
Source: Wikimedia Commons

When Sebastian Münster (1488–1552), the cosmographer, sent out a circular requesting the cartographers of Germany to supply him with data and maps for his Cosmographia, he specifically addressed both Schöner and Apian by name as the leading cartographers of the age. Münster’s Cosmographia, which became the biggest selling book of the sixteenth century, was first published by Heinrich Petri in Basel in 1544. Münster was Petri’s stepfather and Petri was the cousin of Johannes Petreius, who learnt his trade as printer publisher in Heinrich’s printing shop in Basel. The Petri publishing house was also part of a consortium with Johann Amerbach and Johann Froben who had employed Hans Holbein in his time in Basel. Wheels within wheels.

The, mostly astronomical, instruments on the upper shelf are almost certainly the property of the German mathematician Nicolaus Kratzer (1487–1550), who is the subject of the second Holbein portrait who will be looking at.

Nicolas Kratzer by Hans Holbein
Source: Wikimedia Commona

Born in Munich and educated at the universities of Cologne and Wittenberg Kratzer, originally came to England, like Holbein, to become part of the Thomas More household, where he was employed as a tutor for More’s children. Also like Holbein, Kratzer moved over to Henry VIII’s court as court horologist or clock maker, although the clocks he was responsible for making were more probably sundials than mechanical ones. During his time as a courtier Kratzer also lectured at Oxford and is said to have erected a monumental stone sundial in the grounds of Corpus Christi College. One polyhedral sundial attributed to Kratzer is in the Oxford Museum for the History of Science.

Polyhedral Sundial attributed to Nicolas Kratzer
Source: MHS Oxford

In 1520 Kratzer travelled to Antwerp to visit Erasmus and here he met up with Nürnberg’s most famous painter Albrecht Dürer, who regular readers of this blog will know was also the author of a book on mathematics. Dürer’s book contains the first printed instructions, in German, on how to design, construct and install sundials, so the two men will have had a common topic of interest to liven there conversations. Kratzer witnessed Dürer, who was in Antwerp to negotiate with the German Emperor, painting Erasmus’ portrait and Dürer is said to have also drawn a portrait of Kratzer that is now missing. After Kratzer returned to England and Dürer to Nürnberg the two of them exchanged, at least once, letters and it is Kratzer’s letter that reveals some new connections in out nexus.

Albrecht Dürer selfportrait
Source: Wikimedia Commons

In his letter, from 1524, Kratzer makes inquires about Willibald Pirckheimer and also asks if Dürer knows what has happened to the mathematical papers of Johannes Werner and Johannes Stabius who had both died two years earlier.

Willibald Pirckheimer (1470–1530) a close friend and patron of Dürer’s was a rich merchant, a politician, a soldier and a humanist scholar. In the last capacity he was the hub of a group of largely mathematical humanist scholars now known as the Pirckheimer circle. Although not a mathematician himself Pirckheimer was a fervent supporter of the mathematical sciences and produced a Latin translation from the Greek of Ptolemaeus’ Geōgraphikḕ or Geographia, Pirckheimer’s translation provided the basis for Sebastian Münster’s edition, which was regarded as the definitive text in the sixteenth century. Stabius and Werner were both prominent members of the Pirckheimer circle.

Willibald Pirckheimer by Albrecht Dürer
Source: Wikimedia Commons

The two Johanneses, Stabius (1450–1522) and Werner (1468–1522), had become friends at the University of Ingolstadt where the both studied mathematics. Ingolstadt was the first German university to have a dedicated chair for mathematics. Werner returned to his hometown of Nürnberg where he became a priest but the Austrian Stabius remained in Ingolstadt, where he became professor of mathematics. The two of them continued to correspond and work together and Werner is said to have instigated the highly complex sundial on the wall of the Saint Lorenz Church in Nürnberg, which was designed by Stabius and constructed in 1502.

St Lorenz Church Nürnberg Sundial 1502
Source: Astronomie in Nürnberg

It was also Werner who first published Stabius’ heart shaped or cordiform map projection leading to it being labelled the Werner-Stabius Projection. This projection was used for world maps by Peter Apian as well as Oronce Fine, France’s leading mathematicus of the sixteenth century and Gerard Mercator, of whom more, later. The network expands.

Mercator cordiform world map 1538
Source: American Geographical Society Library

In his own right Werner produced a partial Latin translation from the Greek of Ptolemaeus’ Geographia, was the first to write about prosthaphaeresis (a trigonometrical method of simplifying calculation prior to the invention of logarithms), was the first to suggest the lunar distance method of determining longitude and was in all probability Albrecht Dürer’s maths teacher. He also was the subject of an astronomical dispute with Copernicus.

Johannes Werner
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Regular readers of this blog will know that Stabius co-operated with Albrecht Dürer on a series of projects, including his famous star maps, which you can read about in an earlier post here.

Johannes Statius Portrait by Albrecht Dürer
Source: Wikimedia Commons

An important non-Nürnberger member of the Pirckheimer Circle was Conrad Celtis (1459–1508), who is known in Germany as the arch-humanist. Like his friend Pirckheimer, Celtis was not a mathematician but believed in the importance of the mathematical sciences. Although already graduated he spent time in 1489 on the University of Kraków in order to get the education in mathematics and astronomy that he couldn’t get at a German university. Celtis had spent time at the humanist universities of Northern Italy and his mission in life was to demonstrate that Germany was just as civilised and educated as Italy and not a land of barbarians as the Italians claimed. His contributions to the Nuremberg Chronicle can be viewed as part of this demonstration. He believed he could achieve his aim by writing a comprehensive history of Germany including, as was common at the time its geography. In 1491/92 he received a teaching post in Ingolstadt, where he seduced the professors of mathematics Johannes Stabius and Andreas Stiborius (1464–1515) into turning their attention from astrology for medicine student, their official assignment, to mathematical cartography in order to help him with his historical geography.

Conrad Celtis
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Unable to achieve his ends in Ingolstadt Celtis decamped to Vienna, taking Stabius and Stiborius with him, to found his Collegium poetarum et mathematicorum as mentioned above and with it the so-called Second Viennese School of Mathematics; the first had been Peuerbach and Regiomontanus in the middle of the fifteenth century. Regiomontanus spent the last five years of his life living in Nürnberg, where he set up the world’s first scientific publishing house. Stiborius’ pupil Georg Tannstetter proved to be a gifted teacher and Peter Apian was by no means his only famous pupil.

The influence of the Nürnberg–Ingolstadt–Vienna mathematicians reached far beyond their own relatively small Southern German corridor. As already stated Münster in Basel stood in contact with both Apian and Schöner and Stabius’ cordiform projection found favour with cartographers throughout Northern Europe. Both Apian and Schöner exercised a major influence on Gemma Frisius in Louvain and through him on his pupils Gerard Mercator and John Dee. As outlined in my blog post on Frisius, he took over editing the second and all subsequent editions of Apian’s Cosmographia, one of the most important textbooks for all things astronomical, cartographical and to do with surveying in the sixteenth century. Frisius also learnt his globe making, a skill he passed on to Mercator, through the works of Schöner. Dee and Mercator also had connections to Pedro Nunes (1502–1578) the most important mathematicus on the Iberian peninsular. Frisius had several other important pupils who spread the skills in cosmography, and globe and instrument making that he had acquired from Apian and Schöner all over Europe.

Famously Rheticus came to Nürnberg to study astrology at the feet of Johannes Schöner, who maintained close contacts to Philipp Melanchthon Rheticus patron. Schöner was the first professor of mathematics at a school designed by Melanchthon. Melanchthon had learnt his mathematics and astrology at the University of Tübingen from Johannes Stöffler (1452–1531) another mathematical graduate from Ingolstadt.

Kupferstich aus der Werkstatt Theodor de Brys, erschienen 1598 im 2. Bd. der Bibliotheca chalcographica
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Another of Stöffler’s pupils was Sebastian Münster. During his time in Nürnberg Rheticus became acquainted with the other Nürnberger mathematicians and above all with the printer-publisher Johannes Petreius and it was famously Rheticus who brought the manuscript of Copernicus’ De revolutionibus to Nürnberg for Petreius to publish. Rheticus says that he first learnt of Copernicus’s existence during his travels on his sabbatical and historians think that it was probably in Nürnberg that he acquired this knowledge. One of the few pieces of astronomical writing from Copernicus that we have is the so-called Letter to Werner. In this manuscript Copernicus criticises Werner’s theory of trepidation. Trepidation was a mistaken belief based on faulty data that the rate of the precession of the equinoxes is not constant but varies with time. Because of this highly technical dispute amongst astronomers Copernicus would have been known in Nürnberg and thus the assumption that Rheticus first heard of him there. Interestingly Copernicus includes observations of Mercury made by Bernhard Walther (1430–1504), Regiomontanus partner, in Nürnberg; falsely attributing some of them to Schöner, so a connection between Copernicus and Nürnberg seems to have existed.

In this brief outline we have covered a lot of ground but I hope I have made clear just how interconnected the mathematical practitioners of Germany and indeed Europe were in the second half of the fifteenth century and the first half of the sixteenth. Science is very much a collective endeavour and historians of science should not just concentrate on individuals but look at the networks within which those individual operate bringing to light the influences and exchanges that take place within those networks.