A Reconstruction of The Tables of Rheticus' Opus Palatinum (1596) PDF

A reconstruction
inria-00543932, version 1 - 6 Dec 2010
of the tables of Rheticus
Opus Palatinum (1596)
Denis Roegel
6 December 2010
This document is part of the LOCOMAT project:

http://www.loria.fr/~roegel/locomat.html
Before the twentieth century
Rheticus was the greatest calculator
of mathematical tables who ever lived.
R. C. Archibald [7]
1 Rheticus (15141574)
Georg Joachim was born in 1514 in Feldkirch (Austria) in what was formerly the Roman
province of Raetia, from which the name Rheticus is derived. His father was a doctor.1
After studying in Zurich from 1528 to 1532, Rheticus went to Wittenberg to complete his
education. Wittenberg was then the center of the sciences. He obtained his doctorate in
1536, went to Nuremberg and Tbingen, then was called back to Wittenberg as professor
of mathematics in 1536, along with Erasmus Reinhold. In 1539, he went to Frauenburg
in order to assist Copernicus and pushed him to publish the details of his theory.
The first account of the Copernican system was not published by Copernicus, but
in Rheticus Narratio prima in 1540 [58, 69, 12, 10, 11, 13, 14]. In fact, Rheticus was
more zealous than Copernicus, insisting on the physical truth of the motion of the earth.
Rheticus books were condemned by the catholic church in 1550 and put on the Index
Expurgatorius, and this condemnation applied to his works on trigonometry. As observed
by De Morgan, this severity was not so remarkable, if we remember that Rheticus held
the chair of mathematics at Wittenberg, where Luther had taught theology [27, p. 518].
Rheticus resumed his teaching in Wittenberg in 1541 and in 1542, Copernicus De
lateribus et angulis triangulorum [22] was published in Wittenberg. This short treatise
on trigonometry contains a table of sines for every minute of the quadrant and for a
radius of 107 . The sines were given to seven places, over 36 pages, with the first half
of five consecutive degrees on one page, and the next half on the following page. The
table also gave the cosines, although this name did not exist then. It was only introduced
by Gunter in 1620 [41]. The sine headings were on the top and left column, and the
cosine headings on the bottom and right column. Finally, this table had a column for the
differences. This table was certainly published under Rheticus pressure, but its contents
was taken from Regiomontanus works.
Copernicus De Revolutionibus (1543), whose printing was partly overseen by Rheti-
cus, contained the same chapter on trigonometry, but with a simpler table [23, book 1,
chapter 12, ff. 1519]. The sines were only given every 100 and for a radius of 100000.
The values were also taken from Regiomontanus works.
In 1542, Rheticus went to Nuremberg and Philip Melanchton [82] then helped him to
obtain a position at Leipzig University where he remained from 1542 to 1551. Rheticus
had to leave Leipzig after being accused of homosexual conduct and went to Prague in
1551. He gave up his academic career and completed his medicine studies. He settled in
Cracow in 1554 where he practiced medicine. Cracow was located on the same meridian as
Frauenburg and Rheticus had a 15-meter obelisk erected near the city for astronomical
purposes which were never completed [19, p. 9], [86]. Rheticus died during a visit in
Koice, now in Slovakia, in 1574.
1
For extensive biographies of Rheticus, see Burmeister [18, 19], Kraai [53], Danielson [25], and Schbi-
Fink [75].
3
2 Rheticus first table (1551)
Rheticus published his first trigonometric canon, the Canon doctrin triangulorum, in
1551 in Leipzig [59]. It gave the six trigonometric functions at intervals of 100 , semi-
quadrantically arranged. Each function was given to 7 places, or more exactly as integers
for a radius of 107 . This is a very rare table, and it was practically unknown when De
Morgan happened to find a copy of it in the 1840s [28, 27].
Rheticus was the first to provide a uniform treatment of the six trigonometric func-
tions. He was in particular the first to publish a table of secants.2 Rheticus only computed
two thirds of his table. The table of sines was taken from Regiomontanus [40, p. 152],
but the tangents and secants were recomputed from the sines [40, p. 193]. Rheticus had
therefore to compute about 1080 ratios (90 6 2).
He did not consider angles in circles, but triangles of which one of the side was
constant, and he gave the lengths of the other sides as a function of the angle at the
center. The name of sine was not used by Rheticus, nor those of tangent and secant, the
latter two having not yet been introduced.3 The sides were called base, perpendicular,
and hypothenuse. The tables span 14 pages, with 7 degrees on each double page. The
last double page is not totally filled, with only the degrees 42 to 44. Each double page
is split in three groups of two columns. Each group gives the values of two functions
and their differences. The first group (hypothenuse = 107 ) gives the sines and cosines,
with their differences. The second group (base = 107 ) gives the secants and the tangents.
And the third group (perpendicular = 107 ) gives the cosecants and the cotangents. The
structure of the table was first described by De Morgan [28, 27].
The 1551 canon has been reprinted in 1565 in Basel [40, p. 185].4
3 The quest for accuracy: the Opus palatinum

In fact, Rheticus went a lot beyond providing a uniform treatment of trigonometric func-
tions. For him, the main cause of errors in observations was not so much the inaccuracy
of instruments, but the errors in the trigonometric tables used for the computations. He
therefore resolved to recompute these tables much more accurately. The Canon doctrin
triangulorum of 1551 was only a first step in that endeavour.
Rheticus took the radius 1010 and computed the trigonometric functions every 10
seconds of the quadrant. He was the first to compute sine tables with intervals smaller
than one minute [35, p. 98]. Rheticus had computers work for him for twelve years,5 but
his great tables were not published to his lifetime.6 The cost of the tablemaking up to 1568
2
In 1819, Delambre, unaware of Rheticus 1551 table, still wrote that Vite was the first to put
together all these functions in 1579 [30, p. 456].
3
It was Thomas Fincke who in 1583 first used the names tangent and secant [32, 29].
4
De Morgan wrote earlier that it had been reprinted in 1580 [27, p. 521].
5
The source of this information is the letter Rheticus wrote in 1568 to Petrus Ramus [16, p. 56].
This information was repeated by other authors [35, p. 92], and the letter is reproduced in [37, p. 228]
and translated in German in [18, vol. 3, pp. 187190]. See also [19, p. 9]. Some authors have added
that Rheticus had five or six computers working for him, but I do not know what is the source of this
information [39, p. 45]. The computers were funded by Emperor Maximilian II [70].
6
From the available information, it therefore seems that Rheticus had started to work on the table
around 1556. It isnt clear if much work was done between the time of the letter and Rheticus death.
4
was 4400 Gulden, representing almost 50 times Rheticus annual salary in Wittenberg [19,
pp. 910]. He died when the tables of cosecants and cotangents were being worked
on. Towards the end of Rheticus life, Lucius Valentinus Otho (ca. 15451603) came to
assist Rheticus and promised him to complete the work, this event paralleling Rheticus
encounter with Copernicus. According to Curtze and Burmeister, Othos visit was driven
by Johannes Praetorius who was then professor of mathematics in Wittenberg [24], but
according to Hilfstein, based on Othos preface of the Opus palatinum, Otho merely got
excited by Rheticus 1551 table and decided to pay its author a visit [45].
The complete canon was however only published in 1596, under the title Opus pa-
latinum [60], for Otho was then mathematician to the electoral prince Palatine Freder-
ick IV [15, pp. 1720]. Each trigonometric function of the canon was given to 10 places
(radius 1010 ), every 10 seconds of the quadrant. The whole Opus palatinum was about
1500 pages long, of which more than 700 were tables, and contained everything related to
trigonometric tables.7 Descriptions of the Opus palatinum were given by Delambre [31,
volume 2, pp. 135], and Archibald [7, p. 556].
Rheticus work was so complete and went much beyond everything that had been
computed before, that it was legitimate, like Kepler, to think that these sines had been
computed once and for all, and that there was no need to go further [50, p. 506].
As observed by van Brummelen, the tables in the Opus palatinum were to be the
foundation of all great calculations in astronomy and other fields for several centuries [77,
p. 275].
But not all of Rheticus work was published in the Opus palatinum. Rheticus had for
instance computed a table of sines to 15 places (radius 1015 ), with first, second and third
differences for every 10 seconds of the quadrant, and for every second in the first and
last degrees (with first and second differences). These tables were eventually published
by Pitiscus in his Thesaurus mathematicus in 1613 [57]. It is possible that Rheticus had
plans to compute the whole canon to this accuracy.
Rheticus papers also contained other fragmentary tables which are mentioned in
Pitiscus preface [35, pp. 8990].
4 The making of the Opus palatinum

Rheticus has first computed the sines of a number of principal arcs, such as 30 , 36 , etc.,
all to 15 decimal places.8 He then applied bisection and found other sines, down to 450 .
Then, using the results on the sum and differences of arcs, Rheticus obtained the sines
of all arcs up to 90 , by steps of 1 300 . He then obtained the sines of all arcs up to 90 ,
by steps of 450 [60, p. 43]. By bisecting 43 times, he obtained the sine of
607 viii
45 43
= 14.3212 . . . viii = 14viii 19ix . . . [60, p. 45]
2
Curtze, for instance, considers that Rheticus tables had been computed by 1567 [24, p. 496].
7
A copy of the Opus palatinum is available through the university of Dresden:
http://digital.slub-dresden.de/sammlungen/titeldaten/276023900.
8
We follow Hutton [46, p. 9] and van Brummelen [77, pp. 277280] for the description of the making
of Rheticus and Othos Opus palatinum.
5
Rheticus stopped here, because it is the smallest value greater than 1015 in this
series.
Rheticus then considered the sine of 55 21 which he had computed, and by bisecting
it 14 times, he obtained an angle which when subtracted to the 6th bisection of 450 was
nearly 3000 . Finally, by assuming that sin x
sin y
xy for small x and y, Rheticus obtained an
approximation of the sine of 3000 [77, p. 278]. His value was only correct to 12 rounded
decimal places, because there was an error in the bisection of 55 12 .
Then Rheticus obtained an approximation for the sine of 500 and finally for the sines
of 1000 , 2000 , 3000 , 4000 , and 5000 . Using these sines, Rheticus deduced the whole canon.
The layout of the table is similar to the one used in 1551 in the Canon doctrin
triangulorum [59].9 Rheticus does not use the names sines, cosines, etc., but uses the
names of sides in a triangle. The table is divided in three columns spanning two pages.
In the first column, the hypothenuse is made constant to 1010 and the perpendicular
and base are our sine and cosine. In the middle column, the base is made equal to 1010
and the hypothenuse and perpendicular are our secant and tangent. In the last case, the
perpendicular is made constant to 1010 and the hypothenuse and base are our cosecant
and cotangent.
The heading of the tables means Canon of the doctrine of triangles in which in a
plane triangle with right angle 1010 parts are taken for 1) the (side) subtending the right
angle, 2) the greatest of the two sides including the right angle, and 3) the smallest of
the two sides including the right angle [15, p. 13].
The detailed structure of the volume of tables in the Opus palatinum is the following:10
1. a first part has pages numbered 2541 and gives all six functions with 100 spanning
two pages (45 6 2 = 540) and a radius of 1010 ;
2. a second part has pages numbered 2181 and gives only the third group of columns
(cosecants and cotangents), again with 100 spanning two pages ( 540
3
= 180) but with
7
a radius of 10 .
The second part is normally redundant and is an earlier table computed by Rheticus,
but it may be useful for comparison of the values.
5 The errors in the original Opus palatinum

The Opus palatinum unfortunately contained an important error. As told by Lardner [54,
p. 280], after Rheticus and Othos work had been in circulation in every part of Europe,
it was found that the beginnings of the tables of cotangents and cosecants were corrupted
9
De Morgan considers that the semi-quadrantal arrangement of the tables finds its roots in Rheticus
three cases of triangles. In the first case, the greatest side of the triangle is the cosine, and the smallest
side is the sine. The divisions would not have been the same if Rheticus had given the sines for the whole
quadrant. Rheticus arrangement led to consider the duality of sine and cosine, tangent and cotangent,
and secant and cosecant [27, p. 523524].
10
For early descriptions of these tables, see Lalande (who gave an incomplete description) in 1771 [26],
which was corrected by Bernoulli [15].
6
by a very important error. Adrianus Romanus (Adriaan van Roomen)11 (15611615) was
the first to notice the flaw [16]. In order to examine the accuracy of the table, Romanus
made use of the formula a
sec a + tan a = tan + 45 .
2
For instance, in the first cotangent, the last nine places were incorrect. Rheticus had
cot 1000 = 20626.4670574694
csc 1000 = 20626.4670327177,
the correct values being
cot 1000 = 20626.48060854917 . . .

csc 1000 = 20626.48063278986 . . . .
But the way in which the values were computed made this error gradually vanish.
The error eventually vanished in the 86th page.
Romanus did not only find the error, but he also went into a deeper error analysis,
establishing rules about the number of necessary extra decimals for a correct computa-
tion [16, p. 59]. He understood that Rheticus had not computed the sines with enough
digits to ensure an accuracy of 10 places in the last tangents and secants.
When the errors were found, Otho was ill and no longer capable of correcting them.
It was Bartholomaeus Pitiscus (15611613) [6] who undertook the recomputation of the
86 incorrect pages, probably taking into account Romanus analysis. This apparently
only happened after the death of Lucius Valentinus Otho in 1603, as Pitiscus first tried
to obtain a manuscript copy of Rheticus sine table to 15 decimal places, thinking that
Rheticus unpublished tables might help for the correction.
Either by his own analysis or as a consequence of Romanus analysis, Pitiscus under-
stood that Rheticus computations were not sufficient and he decided to compute new
tables.
Pitiscus first recomputed to twenty decimal places all the sines up to 7 and all the
tangents and secants between 83 and 90 to eleven decimal places. 86 pages of the Opus
palatinum were reprinted incorporating Pitiscus corrections. A new edition, with a new
title page, was reissued in 1607.12 Six years later, Pitiscus published a corrected version
11
Romanus was one of the mathematicians who had embarked on the calculation of trigonometric
tables. In 1593, he mentioned in particular Rheticus letter from 1568, and he was aware of the planned
completion of the Opus palatinum [16, pp. 5556]. Romanus own plans were to compute a sine table
for the radius 1016 , but he did not have calculators to second him. Romanus was probably one of the
first persons to buy the Opus palatinum, as he eagerly awaited its publication. As he was corresponding
with Clavius, he also sent him a copy, and they exchanged about the accuracy of the tables. The
correspondence with Clavius also reveals that Christoph Grienberger [39, p. 45] was preparing a table of
sines, but this table was never published.
12
The corrected edition is very rare, but can easily be identified without looking at the actual values,
first because the new pages are of a lower paper quality, and then as there is a small layout error at the
bottom of page 7 of the corrected copies, where the words basis and hypothenusa have been interchanged.
Copies of the 1607 edition seem to be located at Gttingen and Jena. In 1949, Archibald had also located
three copies and there are probably a few more [7, pp. 558559]. Prony bought one copy which is now
in the library of the Ponts et chausses, Fol. 415, see [61, 62]. Prony studied Pitiscus corrections in
detail [61, 62]. Some drafts of Pronys analysis are kept at the library of the Ponts et chausses, Ms. 1745.
See also Archibalds notice on Pitiscus [6, pp. 394396].
7
of Rheticus sine table in his Thesaurus mathematicus [57, 67].
After their publication, the Opus palatinum or the Thesaurus mathematicus became
the de facto trigonometric standard and were used by Vlacq to compute his trigonometric
tables in 1628 and 1633 [79, 80]. A number of other tables were derived from the Opus
palatinum, see for instance Archibald [5].
In 1897, Wilhelm Jordan (18421899) published sine and cosine tables excerpted from
the Opus palatinum, with the title Opus Palatinum : Sinus- u. Cosinus-Tafeln von 1000
zu 1000 [48]. This was not, however, a reprint of the Opus palatinum.13 For errors in this
edition as well as in others related to Rheticus tables, see Fletcher et al. [33].
Pitiscus Thesaurus mathematicus was published the year before Napiers logarithms.
Logarithms were going to change the way computations were done, and natural tables of
sines were less needed than accurate tables of logarithms. This may explain why Rheticus
and Pitiscus tables remained unsuperseded until Henri Andoyers 17-place14 tables were
published in 19151918 [2].
6 Structure of the tables and recomputation

We have reproduced the two canons of the Opus palatinum, and we have retained the
page numbers of the original version (2541 and 2181) for easy reference.
The tables were recomputed using the GNU mpfr multiple-precision floating-point
library developed at INRIA [34], and give the exact values. The comparison of our table
and Rheticus will therefore immediately show where Rheticus tables contain errors.
We have added a few values which had been omitted by Rheticus and Otho. The first
table gave no values for 0 and therefore omitted three differences on the subsequent line.
The second table gave no values for the cosecant and cotangent of 0 , as well as for the
relevant differences. We have supplied all the correct values.
13
At least five more editions were published in 1913, 1923, 1925, 1929, and 1936. The sines and cosines
were only given to seven places, with differences, with 10 minutes per page, from 0 to 45 , like in
the Opus palatinum. The angles are also given in the centesimal division. In the five pages preface,
Jordan announced his plans for the inclusion of tangents, cotangents, secants and cosecants in a second
edition, but Jordans death has probably canceled these plans. These tables would presumably also have
been derived from the Opus palatinum. Jordan cites Regiomontanus, Rheticus, Otho and Pitiscus, but
Regiomontanus work was actually not used. Jordan seems to have translated in German the introduction
of the Opus palatinum, and perhaps planned to publish it in the future, what apparently never happened.
14
van Brummelen mistakenly writes that Andoyers tables are 20-place tables, but only a small part
of the tables are to 20 places. The general tables are to 17 places.
8
References
The following list covers the most important references15 related to Rheticus tables. Not
all items of this list are mentioned in the text, and the sources which have not been seen
are marked so. We have added notes about the contents of the articles in certain cases.
[1] Melchior Adam. Vit germanorum philosophorum: qui seculo superiori, et quod
excurrit, philosophicis ac humanioribus literis clari floruerunt. Heidelberg: Jonas
Rosa, 1615. [pp. 293294 on Rheticus]
[2] Marie Henri Andoyer. Nouvelles tables trigonomtriques fondamentales contenant

les valeurs naturelles des lignes trigonomtriques. . . . Paris: Librairie A. Hermann
et fils, 19151918. [3 volumes, reconstruction by D. Roegel in 2010 [66].]
[3] Anonymous. Article Rheticus. In The Penny Cyclopdia of the Society for the
Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, volume 19, pages 448449. London: Charles Knight
and co., 1841.
[4] Anonymous. Article Table. In The Penny Cyclopdia of the Society for the
Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, volume 23, pages 496501. London: Charles Knight
and co., 1842.
[5] Raymond Clare Archibald. (Seven-place tables of the natural values of the
trigonometric functions). Mathematical Tables and other Aids to Computation,
1(1):89, 1943.
[6] Raymond Clare Archibald. Bartholomus Pitiscus (15611613). Mathematical

Tables and other Aids to Computation, 3(25):390397, 1949.
[7] Raymond Clare Archibald. Rheticus, with special reference to his Opus Palatinum.
Mathematical Tables and other Aids to Computation, 3(28):552561, 1949. [A short
biography of Rheticus, but with some inaccuracies.]
[8] Raymond Clare Archibald. The Canon Doctrinae Triangvlorvm (1551) of Rheticus
(15141576). Mathematical Tables and other Aids to Computation, 7(42):131, 1953.
[9] Raymond Clare Archibald and Leslie John Comrie. (Erratas in Rheticus Opus
palatinum and Pitiscus Thesaurus mathematicus). Mathematical Tables and other
Aids to Computation, 6(39):163166, 1952.
[10] Franz Beckmann. Zur Geschichte des kopernikanischen Systems. Zeitschrift fr die
Geschichte und Alterthumskunde Ermlands, 2:227267, 1861.
15
Note on the titles of the works: Original titles come with many idiosyncrasies and features (line
splitting, size, fonts, etc.) which can often not be reproduced in a list of references. It has therefore
seemed pointless to capitalize works according to conventions which not only have no relation with the
original work, but also do not restore the title entirely. In the following list of references, most title
words (except in German) will therefore be left uncapitalized. The names of the authors have also been
homogenized and initials expanded, as much as possible.
The reader should keep in mind that this list is not meant as a facsimile of the original works. The
original style information could no doubt have been added as a note, but we have not done it here.
9
[12] Franz Beckmann. Rhetikus ber Preuen und seine Gnner in Preuen. Zeitschrift
fr die Geschichte und Alterthumskunde Ermlands, 3:127, 1866.
[15] Jean Bernoulli. Analyse de lOpus Palatinum de Rheticus & du Thesaurus

mathematicus de Pitiscus : ouvrages trs rares, qui se trouvent dans la
bibliothque de lAcadmie. Nouveaux mmoires de lAcadmie royale des sciences
et belles-lettres, Anne 1786:1033, 1788.
[16] Paul Petrus Bockstaele. Adrianus Romanus and the trigonometric tables of Georg
Joachim Rheticus. In Serge Sergeevich Demidov et al, editor, Amphora: Festschrift

fr Hans Wussing zu seinem 65. Geburtstag, pages 5566. Basel: Birkhuser, 1992.
[17] Karl Christian Bruhns. Joachim, Georg. In Historische Kommission bei der
Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, editor, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie,
volume 14, pages 9394. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1881. [See also the second
biography of Rheticus in the same dictionary [42].]
[18] Karl Heinz Burmeister. Georg Joachim Rheticus, 1514-1574 : Eine

bio-bibliographie. Wiesbaden: G. Pressler, 19671968. [3 volumes]
[19] Karl Heinz Burmeister. Georg Joachim Rhetikus, zwischen Paracelsus und
Kopernikus. Archiwum historii i filozofii medycyny, 63(1):314, 2000.
[20] Hubertus Lambertus Ludovicus Busard. Pitiscus, Bartholomeo. In

Charles Coulston Gillispie, editor, Dictionary of Scientific Biography, volume 11,
pages 34. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1975.
[21] Moritz Cantor. Vorlesungen ber Geschichte der Mathematik. Leipzig:

B. G. Teubner, 1900. [volume 2, pp. 472475 and 600604 on Rheticus]
[22] Nicolas Copernicus. De lateribus et angulis triangulorum, tum planorum

rectilineorum, tum sphaericorum, libellus eruditissimus & utilissimus. Wittemberg:
Johannes Lufft, 1542.
[23] Nicolas Copernicus. De revolutionibus orbium clestium. Nuremberg: Johannes

Petreius, 1543.
[24] Maximilian Curtze. Zur Biographie des Rheticus. Altpreussische Monatsschrift,

31(56):491496, July-September 1894.
[25] Dennis Richard Danielson. The first Copernican: Georg Joachim Rheticus and the
rise of the Copernican Revolution. New York: Walker & Company, 2006.
10
[26] Joseph-Jrme Lefranois de Lalande. Lettre sur des tables de sinus extrmement
rares. Journal des Savans, 55(2):291303, October 1771.
[27] Augustus De Morgan. On the almost total disappearance of the earliest

trigonometrical canon. Philosophical Magazine, Series 3, 26(175):517526, 1845.
[reprinted from [28] with an addition]
[28] Augustus De Morgan. On the almost total disappearance of the earliest

trigonometrical canon. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
6(15):221228, 1845. [reprinted in [27] with an addition]
[29] Augustus De Morgan. On the first introduction of the words Tangent and Secant.
Philosophical Magazine, Series 3, 28(188):382387, May 1846.
[30] Jean-Baptiste Joseph Delambre. Histoire de lastronomie du moyen ge. Paris:

Veuve Courcier, 1819.
[31] Jean-Baptiste Joseph Delambre. Histoire de lastronomie moderne. Paris: Veuve

Courcier, 1821. [two volumes, see in particular volume 2, pp. 135 on Rheticus and Pitiscus]
[32] Thomas Fincke. Geometria rotundi. Basel: Henric Petri, 1583. [not seen]
[33] Alan Fletcher, Jeffery Charles Percy Miller, Louis Rosenhead, and Leslie John
Comrie. An index of mathematical tables. Oxford: Blackwell scientific publications
Ltd., 1962. [2nd edition (1st in 1946), 2 volumes. For Rheticus, see pp. 793, 865, 866, 884.]
[34] Laurent Fousse, Guillaume Hanrot, Vincent Lefvre, Patrick Plissier, and Paul
Zimmermann. MPFR: A multiple-precision binary floating-point library with
correct rounding. ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software, 33(2), 2007.
[35] Carl Immanuel Gerhardt. Geschichte der Mathematik in Deutschland, volume 17 of

Geschichte der Wissenschaften in Deutschland. Neuere Zeit. Mnchen:
R. Oldenbourg, 1877.
[36] August Gernerth. Bemerkungen ber ltere und neuere mathematische Tafeln.
Zeitschrift fr die sterreichischen Gymnasien, 14(6):407443, 1863.
[37] Conrad Gessner and Josias Simmler. Bibliotheca instituta et collecta primum a
Conrado Gesnero, deinde in Epitomen redacta et novorum librorum accessione
locupletata, jam vero postremo recognita et in duplum post priores editiones aucta,
per Josiam Simlerum. Zurich: Christoph Froschauer, 1574. [a second edition was
published in 1583] [not seen]
[38] James Whitbread Lee Glaisher. On logarithmic tables. Monthly notices of the
Royal Astronomical Society, 33(7):440458, 1873.
[39] James Whitbread Lee Glaisher. Report of the committee on mathematical tables.
London: Taylor and Francis, 1873. [Also published as part of the Report of the forty-third
meeting of the British Association for the advancement of science, London: John Murray, 1874.]
[see pp.4344 for Rheticus]
11
[40] Ernst Glowatzki and Helmut Gttsche. Die Tafeln des Regiomontanus : ein
Jahrhundertwerk, volume 2 of Algorismus. Munich: Institut fr Geschichte der
Naturwissenschaften, 1990.
[41] Edmund Gunter. Canon triangulorum. London: William Jones, 1620. [Recomputed
in 2010 by D. Roegel [65].]
[42] Siegmund Gnther. Rheticus, G. J. In Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen

Akademie der Wissenschaften, editor, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, volume 28,
pages 388390. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1889. [See also the second biography of
Rheticus in the same dictionary [17].]
[43] Samuel Herrick, Jr. Natural-value trigonometric tables. Publications of the

Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 50(296):234237, 1938.
[44] Stefan Hildebrandt. Georg Joachim Rhetikus : Mathematiker, Astronom & Arzt,
15141574. Bonn, 2003. [21 pages plus illustrations]
[45] Erna Hilfstein. Was Valentinus Otho a mathematics professor at the University of
Heidelberg? Organon, 22/23:221225, 1986/1987.
[46] Charles Hutton. Mathematical tables: containing common, hyperbolic, and logistic
logarithms, also sines, tangents, secants, and versed-sines, etc. London: G. G. J.,
J. Robinson, and R. Baldwin, 1785.
[47] Charles Hutton. A philosophical and mathematical dictionary, volume 2. London,

1815. [pp. 324325 on Rheticus]
[48] Wilhelm Jordan. Opus Palatinum : Sinus- u. Cosinus-Tafeln von 1000 zu 1000 .
Hannover, Leipzig: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1897.
[49] Abraham Gotthelf Kstner. Geschichte der Mathematik seit der Wiederherstellung
der Wissenschaften bis an das Ende des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts, volume 1.
Gttingen: Johann Georg Rosenbusch, 1796. [pp. 590611 are devoted to the Opus
palatinum, and pp. 612626 to Pitiscus work]
[50] Johannes Kepler. Opera Omnia, volume 5. Frankfurt: Heyder & Zimmer, 1864.
[51] Cargill Gilston Knott, editor. Napier Tercentenary Memorial Volume. London:
Longmans, Green and company, 1915.
[52] Jesse Kraai. Georg Johann Rheticus (15141574) : Rheticus ber Proclus,
Alfraganus und die Astrologie. In Rainer Gebhardt, editor, Rechenbcher und
mathematische Texte der frhen Neuzeit : Tagungsband zum Wissenschaftlichen
Kolloquium Rechenbcher und Mathematische Texte der Frhen Neuzeit anllich
des 440. Todestages des Rechenmeisters Adam Ries vom 16.18. April 1999 in der
Berg- und Adam-Ries-Stadt Annaberg-Buchholz, volume 11 of Schriften des
Adam-Ries-Bundes e.V. Annaberg-Buchholz, pages 185195. Annaberg-Buchholz:
Adam-Ries-Bund e.V., 1999.
12
[53] Jesse Kraai. Rheticus heliocentric providence: a study concerning the astrology,
astronomy of the sixteenth century Die heliozentrische Providentia des Rheticus.
PhD thesis, Ruprecht-Karls-Universitt Heidelberg, 2003. [Thesis defended in 2001.]
[54] Dionysius Lardner. Babbages calculating engine. The Edinburgh review,

59(120):263327, July 1834. [The Opus palatinum is described on page 280.]
[55] Karl Brandan Mollweide. Nachricht von den durch Bartholom. Pitiscus in dem
Canon des Rhticus gemachten Verbesserungen. Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung,
1(61):484488, March 1810.
[56] Jean-tienne Montucla. Histoire des mathmatiques. Paris: Charles Antoine

Jombert, 1758. [two volumes, pp. 470471 of the first volume describe Rheticus work]
[57] Bartholomaeus Pitiscus. Thesaurus mathematicus sive canon sinuum ad radium

1. 00000. 00000. 00000. et ad dena quque scrupula secunda quadrantis : una cum
sinibus primi et postremi gradus, ad eundem radium, et ad singula scrupula
secunda quadrantis : adiunctis ubique differentiis primis et secundis; atque, ubi res
tulit, etiam tertijs. Frankfurt: Nicolaus Hoffmann, 1613. [The tables were reconstructed
by D. Roegel in 2010. [67]]
[58] Georg Joachim Rheticus. Ad clarissimum virum D. Ioannem Schonerum, de libris

revolutionum eruditissimi viri & mathematici excellentissimi, reuerendi D. Doctoris
Nicolai Copernici Torunni, canonici varmiensis, per quendam iuuenem,
mathematic studiosum narratio prima. Gdansk: Franz Rhode, 1540.
[59] Georg Joachim Rheticus. Canon doctrin triangulorum. Leipzig: Wolfgang

Gunter, 1551. [This table was recomputed in 2010 by D. Roegel [68].]
[60] Georg Joachim Rheticus and Valentinus Otho. Opus palatinum de triangulis.
Neustadt: Matthaeus Harnisch, 1596.
[61] Gaspard-Clair-Franois-Marie Riche de Prony. Notice sur les grandes tables

logarithmiques et trigonomtriques, calcules au Bureau du cadastre, sous la
direction du citoyen Prony, membre de lInstitut national, et directeur de lcole
des Ponts et Chausses et du Cadastre, avec le rapport sur ces tables et sur
lintroduction qui y est jointe, fait la classe des sciences physiques et
mathmatiques de lInstitut national. Par les citoyens Lagrange, Laplace et
Delambre. Paris: Baudouin, 1801. [This document actually contains three parts: 1) the
notice itself, dated 1st germinal 9 (pp. 18), 2) a supplement on the corrections to Rheticus Opus
palatinum, dated 21 germinal 9 (pp. 812), actually a summary of [62], 3) a report on the tables
by Lagrange, Laplace and Delambre, dated 11 germinal 9 (pp. 1326).]
[62] Gaspard-Clair-Franois-Marie Riche de Prony. Eclaircissemens sur un point de

lhistoire des tables trigonomtriques. Mmoires de la classe des sciences
mathmatiques et physiques de lInstitut de France, pages 6793, 18031804. [A
summary of this article appeared in The Monthly magazine, volume 12, 1801, page 231, and in
Lesprit des journaux, septembre 1801, pp. 166167. See also [61].]
13
[63] Denis Roegel. A reconstruction of Adriaan Vlacqs tables in the Trigonometria
artificialis (1633). Technical report, LORIA, Nancy, 2010. [This is a recalculation of
the tables of [80].]
[64] Denis Roegel. A reconstruction of De Decker-Vlacqs tables in the Arithmetica

logarithmica (1628). Technical report, LORIA, Nancy, 2010. [This is a recalculation of
[65] Denis Roegel. A reconstruction of Gunters Canon triangulorum (1620). Technical

report, LORIA, Nancy, 2010. [This is a recalculation of the tables of [41].]
[66] Denis Roegel. A reconstruction of Henri Andoyers trigonometric tables

(19151918). Technical report, LORIA, Nancy, 2010. [This is a reconstruction of [2].]
[67] Denis Roegel. A reconstruction of the tables of Pitiscus Thesaurus Mathematicus

(1613). Technical report, LORIA, Nancy, 2010. [This is a recalculation of the tables of
[57].]
[68] Denis Roegel. A reconstruction of the tables of Rheticuss Canon doctrin

triangulorum (1551). Technical report, LORIA, Nancy, 2010. [This is a recalculation of
[69] Edward Rosen, editor. Three Copernican treatises: The Commentariolus of

Copernicus, the Letter against Werner, the Narratio prima of Rheticus. New York:
Columbia university press, 1939.
[70] Edward Rosen. Rheticus, George Joachim. In Charles Coulston Gillispie, editor,
Dictionary of Scientific Biography, volume 11, pages 395398. New York: Charles
Scribners Sons, 1975.
[71] Grayna Rosiska. Tables of decimal trigonometric functions from ca. 1450 to ca.
1550. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 500:419426, 1987.
[72] Ralph Allen Sampson. The great tables preceding the discovery of logarithms. In
Knott [51], pages 213218.
[73] Philipp Schbi-Fink. Georg Joachim Rheticus aus Feldkirch und Jost Brgi, ein
Genie aus dem Toggenburg. Montfort, 30(4):520, 2008.
[74] Philipp Schbi-Fink. Rheticus der erste Kopernikaner. Feldkirch aktuell,

2009(6):5861, December 2009.
[75] Philipp Schbi-Fink. Rheticus der erste Kopernikaner. In Gerhard Wanner and
Philipp Schbi-Fink, editors, Rheticus Wegbereiter der Neuzeit. Eine
Wrdigung, pages 744. Feldkirch: Rheticus-Gesellschaft, 2010.
[76] Johannes Tropfke. Geschichte der Elementar-Mathematik in systematischer

Darstellung. Leipzig: Veit & Comp., 19021903.
[77] Glen van Brummelen. The mathematics of the heavens and the Earth: the early
history of trigonometry. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.
14
[78] Philippe van Lansberge. Triangulorum geometri libri quatuor. Leiden: Franciscus
Raphelengius, 1591.
[79] Adriaan Vlacq. Arithmetica logarithmica. Gouda: Pieter Rammazeyn, 1628. [The
introduction was reprinted in 1976 by Olms and the tables were reconstructed by D. Roegel in
2010. [64]]
[80] Adriaan Vlacq. Trigonometria artificialis. Gouda: Pieter Rammazeyn, 1633. [The
tables were reconstructed by D. Roegel in 2010. [63]]
[81] Anton von Braunmhl. Vorlesungen ber Geschichte der Trigonometrie. Leipzig:
B. G. Teubner, 1900, 1903. [2 volumes]
[82] Robert S. Westman. The Melanchthon circle, Rheticus, and the Wittenberg
interpretation of the Copernican theory. Isis, 66(2):164193, June 1975.
[83] Rudolf Wolf. Geschichte der Astronomie, volume 16 of Geschichte der

Wissenschaften in Deutschland. Mnchen: R. Oldenbourg, 1877. [see pp. 343346 on
Rheticus and Pitiscus]
[84] Rudolf Wolf. Handbuch der Astronomie : ihrer Geschichte und Litteratur. Zrich:
Friedrich Schulthess, 1890. [2 volumes]
[85] Mary Claudia Zeller. The development of trigonometry from Regiomontanus to

Pitiscus. PhD thesis, University of Michigan, 1944. [published in 1946]
[86] Leszek Zinkow. House in colours of pyramids... Egyptian revival style in Polish
architecture: The Egyptian House in Krakw. Studies in ancient art and
civilization, 12:127133, 2008.
15
16
MAGNVS CANON
DOCTRIN
TRIANGVLORVM AD
DECADES SECVNDO-
RVM SCRVPVLORVM ET AD
PARTES 10000000000.
Rheticus Opus palatinum (1596) (reconstruction, D. Roegel, 2010)
canon doctrin triangvlorvm in qvo triqvetri

svbtendens angvlvm rectvm maivs inclvdent.
Perpendiculum Different. Basis Different. Hypotenusa Different.


Basis: Differen: Perpendiculu Differen: Hypotenusa Differen:
prima series secvnda
I-2
angvlo recto in planitie partivm ponitvr.

angvl. rect. minvs latvs inclvdent: angvl. rect.
Perpendicul. Differ. Hypotenusa Differentia Basis Differentia
Infinitum Infinitum Infinitum Infinitum
Infinitum Infinitum


Basis Differ. Hypotenusa Differentia Perpendiculum Differentia
series tertia series
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A Reconstruction of The Tables of Rheticus' Opus Palatinum (1596) PDF

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A reconstruction

inria-00543932, version 1 - 6 Dec 2010

of the tables of Rheticus

Opus Palatinum (1596)

This document is part of the LOCOMAT project:

3 The quest for accuracy: the Opus palatinum

4 The making of the Opus palatinum

5 The errors in the original Opus palatinum

the correct values being

cot 1000 = 20626.48060854917 . . .

6 Structure of the tables and recomputation

[2] Marie Henri Andoyer. Nouvelles tables trigonomtriques fondamentales contenant

[6] Raymond Clare Archibald. Bartholomus Pitiscus (15611613). Mathematical

[15] Jean Bernoulli. Analyse de lOpus Palatinum de Rheticus & du Thesaurus

Joachim Rheticus. In Serge Sergeevich Demidov et al, editor, Amphora: Festschrift

[18] Karl Heinz Burmeister. Georg Joachim Rheticus, 1514-1574 : Eine

[20] Hubertus Lambertus Ludovicus Busard. Pitiscus, Bartholomeo. In

[21] Moritz Cantor. Vorlesungen ber Geschichte der Mathematik. Leipzig:

[22] Nicolas Copernicus. De lateribus et angulis triangulorum, tum planorum

[23] Nicolas Copernicus. De revolutionibus orbium clestium. Nuremberg: Johannes

[24] Maximilian Curtze. Zur Biographie des Rheticus. Altpreussische Monatsschrift,

[27] Augustus De Morgan. On the almost total disappearance of the earliest

[28] Augustus De Morgan. On the almost total disappearance of the earliest

[30] Jean-Baptiste Joseph Delambre. Histoire de lastronomie du moyen ge. Paris:

[31] Jean-Baptiste Joseph Delambre. Histoire de lastronomie moderne. Paris: Veuve

[35] Carl Immanuel Gerhardt. Geschichte der Mathematik in Deutschland, volume 17 of

[42] Siegmund Gnther. Rheticus, G. J. In Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen

[43] Samuel Herrick, Jr. Natural-value trigonometric tables. Publications of the

[47] Charles Hutton. A philosophical and mathematical dictionary, volume 2. London,

[54] Dionysius Lardner. Babbages calculating engine. The Edinburgh review,

[56] Jean-tienne Montucla. Histoire des mathmatiques. Paris: Charles Antoine

[57] Bartholomaeus Pitiscus. Thesaurus mathematicus sive canon sinuum ad radium

[58] Georg Joachim Rheticus. Ad clarissimum virum D. Ioannem Schonerum, de libris

[59] Georg Joachim Rheticus. Canon doctrin triangulorum. Leipzig: Wolfgang

[61] Gaspard-Clair-Franois-Marie Riche de Prony. Notice sur les grandes tables

[62] Gaspard-Clair-Franois-Marie Riche de Prony. Eclaircissemens sur un point de

[64] Denis Roegel. A reconstruction of De Decker-Vlacqs tables in the Arithmetica

[65] Denis Roegel. A reconstruction of Gunters Canon triangulorum (1620). Technical

[66] Denis Roegel. A reconstruction of Henri Andoyers trigonometric tables

[67] Denis Roegel. A reconstruction of the tables of Pitiscus Thesaurus Mathematicus

[68] Denis Roegel. A reconstruction of the tables of Rheticuss Canon doctrin

[69] Edward Rosen, editor. Three Copernican treatises: The Commentariolus of

[74] Philipp Schbi-Fink. Rheticus der erste Kopernikaner. Feldkirch aktuell,

[76] Johannes Tropfke. Geschichte der Elementar-Mathematik in systematischer

[83] Rudolf Wolf. Geschichte der Astronomie, volume 16 of Geschichte der

Rheticus and Pitiscus]

[85] Mary Claudia Zeller. The development of trigonometry from Regiomontanus to

canon doctrin triangvlorvm in qvo triqvetri

angvlo recto in planitie partivm ponitvr.

canon doctrin triangvlorvm in qvo triqvetri

angvlo recto in planitie partivm ponitvr.

canon doctrin triangvlorvm in qvo triqvetri

angvlo recto in planitie partivm ponitvr.

canon doctrin triangvlorvm in qvo triqvetri

angvlo recto in planitie partivm ponitvr.

canon doctrin triangvlorvm in qvo triqvetri

angvlo recto in planitie partivm ponitvr.

canon doctrin triangvlorvm in qvo triqvetri

angvlo recto in planitie partivm ponitvr.

canon doctrin triangvlorvm in qvo triqvetri

angvlo recto in planitie partivm ponitvr.

canon doctrin triangvlorvm in qvo triqvetri

angvlo recto in planitie partivm ponitvr.