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REGIOMONTANUS (1436-1476), German astronomer, was born at Konigsberg in Franconia on the 6th of June 1436.
de Monteregio, an appellation which became gradually modified into Regiomontanus.
In this they were much hindered by the lack of correct translations of Ptolemy's works; and in 1462 Regiomontanus accompanied Cardinal Bessarion to Italy in search of authentic manuscripts.
An outbreak of war, meanwhile, diverted the king's attention from learning, and in 1471 Regiomontanus settled at Nuremberg.
At a printing-press established in Walther's house by Regiomontanus, Purbach's Theoricae planetarum novae was published in 1472 or 1473; a series of popular calendars issued from it, and in 1474 a volume of Ephemerides calculated by Regiomontanus for thirty-two years (1474-1506), in which the method of "lunar distances," for determining the longitude at sea, was recommended and explained.