Erasmus Reinhold

Erasmus Reinhold (1511–1553) was a German astronomer and mathematician, born and died at Saalfeld in Saxony. Educated at Wittenberg, he became professor of higher mathematics there in 1536 through Philipp Melanchthon.

He praised Copernicus in a 1542 commentary while rejecting heliocentric cosmology on physical and theological grounds. Backed by Duke Albert of Prussia, he issued the Prutenic Tables in 1551, which recast Copernicus's calculations in a geocentric frame and replaced the old Alfonsine Tables; after his death they helped underpin the Gregorian reform of 1582.