Georg von Peuerbach (also Purbach, Peurbach; Latin: Purbachius; 30 May 1423 – 8 April 1461[1]) was an Austrian astronomer, poet, mathematician and instrument maker, best known for his streamlined presentation of Ptolemaic astronomy in the Theoricae Novae Planetarum.

Peuerbach was instrumental in making astronomy, mathematics and literature simple and accessible for Europeans during the Renaissance and beyond.Peuerbach's life remains relatively unknown until he enrolled at the University of Vienna in 1446.

Dr. Barucher recognized Peuerbach's academic abilities from a young age and put him in contact with the Augustinian provost of Klosterneuburg Monastery, Georg Muestinger.

After this point Peuerbach essentially devoted his life to astronomy, he developed tools and theories, and collaborated with his pupil Regiomontanus (Johannes Müller von Königsberg) to make astrology more digestible to common people.

[4] Peuerbach attended many university lectures that focused on Roman poets, which led to him playing one of the leading roles in the revitalization of classical learning introduced by Aenaes Silvius Piccolomini.

[12] Theoricae Novae Planetarum presented a version of Claudius Ptolemy geocentric system in a more colloquial and comprehensible way.

Peuerbach ideas replaced Theorica Planetarum Communis, a work credited to Gerardus Cremonensis, as the standard university text on astronomy and was studied by many influential astronomers including Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler.

Widely read in manuscript form beginning around 1459 and formally published in 1514, these tables remained highly influential for many years.

In 1460, Cardinal Johannes Bessarion, while visiting Frederick's court seeking assistance in a crusade to reclaim Constantinople from the Turks, proposed that Peuerbach and Regiomontanus create a new translation of Ptolemy's Almagest from the original Greek.

Peuerbach's and Regiomontanus's contribution expanded the European understanding of astronomy by translating Ptolemy's Almagest in a book that later influenced Nicolaus Copernicus.

[3] Ironically Nicolaus Copernicus work, and later Sir Issac Newtons disproved many of the ideas that Peuerbach supported while defending the Ptolemaic system, nonetheless his advancement in technology and theory help modernize the study of astronomy.

[3] His Theoricae Novae Planetarum would be released in numerous editions between 1472 and 1596, with additions by scholars such as Regiomontanus, Peter Apian, Erasmus Reinhold, and Philip Melanchthon.

[4] Peuerbach is also known to have developed and distributed tables that were capable of predicting eclipses of both the sun and the moon, and this practice was continued by Regiomontanus.

The printing press was further used to publish astronomical works such as Peuerbach's own Theoricae Novae Planetarum, as well as the Astronomicon written by the poet Manilius[3]