Johannes Stöffler

Having received his basic education at the Blaubeuren monastery school, he registered at the newly founded University of Ingolstadt on 21 April 1472, where he was consequently promoted Baccalaureus in September 1473 and Magister in January 1476.

After finishing his studies he obtained the parish of Justingen where he, besides his clerical obligations, concerned himself with astronomy, astrology and the making of astronomical instruments, clocks and celestial globes.

[1] In 1507, at the instigation of Duke Ulrich I, he received the newly established chair of mathematics and astronomy at the University of Tübingen, where he excelled in rich teaching and publication activities and finally was elected rector in 1522.

By the time of his appointment, he already enjoyed a virtual monopoly in ephemeris-making in collaboration with Jacob Pflaum, continuing the calculations of Regiomontanus through 1531, and then through 1551, the latter being published posthumously in 1531.

[2] His treatise on the construction and the use of the astrolabe, entitled Elucidatio fabricae ususque astrolabii, was published in several editions and served astronomers and surveyors for a long time as a standard work.