2,65 Life of Placid us Fixlmillner, the AJlronomer : 



great knowledge, particularly in the mathematics, appointed 

 him in 1762 to be aftronomer at Kremsmunfter, with leave 

 to. retain his office as profeflbr of canon law. He now applied 

 with great zeal to render himfelf more fit for his new occu- 

 pation, as he had not yet attended much to practical altro-t 

 nomy, and was even but little acquainted with thofe books 

 from whicji he could obtain information on the fubject. 

 His great attachment, howerer, to this fcience, fine genius, 

 i a defire of being ufeful to the inftitution in which 

 fee refided, and to the world, made him overcome every diffi- 

 culty. The firil hook that fell into his hands was Lalande's 

 Expojition du Calottl Ajlronomique, with which alone, with- 

 out any oral inftructiau, he began to ftudy and to make ob- 

 fcrvations. This work, together with Vlacq's logarithmic 

 tables, were for a long time his only fources and guides, till 

 be at length obtained Lalande's large work on aftronomy. 

 Fortunately, a carpenter, named John Illinger, bom in a vil- 

 lage belonging to the abbey, though he could neither read 

 nor write, was able, under the direction of Fixlmillner, to 

 conftruet for him very neat mural quadrants, zenith feclors, 

 tranfit inftruments, and pendulum clocks. Other inftru- 

 ments were made for him by Brander of Augfourgh, and he 

 procured achromatic telefcopes from Dollondj fo that by his 

 activity the obfervatory at Kremsmunfter foon became one of 

 the mo ft celebrated, and heft fupplitd with apparatuses, in 

 Germany. His principal affiftants were Theod. Derfflinger, 

 who afterwards became his fucceffor, and Father B. Waller. 

 Fixlmillner now acquired a confiderable rank among aftro- 

 nomical writers. In 1765 he publiflied his Meridianus Spe- 

 cula; AJlron. Cremifanenjis, in which he ellabliffied the firft 

 elements of his obfervatory,. and determined its longitude and 

 latitude. In 1776 he publiflied. his fecond agronomical work, 

 called Decennium AJironomicum, which contained the obferv- 

 ations made by him at Kremsmunfter from 1765 to 1775, 

 and which is replete with important and ufeful information. 

 His third work, on which he was employed towards the clofe 

 of his life, and which was printed after his death, appeared 

 in 179'. It contains a valuable collection of obfervations 

 made between the years 1776 and 179 r, together with a 

 great many calculations and treaties, which ftill add to his 

 celebrity in this department. Befides thefe, many important 

 articles written by him are to be found in the Journal des 

 Savans; Bernoulli's Epiilolary Correfpondence ; the French 

 Epbeiner'nLs des Move ; the Agronomical Almanac of 

 Berlin; the Agronomical Ephemerides of Vienna ; and the 

 Jvjeinoirs of the Roval Academy of Sciences at Paris. 



The 



