REINESIUS, THOMAS. 



REINHOLD, ERASMUS. 



important literary labours. Towards the end of his life Reimarus 

 devoted his hours of leisure to the study of natural history, of which 

 he acquired an extensive knowledge. He had naturally a feeble con- 

 stitution, and be was long a sufferer from ill-health. He died March 1, 

 1768. His principal works are : 1, 'A Commentary on the Life and 

 Writings of John Albert Fabricius,' Hamburg, Svo, 1737; 2, 'A 

 Letter to Cardinal Quirini concerning the works of Dion Cassius,' 

 Hamburg, 4to, 1746 ; 3, ' The Roman History of Dion Cassius,' Ham- 

 burg, 2 vole, folio, 1750, in the publication of which he availed himself 

 of materials which had been prepared by Fabricius, who had projected 

 an edition of this author. 4, ' A Dissertation on the Counsellors of 

 the Great Sanhedrim,' Hamburg, 4to, 1751; 5, 'A Discourse on the 

 Principal Truths of Natural Religion,' Hamburg, 8vo, 1754 ; 6, ' Ob- 

 servations, Physical and Moral, on the Instinct of Animals,' Hamburg, 

 2 vols. 12mo, 1760. He is said moreover to have written the essays 

 which were published by Lessing, in 1774 and 1777, and known by 

 the name of the ' Wolfenbiittel Fragments.' 



REINE'SIUS, THOMAS, was born at Gotha in Saxony, on the 

 13th of December 1587. He was tolerably versed in the Greek and 

 Latin languages at the age of twelve ; and being afterwards sent to 

 Wittemberg, the professors wished him to apply to theology. His 

 inclination however led him to medicine : he continued his studies at 

 Jena, and then travelled through various parts of Germany and Italy, 

 remaining some time at Padua, for the sake of the medical lectures 

 delivered there. On his return through Basel, he took his degree of 

 M.D. in that university, and then passed some time at Altdorf, in the 

 hope of procuring a professorship by the interest of his relation 

 Caspar Hoffmann. He married, and, in 1617, settled in the practice 

 of his profession at Hof in Franconia. Thence, on the invitation of 

 the margrave of Bareith, he removed to that town, having the posts 

 of the margrave's physician and inspector of the public schools. In 

 1627 he accepted the place of public physician of the town of Alten- 

 burg, in which he resided several years, and obtained the dignity of 

 burgomaster. The elector of Saxony conferring upon him the rank 

 of counsellor, he finally removed to Leipzig, where he died in 1667. 

 Reinesius was a man of vast erudition, and may be reckoned almost at 

 the head of learned physicians. By his printed letters it would appear 

 that he was consulted as an oracle; that he answered very learnedly 

 whatever questions were brought to him ; and that he was extremely 

 skilled in the families of ancient Rome, and in the study of inscrip- 

 tions. A great eulogium is given of his merit, as well as of his learned 

 and classical works, by Grsevius, in the dedication of the second 

 edition of Casaubon's Epistles, dated Amsterdam, August 31, 1655 ; 

 and by Haller, who calls him ('Biblioth. Medic. Pract.') "a miracle of 

 learning " (ad miraculum doctus) ; and says that " in the accurate 

 study and comparison of ancient writers, and in sagacity in discover- 

 ing the true reading of corrupt passages, he was unrivalled." He 

 partook of the liberality which Louis XIV. showed to the most cele- 

 brated scholars of Europe, and received at the same time a very 

 obliging letter from Colbert, which favour he returned by dedicating 

 to him one of his works. Reinesius appears to have had no small share 

 of the pride and irritability that too often accompany the possession 

 of great talents and learning. This involved him in several angry 

 controversies, and is said to have been the cause of his leaving 

 Altenburg. In spite of his numerous occupations and the duties of his 

 office, he kept up a correspondence with several of the most eminent 

 literary characters of his age, and several valuable collections of his 

 letters have been published, viz. those to Caspar Hoffmann and 

 Christ. Ad. Rupert, Leipzig, 4to, 1660 ; to John Vorstius, Cologne, 4to, 

 1667; to the elder and younger Nester, Leipzig, 4to, 1670; to 

 Christopher Daum, Jena, 4to, 1670; and to John Andrew Bose, Jena, 

 12mo, 1700. Besides some notes on Manilius, inserted in the Stras- 

 bourg edition, 4to, 1655, and some observations on Petronius, Leipzig, 

 8vo, 1666, he wrote the following among other works : 1, ' De Diis 

 Syris, sive de Numinibus Commentitiis in Veteri Testamento Memo- 

 ratis Syntagma,' Lips., 4to, 1623. This work, though learned, is less 

 complete than that which Selden published afterwards on the same 

 subject. 2, ' De Deo Endovellico ex Inscriptionibus in Villa Vizosa 

 Lusitaniso repertis Commentatio Parergica,' Altenb., 4to, 1637. 3, 

 ' 'Iffropovfj.tva Lingmo Punicae Errori populari, Arabicum et Punicam 

 ease eandem, opposita,' ibid., 4to, 1637. This curious dissertation has 

 been inserted, as well as the preceding one, by Graevius, in the ' Syn- 

 tagma Variar. Dissertat. Rariorum,' Ultraj., 4to, 1702. 4, ' Variarum 

 Lectionum Libri Tres Priores, in quibus de Scriptoribus sacris et 

 profanis, classicis plerisque, disseritur,' ibid. 4to, 1640. These three 

 first books were to have been followed by three others, which never 

 appeared. It is a thick volume of about seven hundred pages, of 

 multifarious and (as Haller says) incredible learning, chiefly, but not 

 exclusively, classical. It also contains a good deal of matter relating 

 to medicine, and explains several obscure and difficult passages in the 

 ancient physicians and those of the middle ages. Some of the expla- 

 nations of Reiuesius were attacked with much bitterness by Andre 

 Rivinus, to whom Reinesius published a reply under the title of 

 ' Defensio Variarum Lectionum contra Censuram Poc'tso L. (Laureati),' 

 Rostoch., 4to, 1653. 5, 'Inscriptio vetus Augustae Vindelicor. eruta 

 et Commentario illustrata,' Lips., 4to, 1655. 6, ' ^Snigmati Patavino 

 CEdipus e Germauia, hoc est Marmoris Patavini Interpretatio/ ibid., 

 4to, 1662. 7, 'De Palatio Lateranensi ejusque Comitiva Commen- 



tatio Parergica, accedit Georg. Schubarti, de Comitibus Palatinia 

 Caeaareis Exercitatio historica,' Jenae, 4to, 1679. 8, 'Syntagma 

 Inscriptionum Antiquarian,' Lips., fol., 1682. This collection only 

 contains the inscriptions omitted, or badly explained, by Gruter. It 

 was regretted by the learned that the editor should not have pub- 

 lished at the same time another work of Reinesius ' Eponymologium 

 Criticum,' of which the original manuscript was in the hands of Th. 

 Fritsch, a bookseller at Leipzig. (See Klefeker, ' Biblioth. Eruditor. 

 Praococium,' p. 313.) 9, ' Dissertatio critica de Sibyllinis Oraculis,' 

 Jena, 4to, 1702, at the end of a work by George Schubart, ' Enarratio 

 Parergica Metamorphoseos Ovidianae de Diluvio Deucaliouis.' 10, 

 'Judiciumde Collectione MSS. Chemicorum Grsecorum quae extant 

 in Biblioth. Gothana,' inserted in the 'Catal. Cod. MSS. Biblioth. 

 Gothanao,' Lips., 4to, p. 88, 1714; and in the 'Biblioth. Grceca' of 

 Fabricius, vol. xii. p. 748. 11, ' De Vasia Umbilicalibus, eorumque 

 Ruptura Observatio Singularis,' Lips., 4to, 1624. 12, ' Chymiatria, 

 hoc est Medicina Nobili et Necessaria sui Parte, Chymia, instructa et 

 exornata,' Gerse-Ruth, 4to, 1624. C. G. Miiller edited in 1819 his 

 ' Observationes in Suidam," Lips., 8vo. Another work appeared under 

 his name, which was in fact the production of Fortunatus Fidelis, 

 entitled ' Schola Jurisconsultorum Medica, Relationum aliquot Libris 

 comprehensa, quibus Principia Medicinse in Jus transumpta ex pro- 

 fesso examinautur,' Lips., 8vo, 1676. Several other works have also 

 been wrongly attributed to him. Some letters of Reinesius are to be 

 found at the end of his eulogium, in the ' Elogia Clarorum Alten- 

 burgensium/ by Fred. Gotth. Gotter, Jena, 8vo, 1713. Bayle, in his 

 ' Dictionnaire,' and Niceron, in vol. xxx. of his ' Memoirs,' have given 

 an interesting account of him. His Life, written by himself in 

 German, and found among his manuscripts, has been made use of in 

 the account given by Witten, ' Memor. Philosoph.,' dec. viii., p. 461, 

 &c. J. Brucker has inserted a more detailed life, in German, in his 

 ' Ehrentempel der deutscher Gelehrsamkeit,' dec. iii., p. 110, Augsburg, 

 4to, 1747. 



REINHOLD, ERASMUS, was born October 21, 1511, at Saalfeld, 

 about sixty miles south-west from Leipzig. He taught astronomy and 

 mathematics in the University of Wittenberg till 1552, when, being 

 obliged to quit that city on account of the plague, he returned to his 

 native province of Thiiringen, where he died February 19, 1553. 

 His published works are : 1. ' Commentary on the Theoricse novso 

 Planetarum G. Purbachii,' 8vo, 1542 and 1558. This work, observes 

 Delambre, supplied in some respect the omissions of Purbach, and 

 must have facilitated the understanding of several passages of the 

 Syntaxis of Ptolemseus. In the dedication, Reinhold shows himself so 

 infatuated with judicial astrology as to be at the trouble of collecting 

 all the instances which appeared confirmatory of the notion that solar 

 eclipses were the harbingers of great calamities. 2. The first book of 

 the Almagest, in Greek, with a Latin version and scholia, 8vo, 1549. 

 3. ' Prutenicae Tabulae Caslestium Motuum,' 4to, 1551, 1571, and 1585. 

 These tables were formed from the observations of Copernicus, com- 

 pared with those of Hipparchus and Ptolemseus. Reinhold had made 

 some observations himself, but his best instrument was a wooden 

 quadrant; and Tycho, on visiting Wittenberg in 1575, expressed his 

 surprise that so celebrated an astronomer should have been provided 

 with no better tools. In this work the author gives a very clear 

 explanation of the equation of time. He assigns three reasons to 

 account for astronomical tables, constructed at one period, not according 

 with more recent observations, namely, the motion of the apogee, the 

 variation of the excentricity, and the inequality of the precession. 

 The last was sensible only in the systems of Thebith and Copernicus. 

 The excentricity of the sun he makes from 0'0417 to 0'03219, and the 

 mean precession 50" 12'" 5"" 8""'. From a comparison of the 

 observations of Ptolemaeus and Copernicus, he makes the length of 

 the year 365 d. 5 h. 55 m. 58 s. ; and this determination waa em- 

 ployed in the Gregorian reformation of the calendar. He computes 

 the motion of the planets both after the manner of PtolemsBus and 

 that of Copernicus, whence Bailly concludes that he had no decided 

 preference for either system. " This conclusion," observes Delambre, 

 " appears to me hazarded. The most that can be inferred is that the 

 partisans of the ancient system were yet the more numerous, and that 

 Reinhold sought to conciliate all parties. He says nothing which can 

 lead the reader to suspect the existence of two different systems. He 

 neither speaks of the motion of the earth nor of that of the sun. His 

 tables resemble our own, which still give the motions of the sun, not- 

 withstanding that we are all Copernicans. It cannot be supposed that 

 he who wrote a commentary on the work ' De Revolutionibus,' &c., 

 who repeated all the calculations and reconstructed the tables of 

 Copernicus, had not a sentiment of preference for a system which he 

 had studied more than any one of his day." The-Prutenic tables were 

 the result of seven years' labour, and were so called in compliment to 

 the author's benefactor, Albert, marquis of Brandenburg and duke of 

 Prussia. The' ' privilege,' printed at the head of the work, which 

 bears the date July 24, 1549, refers to several other compositions 

 which the author contemplated publishing, such as ephemerides, 

 tables of the rising and setting of the stars for various epochs and 

 latitudes, &c. 4. 'Primus Liber Tabularum Directionum, discentibus 

 prima elementa Astronomic, necessarius et utilissimus. His insertus 

 est Canon Feecuudus ad siogula scrupula quadrantis propagatus. Item 

 nova Tabula Climatum et Parallelorum, item Umbrarum. Appendix 



