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Tobias Mayer (1723–62): A Case of Forgotten Genius

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Extract

“Tobias Mayer is universally considered as one of the greatest astronomers not only of the eighteenth century, but of all times and of all countries.” This is how the French astronomer, Jean Delambre, in his posthumously published Histoire de l'astronomie au XVIIIième siècle (Paris, 1827), introduces his readers to the Göttingen professor, whom Leonhard Euler had already recognized in 1760 as “undoubtedly the greatest astronomer in Europe”. Delambre's placing of Mayer in a historical perspective assumes special significance on account of the fact that he had previously written three volumes on ancient and medieval astronomy.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1970

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References

1 Letter from Euler, L. to Müller, G. F., dated Berlin, 15 07 1760Google Scholar; published in Die Berliner und die Petersburger Akademie der Wissenschaften im Briefwechsel Leonhard Eulers. Teil I (Berlin, 1959), p. 153.Google Scholar

2 Histoire de l'astronomie ancienne, 2 vols. (Paris, 1817)Google Scholar; and Histoire de l'astronomie au moyen âge (Paris, 1819).Google Scholar

3 Grant, Robert, History of Physical Astronomy (London, 1852), p. 488.Google Scholar

4 This applies to all 70 items listed as “Tobias Mayer's Nachlass, aufbewahrt in der K. Sternwarte” on pp. 154158Google Scholar of the Verzeichniss der Handschriften im Preussischen Staate (Berlin, 1894).Google Scholar

5 Kommerell, Victor, “Tobias Mayer Mathematiker, Physiker und Astronom, 1723–1762”, Schwäbische Lebensbilder, ii (1941), 351366.Google Scholar

6 Eberhardt, Paul, “Urkundliche Beiträge zu der Jugendgeschichte des Astronomen Johann Tobias Mayer”, Literarische Beiträge des Staatsanzeigers (Stuttgart, 1908), pp. 177187.Google Scholar This article was reprinted (with several minor amendments) in Aus Alt-Esslingen (Esslingen, 1924), pp. 207224.Google Scholar

7 “Bruchstück zu Tobias Mayer's Leben. Von ihm selbst aufgesetzt, und von seinem Sohne, dem kön. Grossbrit. Hofrathe und Prof. der Physik in Göttingen, Johann Tobias Mayer, mitgetheilt”, von Zach (ed.), Monatliche Correspondenz zur Beförderung der Erd- und Himmels-Kunde, ix (1804), 415432.Google Scholar This was reprinted by Johann Friedrich Benzenberg as part of his 71-page introduction to the Erstlinge von Tobias Mayer, etc. (Dusseldorf, 1812), pp. xxxvli.Google Scholar A manuscript copy dated 13 August 1840 made from the original by a Dr. Schweiger in Göttingen shortly after this was sold at a local book-auction to the Ducal library in Gotha, is preserved in the Göttingen University library (Cod. MS. Hist. lit. 18).

8 Translated from Benzenberg, ibid., p. lv.

9 In the Protokoll of the Esslinger Altertumuereins, 6 03 1925Google Scholar, is written: “Dr. Haffner teilt mit, dass er im Archiv verschiedene Ansichten von Alten Spital gefunden habe, die von Tobias Mayer gefertigt seien, der erst als Fundenkind in den Spital aufgenommen war. Er war damals knapp 14 Jahre alt. Der Wert der Bilder liege darin, dass sie, wenn auch technisch schülerhaft ausgeführt, doch die Art der ganzen Anlage des Gebäudekomplexes zeigen.” I am grateful to Dr. Otto Borsch, Director of the Esslingen archives, for communicating this information in a letter dated 12 October 1967.

10 “Weitere biographische Nachrichten von Tobias Mayer's Jugendjahren, von Professor Wurm in Blaubeuren”, von Zach (ed.), op. cit. (7), 4556.Google Scholar

11 Esslingen town-council minutes, 1738 December 3: “Tit Herr Amtsburgermeister proponirt, dass der bisherige Funden Knab Mayer die Ansuchung gethan, Ihn zu der Schwäb. Crayss-Artillerie, als einen Constabler obrigkeitl zu recommendiren—Solle um seiner beywohnenden besonderen Aigenschaften willen, Tit. Herrn Geiheimbden Legacions Rath Haerpffen recommendirt, immittelst aber in die lateinische Schuhl introducirt werden.” Niebuhr was therefore mistaken in his belief that the old mayor had transferred Mayer, at his own request, to the Latin school. Cf. von Zach, loc. cit. (7), viii (1803), 262.Google Scholar

12 Mayer, D., “Die lateinische Lehranstalt Esslingens vor hundert Jahren und seit hundert Jahren,” in Programme des Gymnasiums in Esslingen (Esslingen, 1900).Google Scholar

13 “Röm. Reichs Freyen, und mitten in dem Herzog-Thum Würtemberg, am Neckar gelegenen, auch wegen ihres unter anderem habenden vilen und trefflichen Weinwachs, sehr berühmten Stadt Esslingen” (Esslingen, 1739). This map is now preserved in the Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart.

14 Catalogued by Schefold, Max, Alte Ansichten aus Württemberg (Bd. 2 der Esslingen Studien, 1957)Google Scholar under the title: “Westansicht mit der Neckarbrücke auf einer Medaille von 1717 anlässlich der 200. Jahrfeier der Reformation”, etc. (Nr. 1499, p. 122). A specimen of this coin is contained in the collection of coins and medallions in the Germanisches National Museum, Nuremberg (Med. 1310).

15 Schwäbischer Merkur, 20 02 1862.Google Scholar

16 See, for example, Keller, Johann Jakob, Beschreibung der Reichsstadt Esslingen und ihres Gebietes (Esslingen, 1798)Google Scholar; also Benzenberg, op. cit. (7).

17 The opening remark in the preface to his first printed work (see text) is: “Da mir unter allen Wissenschaften keine besser gefallen, als die mathematischen nicht allein wegen ihrer Schärfe und Deutlichkeit, sondern auch wegen ihrer Annehmlichkeit und ergötzlichen Abwechslung; so achte ich es auch für ein sonderbares Glück, wenn mir Gelegenheit gegeben wird, mich noch mehrers darinn zu üben.”

18 Mayer adopted the convention of counting the day of his birth as his first birthday; hence he refers to the 17 February 1741 as his nineteenth birthday.

19 “— nach manchen Abentheuern, die vorzüglich aus seiner Unerfahrenheit und Durftigkeit entstanden.” Hausleutner, D., Schwābisches Archiv (1793), 390.Google Scholar

20 The full title of this work is: “Mathematischer Atlas, in welchem auf 60 Tabellen alle Theile der Mathematik vorgestellet, und nicht allein zu bequemer Wiederholung, sondern auch den Anfängern besonders zur Aufmunterung durch deutliche Beschreibung und Figuren entworfen werden, von Tobias Mayern, Philomath.”

21 “— neusten und besten Observationen des Sternkundiger, absonderlich aus der Herren von Wurzelbau seinen u. zwar auf den Meridianum zu Nürnberg berechnet”, ibid., Tab. XXIII.

22 Op. cit. (4), Mayer 151 (4°).

23 Homännische Bericht von Verfertigung grosser Weltkugeln (Nuremberg, 1746).Google Scholar

24 Ruge, Sophus, “Aus der Sturm- und Drang-Periode der Geographie”, Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftliche Geographie, v (1885), 259.Google Scholar

25 Blatt 9, Nr. 1 and Blatt 10, Nr. i in Alt-Nüremberg, Kulturgeschichtliche Bilder aus Nürnbergs Vergangenheit (Nuremberg, 1895).Google Scholar

26 Hausleutner, D., op. cit. (19), 390Google Scholar, relying upon a report by Jonathan Lenz.

27 Doppelmaier, J. G., Atlas Coelestis (Nuremberg, 1752).Google Scholar Tab. XXI: “Vorstellung der in der Nacht zwischen den 8. u. 9. Aug. 1748 vorfallenden partialen Mond Finsternis …” (1748).

28 This micrometer is described in the Kosmographische Nachrichten u. Sammlungen auf das Jahr 1748 (Nuremberg, 1750), 111.Google Scholar

29 “Abhandlung über die Umwälzung des Monds um seine Axe/und die scheinbare Bewegung des Mondsflecken u.s.w.”, ibid., 52–183.

30 Herrmann, Dieter B., “Georg Christoph Lichtenberg und die Mondkarte von Tobias Mayer”, Mitteilungen der Archenhold-Sternwarte, Nr. 72 (Berlin-Treptow, 1965).Google Scholar

31 Op. cit. (29). J. M. Franz, in the introduction to this work, refers to “— den Nutzen seiner [Mayers] Arbeit bey Ausforschung der geographischen Längen, worauf das meiste seiner Beobachtungen an dem Mond zielet —.” This remark is all the more significant since Mayer was entrusted with the task of supervising the printing of the volume in which it appears.

32 “Beobachtung einiger Zusammenkunften des Monds mit Fixsternen, im Jahr 1747 und 1748 zu Nürnberg in dem Homännischen Hause angestellet. Von Tobias Mayer”, ibid., 41–51.

33 “Astronomische Beobachtung der grossen Sonnenfinsterniss J. J. 1748. den 25 Julius/zu Nürnberg in dem Homännischen Hause angestellet. Mit nöthigen Anmerkungen. Von Tobias Mayer”, ibid., 11–40.

34 “Observations quaedam astronomicae Norimbergae A. 1749 et 1750. Habitae in Aedibus Homannianis”, Commentarii Societatis Regiae Scientiarum Gottingensis, i (1752), 379384.Google Scholar

35 “In parallaxin lunae eiusdemque a terra distantiam inquisitio”, ibid., 159–182.

36 “Latitudo geographica urbis Norimbergae e novis observationibus deducta”, ibid., 373–378.

37 Bericht von den Mondskugeln, welche bey der kosmographischen Gesellschaft in Nürnberg, aus neuen Beobachtungen verfertiget werden durch Tobias Mayern, Mitgliede derselben Gesellschaft. Zu finden in der Homännischen Officin (Nuremberg 1750).Google Scholar The authorship of this 24-page pamphlet is usually ascribed to Mayer, but it is more likely to have been written by Franz.

38 One reason was Mayer's departure from Nuremberg early in 1751; another, the bank ruptcy of the Homann firm due to the over-ambitious projects launched by Franz around this time. For further information, the reader should consult the articles by Ruge, Sophus (op. cit., 24)Google Scholar and Sandler, Christian (op. cit., 42).Google Scholar

39 Op. cit. (5), Mayer 1552 (fol.).

40 Bernoulli, Johann, Johann Heinrich Lamberts deutscher gelehrter Briefwechsel, Bd. 2 (Berlin, 1782), pp. 431433.Google Scholar

41 Russell, John, A Description of the Selenographia; an apparatus for exhibiting the phenomena of the Moon (London, 1797).Google Scholar

42 Sandler, Christian, “Die homännischen Erben”, Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftliche Geographie, vii (1890), 333355 and 418448Google Scholar (cf. p. 437).

43 Op. cit (4), Mayer 1511 (4°). The relevant section is entitled: “Von der Construction der Land-Karten mit dem Exempel einer Karte von Ober-Teutschland erkläret.”

44 The full title of this map—commonly referred to for the sake of brevity as his mappa critica—is: “Germania atque in ea locorum principaliorum mappa critica ex latitudinum observationibus, quas hactenus colligere licuit, omnibus mappis specialibus compluribus; itinerariis antiquis Antonini, Augustano et Hierosolymitano, adhibita circumspectione ac saniori crisi concinnata simulque cum aliorum Geographorum mappis comparata a Tob. Mayero, Societatis cosmographicae sodali, impensis Homanniorum Heredum.”

45 Op. cit. (27).

46 Personalakte Tobias Mayer Nummer 4/Vb 18 (Dekanate u. Universität Archiv Göttingen): von Munchhausen in Hanover to Tobias Mayer, Mathematician in Nuremberg, 26 November 1750. This letter is a copy of the original which was formerly in the possession of Hofrath Scheidt, Göttingen.

47 Will, Georg Andreas, Nurembergisches Gelehrten-Lexicon oder Beschreibung aller Nürnbergischer Gelehrten beyderley Geschlechtes nach Ihrem Leben … Zweyter Theil von H-M (Nuremberg and Altdorf, 1756)Google Scholar states: “Im erst besagten Jahre [1751] den 16 ten Febr. heyrathete er [Mayer] Jgfr. Mar. Victoria Gnügin, eines Pfarrers zu Bischoffsheim im Creichgau, Tochter.” Kommerell (op. cit., 5) remarks that Mayer set up his home in Nuremberg, while others claim that he married in Göttingen; there is, however, no record of this event in any of the church-records of Nuremberg or Göttingen.

48 An enquiry addressed to the Evang. Stadtpfarramt in Neckarbischofsheim has elicited the following piece of information: Maria Victoria Gnüge was the youngest of a family of six children, born on 30 July 1731. Her father, Johann Christoph Gnüge, was originally from Gotha (Thüringen) and was a minister in Neckarbischofsheim from 1704 until his death in 1747.

49 Seven letters from Euler to Mayer, and twenty from Mayer to Euler, were published in both German and Russian by Kopelevich, Y. K. in Istoriko-Astronomijezke Issledowanje, v (1959), 279427.Google Scholar Four more letters from Euler to Mayer discovered by the writer among a section of the latter's correspondence in the University Observatory, Göttingen, have now been published jointly with Dr. Kopelevich in ibid., x (1969), 285–310.

50 “Nova Tabulae Motuum Solis et Lunae”, loc. cit. (34), ii (1753), 383430.Google Scholar

51 Kopelevich, Y. K., “The Petersburg Academy Contest in 1751”, Soviet Astronomy—AJ, ix (1966), 653660.Google Scholar This is an English translation of the original Russian article in Astronomicheskii Zhurnal, xlii (1965), 845853.Google Scholar

52 A catalogue of lunar eclipses giving details of 64 eclipses between 5 July 1610 and 17 April 1753, arranged in order of their respective (Saros) cycles, is appended to op. cit. (58), 385392.Google Scholar Many more details of these eclipses up to the year 1678 are contained in an unpublished quarto manuscript entitled Historia eclipsium ab anno 1610, quo telescopio observations fieri coeperunt (op. cit., 4, Mayer 1548). See also Kopelevich, , loc. cit. (49), 344.Google Scholar

53 Op. cit. (4), Mayer 9.

54 Kopelevich, , loc. cit. (49), 361364.Google Scholar

55 He remarks on this at the end of his introduction to his solar and lunar tables (op. cit., 50)Google Scholar, and again in his letter to Euler on 7 May 1753 (loc. cit., 49, 344).Google Scholar

56 “Nova Methodus Perficiendi Instrumenta Geometrica. Et Novum Instrumentum Goniometricum”, loc. cit. (34), ii (1753), 325336.Google Scholar A German translation of this article is given by Benzenberg (op. cit., 7).Google Scholar

57 The earliest illustration of this instrument, copied from Mayer's own drawing and model of it, is contained in: Tabulae motuum solis et lunae novae et correctae auctore Tob. Mayer: quibus accedit methodus longitudinum promota eodem auctore (London, 1770)Google Scholar, Fig. 4.

58 “Tabularium Lunarium in commentt. S.R. Tom. II contentarum usus in investiganda longitudine maris”, loc. cit. (32), iii (1754), 375384.Google Scholar

59 Further details may be found in: Forbes, Eric Gray, “The Origin and Development of the Marine Chronometer”, Annals of Science, xxii (1966), 125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

60 Staatsarchiv Hannover. Hannover Des. 92 XXXIV No. 11, 4. a1. “Betr. der von Seiten des Prof. Tobias Mayer in Göttingen gelöste englische Preisfrage über die Bestimmung der Longitudo maris. 1754–1765.”

61 These documents form the basis of the writer's article: “Tobias Mayer's Lunar Tables”, Annals of Science, xxii (1966), 105–16.Google Scholar

62 Rigaud, S. P., Miscellaneous Works and Correspondence of the Rev. James Bradley, D.D., F.R.S. (Oxford, 1832), 8489.Google Scholar

63 Cod. MS. philos. 159Google Scholar, “Briefe von und an J. Tobias Mayer”, in the Göttingen University library: letter from W. P. Best in London to Sturm, P., dated 15 02 1757 (pp. 1, 2).Google Scholar The opening sentence begins: “Hat man schon am verwichenen Sommer gegen das von dem H. Prof. Mayer vorgeschlagene Instrument zur ausfindung der longitudini Maris die Exception gemachet, dass solches zu schwer sey, und die observationes damit zur See nicht wohl angestellet werden könten …”

64 Ibid., p. 7: unpublished letter from Pierre de Maupertius (President of the Berlin Academy) to Mayer, dated 27 August 1754.

65 Op. cit. (4), Mayer 152: letter from G.F. Müller (Secretary of the St. Petersburg Academy) to Mayer, dated 30 07 1754.Google Scholar

66 This theme can be traced through the Euler-Mayer correspondence (Kopelevich, op. cit., 49)Google Scholar, and also from certain of the letters in Die Berliner und die Petersburger Akademie der Wissenschaften im Briefwechsel Leonhard Eulers (Berlin, 1959, 1961).Google Scholar

67 Mayer to Euler, 6 October 1754 (Kopelevich, op. cit., 49, 413414).Google Scholar The rest of the information in this paragraph has been extracted from three unpublished letters in Mayer's Personalakte (op. cit., 46, 15–17); namely, a P.M. [from Palck in Hanover] to Michaelis in Göttingen, alluded to in the text; and two other notes from von Munchhausen in Hanover to Mayer in Göttingen, dated 19 and 26 September 1754.

68 Personalakte Tobias Mayer 4/Vf/2 (Dekanate u. Universität Archiv, Göttingen). “Betr. den Contract wegen eines in London zu verfertigenden Quadranten zum Gebrauch des Observatorii astronomici 1754–55.”

69 These include observations of the occultation of Tauri by the moon on the 5/6 November 1751, op. cit. (35), 179181Google Scholar; and those discussed in “Observationes Astronomicae A. 1753 Gottingae habitae”, loc. cit. (34) (1754), 441454.Google Scholar

70 The majority of these observations were first published posthumously in Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph, Opera inedita Tobiae Mayeri I (Göttingen, 1775)Google Scholar in the treatise entitled “Fixarum Zodiacalium Catalogus Novus ex Observationibus Gottingensibus ad Initium Anni 1756” (1759), 49–74. The first complete catalogue was: Astronomical observations, made at Gottingen, from 1756 to 1761 (London, 1826) whose contents are critically discussed by Francis Baily in Mem. R. astr. Soc., iv (1830), 391–445. A later German edition, revised by Auwers, Arthur, is: Tobias Mayer's Sternverzeichniss, nach den Beobachtungen auf der Göttinger Sternwarte in den Jahren 1756 bis 1760 (Leipzig, 1894).Google Scholar

71 This was “star” No. 964, observed on 25 September 1756.

72 “De Motu Fixarum Proprio Commentatio”; Lichtenberg, op. cit. (70), 7781.Google Scholar

73 Herschel, William, “On the proper Motion of the Sun and Solar System; with an Account of several Changes that have happened among the fixed Stars since the Time of Mr. Flamsteed”, Phil. Trans. Royal Soc., lxxiii (1783), 247283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

74 The equatorial coordinates of two of these stars (β and ε Cygni) had been borrowed by Mayer from de la Caille, who had observed them in 175O; hence their proper motions referred to a 44-year interval. Lalande's values have been linearly extrapolated for a 50-year interval in order to correspond with the rest of Mayer's figures.

75 This fact, and the information immediately preceding it, are contained in a letter from Mayer to Euler written in either July or August 1752, two drafts of which are preserved in the Göttingen University library (loc. cit., 63Google Scholar; 43,44; and 47). This has been published by Kopelevich, op. cit. (49), Letter 7, 326–329.

76 Göttingische Anzeigen von gelehrten Sachen (1755), 10451046.Google Scholar

77 Ibid. (1756), 425–426. See also “Theoria Martis” (1756), op. cit. (4), Mayer 1531 (fol.).

78 Ibid. (1755), 265–267. See also: “Ausmessung der Vielecke durch Diagonalen” (1755), op. cit. (4), Mayer 1522 (fol.).

79 Ibid. (1757), 1065–1066.

80 Ibid. (1756), 314–316. Mayer's own account of his theory was, in fact, published in the Hannoverischen nützlichen Sammlungen (1756), 290296Google Scholar, under the title “Versuch einer Erklärung des Erdbebens”. This article is not listed with Mayer's other published works in Poggendorff, Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch, ii (1863), 91.Google Scholar

81 Ibid. (1758), 1385–1389. Three unpublished German extracts on this subject are: op. cit. (4), Mayer 13, 1512, and 1513 (4°).

82 Lichtenberg, op. cit. (70), 3342.Google Scholar Lichtenberg discusses the contents of this tract at some length on pp. 93–103.

83 Loc. cit. (76) (1759), 401402.Google Scholar This art is also discussed by Mayer's elder (surviving) son, also christened Johann Tobias, in a letter to Johann Heinrich Lambert dated 2 November 1774, op. cit. (40), 452454.Google Scholar

84 “Artis qua picturae datae ectypa multiplicantur specimen exhibitum.” This is listed by Ofterdinger, C. F., Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Mitteilungen (Tübingen, 1887), p. 109Google Scholar, as one of seven treatises which Lichtenberg had intended to publish in a subsequent volume of Mayer's opera inedita.

85 Loc. cit. (46), 2022.Google Scholar

86 The Danish astronomer Ole Rømer was, however, the first to have adopted the formula in question, although Mayer could not possibly have known about this. See Strömgren, Elis, “Om Ole Rømers Meridianobservationer Til Beskemmelse af Fiksstjerners Rektascensioner samt om Formeln til Saadanne Observationers Korrigering for Fejl i Meridan-Instrumentets Opstillung”, Nordisk Astronomisk Tidsskrift Ny Raekke, xvii (1936), 1726.Google Scholar

87 Mayer makes this claim in an unpublished letter to De la Caille, begun 3 September and finished 31 October 1758, loc. cit. (63), 40Google Scholar, just over two years after he had publicly announced his discovery of several imperfections in his mural quadrant—including the one in question—to a meeting of the Göttingen Scientific Society, loc. cit. (76) (1756), 12571258.Google Scholar

88 Mayer discusses his improvements to the astrolabe in a short unpublished Latin treatise (op. cit., 4, Mayer 1523): he also delivered a lecture on the subject to the Göttingen Scientific Society on 8 September 1759, loc. cit. (76) (1759), 993995.Google Scholar

89 Loc. cit. (76) (1761), 5758.Google Scholar

90 Ibid. (1760), 633–636; and ibid. (1762), 377–379.

91 Mayer to Euler, 15 December 1751. Kopelevich, op. cit. (49), Letter 3, p. 302.

92 Op. cit. (4), Mayer 1518.

93 Ibid., Caput 2, § 12: “Explicantur phaenomena gravitatis universalis, elasticitatis, duritiei corporum, etsi causa earum mysterium sit, neque melius faciliusque explicarentur vel ipsa verissima causa patefacta. Quin ob id ipsum, quod non valde utilis sit causarum remotiorum cognitio, natura eas abscondidisse videtur, adeo ut non possimus non est in hoc veritatem agnoscere illius dicti; Naturam nihil frustra facere.”

94 C. Niebuhr, “Uber Langen-Beobachtungen im Orient u.s.w.”, von Zach, loc. cit. (7), iv (1801), 240253.Google Scholar

95 Op. cit. (60), 19.Google Scholar

96 Under the terms of the Act 5 George III, c. 20.

97 Quill, Humphrey, John Harrison: the Man who found Longitude (London, 1966)Google Scholar, gives a well-balanced account of these controversial proceedings.

98 These are contained in two anonymous pamphlets allegedly written for John Harrison by James Short, published in London in 1763 and 1765 (cf. ibid.); and more particularly in: Harrison, John, Remarks on a Pamphlet lately published by the Rev. Mr. Maskelyne under the Authority of the Board of Longitude (London, 1767).Google Scholar

99 Mudge, Thomas (jun.), A Narrative of Facts relating to some Time-Keepers, constructed by Mr. Thomas Mudge for the discovery of longitude at sea: together with Observations upon the conduct of the Astronomer Royal respecting them (London, 1792).Google Scholar Maskelyne wrote a pamphlet that same year answering Mudge's criticisms, which brought forth an immediate “…Reply…” from the same author.

100 That is, those transmitted by Mayer's widow in 1763.

101 Op. cit. (57). The English version of the title is: New and Correct Tables of the Motions of the Sun and Moon, by Tobias Mayer: to which is added the Method of finding the Longitude improved; by the same author.

102 Theoria Lunae juxta Systema Newtonianum, auclore Tobia Mayer (London, 1767).Google Scholar

103 Kästner, Abraham Gotthelf, Elogium Tobiae Mayeri (Göttingen. 1962).Google Scholar