Epact: Scientific Instruments of Medieval and Renaissance Europe

Hans Dorn

Hans Dorn was born between 1430 and 1440 and became a pupil of the astronomers Georg Peuerbach and Johann M?ller von K?nigsberg (Regiomontanus) in Vienna between 1450 and 1461. In the early 1470s he entered the service of the Hungarian king Matthias I Corvinus. From the mid-1470s Dorn made a number of astronomical instruments including astrolabes, celestial globes, armillary spheres, torqueta and sundials. He also designed large sundials for a number of Hungarian churches.

After the death of Matthias I Corvinus in 1490, Hans Dorn returned to Vienna and became a preacher-monk in the Benedictine monastery, where he died in 1509.

For instruments by Hans Dorn, see:

Astrolabe, Attributed to Hans Dorn, German, Dated 1483 (Firenze, IMSS)

Astronomical Compendium, Attributed to Hans Dorn, Budapest, Dated 1481 (Oxford, MHS)

Nocturnal, Signed by Hans Dorn, Vienna, Dated 1491 (London, BM)

References:

E. Zinner, Deutsche und Niederl?ndische astronomische Instrumente des 11. bis 18. Jahrhunderts (2nd ed., Munich, 1967), pp. 292-7.

Epact Scientific Instruments of Medieval and Renaissance Europe