Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/154

142 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE a whole populous city with a deep interest in all the higher things of the mind, and to find helpers and co- labonrers in all his different enterprises in all classes of life. In order to initiate the educated citizens in his studies and discoveries he gave popular lectures on astronomy and mathematics, a thing hitherto unheard of in Germany. The city clock was regulated accord- ing to the length of day which he had calculated for Nuremberg. He wrote able treatises on light reflectors, hydraulics, and weights. He established a large factory where all kinds of astronomical instruments, machinery, compasses, and globes were made under his directions, and which proved of great use in nautical science. In a short time Nuremberg sea compasses had become famous all over Europe, and this city earned the gratitude of geographical students by the excellent maps which it produced. In order to encourage a love of science, particularly of astronomy and mathe- matics, Kegiomontanus used to set problems, for the solution of which he offered prizes. With the pecuniary assistance of his friend and pupil, Bernhard Walther, he founded an establishment for the express purpose of printing mathematical and astronomical works, thus inaugurating a fresh develop- ment in the art of printing and meriting the title to a place beside its inventor. Besides scientific works of the highest character this establishment published the first popular almanac, which has served as a pattern up to the present day. He conceived the idea of publishing a history, with illustrations and commentaries, of all the most famous mathematicians, astronomers, and astrologers of an-