Encyclopedia of the Renaissance and the Reformation

the newly published COPERNICAN SYSTEM. He saw his im-
mediate task as that of compiling a new set of tables, based
on Copernican assumptions, to replace the inaccurate
13th-century Alfonsine Tables. The resulting Prutenic Ta-
bles (1551) proved to be no more than a marginal im-
provement. Reinhold died in his native Saalfeld, having
fled Wittenberg in the previous year (1552) to escape the
plague.

Rej, Mikołłaj (1505–1569) Polish poet, playwright, and
prose writer
Rej was a country gentleman at Nagłowice, born at

Żórawno and largely self-educated. His conversion to

Calvinism (1546) emphasized the moralistic stance

adopted in his numerous works in different genres. His

first important work (1543) was a satirical dialogue in

verse. His plays Zywot Józefa (1545) and Kupiec (1549) are

based respectively upon the Coemedia sacra Joseph by Cor-

nelius CROCUSand Mercator by Thomas NAOGEORGUS. The

long poem Wizerunek (1558), based on the Zodiacus vitae

by PALINGENIUS, describes the moral education of a young

man. He also wrote miscellaneous volumes in verse and

prose; one of his most famous prose pieces describes the

ideal life of a Polish country gentleman. His grasp of the-

RReejj,, MMiikkoołłaajj 440099

RegiomontanusA woodcut from Epitoma

in almagestum Ptolemei(1496), showing

the seated figures of Regiomontanus

(right) and Ptolemy beneath an armillary

sphere. In fact, Regiomontanus only

completed this book, the first six chapters

of which were written by his teacher

Georg Peurbach.