{{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = Nicholas Kratzer | honorific_suffix = | image = Portrait of Nicholas Kratzer (1528) Hans Holbein d. J. (Louvre Museum).jpg | caption = Nicholas Kratzer, 1528 painting by Hans Holbein the Younger | birth_name = | birth_date = 1487? | birth_place = Munich | death_date = 1550 | death_place = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline}} --> | monuments = | nationality = | other_names = | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = {{Plainlist| * Mathematician * Astronomer * Horologist }} | years_active = | employer = | organization = | known_for = | notable_works = | style = | television = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | awards = }}
'''Nicholas Kratzer''' (1487? – 1550), also known as Nicolaus Kratzer and Nicholas Crutcher, was a German mathematician, astronomer, and horologist. Much of Kratzer's professional life was spent in England, where he was appointed as astronomer to King Henry VIII.
==Life== Born in Munich in 1486 or 1487,<ref>{{Cite ODNB|id=15808|title=Kratzer, Nicolaus (b. 1486/7, d. after 1550)}}</ref> Kratzer was the son of a saw-smith, and was educated at the Universities of Cologne (B.A. 1509) and Wittenberg. He came to England in 1516 and established himself as part of the artistic and scientific circle around Sir Thomas More.<ref name=North>{{cite book | first = J.D. | last = North | chapter = Nicolaus Kratzer – The King's Astronomer | title = Science and History: Studies in Honour of Edward Rosen (Ossolinium Orbis, 1978) | pages = 205–234 | date = 1978 | publisher = Studia Copernica}} Reprinted in: {{cite book | first = J.D. | last = North | title = Stars, Minds and Fate. Essays in Ancient and Medieval Cosmology | pages = 373–400 | place = London | publisher = The Hambledon Press | date = 1989 | isbn = 978-0-907628-94-1}}</ref> Kratzer tutored More's children in mathematics and astronomy and More introduced him at court in much the same way as he had their mutual friend Hans Holbein, who produced a portrait of Kratzer. In the same manner as Holbein, Kratzer's talents obtained him a court position as astronomer and clock maker to the king. [[File:Fowler Corpus Christi Kratzer's dial.jpg | thumb | 150px | left | Sundial by Kratzer, formerly in the garden of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.<ref name=Fowler/>]]
Kratzer was the designer of a painted ceiling featuring the zodiac and the seven planets which was installed in a temporary banqueting house erected at Greenwich Palace in March 1527. According to accounts kept by Richard Gibson, an officer of the revels, "Master Nikolas" worked with the painter "Master Hans", Hans Holbein, and was paid 4 shillings a day.<ref>Sydney Anglo, ''Spectacle Pageantry and Early Tudor Policy'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), pp. 218–219.</ref>
Kratzer also collaborated with Holbein on producing maps, and in return the artist produced a portrait of Kratzer in 1528 that now hangs in the Louvre; it depicts the craftsman surrounded by the tools of his trade, and with an unfinished polyhedral sundial. His close relationship with Holbein and More also may be observed in his annotations of Holbein's draft for his portrait of the More family.<ref>[https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5381412.stm BBC News article on Holbein's draft of the More portrait, with Kratzer's annotations]</ref> Kratzer identifies the various family members and their ages for the benefit of More's friend, the theologian Erasmus.
Kratzer (under the name Nich. Cratcherus) is recorded as a reader of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he is presumed to have taught mathematics.<ref name = Fowler>{{cite book | first = Thomas | last = Fowler | title = The History of Corpus Christi College | date = 1893 | publisher = Oxford Historical Society | url = https://archive.org/details/histcorpuschristi00fowluoft}}. See in particular pp 84–7.</ref> He designed at least two fixed sundials in Oxford, both of which are now lost. One was in St Mary's churchyard,<ref>:File:Loggan Oxonia St Mary's Church, Kratzer's Dial, published 1675.jpg</ref> the other in the garden of Corpus Christi.<ref name=Fowler/> He also designed a portable dial for Cardinal Wolsey, which is now in the History of Science Museum, Oxford.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://hsm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/hsm-catalogue-2978 | title=Polyhedral Dial, by Nicolaus Kratzer?, English, 1518–30 | website=HSM Collections Online | publisher=History of Science Museum | id=Inventory Number 54054}}</ref> Another dial attributed to Kratzer was found at Acton Court, near Bristol, in the 1980s.<ref>{{cite journal | first = G. S. J. | last = White | title = A stone polyhedral sundial dated 1520, attributed to Nicholas Kratzer and found at Iron Acton Court, near Bristol | journal = Antiquaries Journal | volume = 67 | date = 1987}}</ref><ref>[https://mercuriuspoliticus.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/acton-court/ Description of Acton Court with a picture of the stone sundial]</ref>
Peter Drinkwater has presented a critical evaluation of the sundials attributed to Kratzer, in particular the one in the Holbein portrait.<ref>{{cite journal | first = Peter | last = Drinkwater | title = A cold look at Kratzer's "polyhedral" sundial | journal = BSS Bulletin | volume = 93 | issue = 2 | pages = 8–10, 20 | publisher = British Sundial Society | date = 1993}}</ref> He comments that "Kratzer triumphed, not through genius or creativity, but through having learned what others had discovered and invented, and by being the first to apply that learning in England". John North concurs: "Kratzer doubtless had nothing new to offer of a fundamental kind. Many of his dials were unusual, but his favorite polyhedral dial was perhaps more useful as a repository of verses [...] than for actually announcing the time with any accuracy". Nonetheless, Kratzer brought useful German skills and knowledge to the English court and was well-regarded over a period of nearly 30 years.<ref name = North/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading==
*{{cite book | first = Mordechai | last = Feingold | title = The Mathematician's Apprenticeship: Science, Universities and Society in England 1560–1640 | date = 1984 | publisher = CUP Archive}} *{{cite journal | first1 = Elly | last1 = Dekker|author1-link=Elly Dekker | first2 = Kristen | last2 = Lippincott | date = 1999 | title = The Scientific Instruments in Holbein's Ambassadors: A Re-Examination | journal = Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes | volume = 62 | pages = 93–125 | jstor = 751384 | doi = 10.2307/751384 }} *{{cite journal | first = Helmut | last = Sonderegger | date = 2014 | title = UNEXPECTED ASPECTS OF ANNIVERSARIES or: Early sundials, widely travelled | journal = BSS Bulletin | volume = 26 | issue = iii | pages = 40–44 | publisher = British Sundial Society | url = http://sundialsoc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Bulletin-26iii-Sonderegger.pdf}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kratzer, Nicholas}} Category:1480s births Category:1550 deaths Category:Scientists from Munich Category:German clockmakers Category:16th-century German astronomers Category:16th-century German mathematicians Category:German emigrants to England Category:Mathematical practitioners