Regiomontanus, who decided on going notwithstanding Purbach’s death, was altogether seven years in Italy; he there acquired a good knowledge of Greek, which he had already begun to study in Vienna, and was thus able to read the _Almagest_ and other treatises in the original; he completed Purbach’s _Epitome of Astronomy_, made some observations, lectured, wrote a mathematical treatise[42] of considerable merit, and finally returned to Vienna in 1468 with originals or copies of several important Greek manuscripts. He was for a short time professor there, but then accepted an invitation from the King of Hungary to arrange a valuable collection of Greek manuscripts. The king, however, soon turned his attention from Greek to fighting, and Regiomontanus moved once more, settling this time in Nürnberg, then one of the most flourishing cities in Germany, a special attraction of which was that one of the early printing presses was established there. The Nürnberg citizens received Regiomontanus with great honour, and one rich man in particular, _Bernard Walther_ (1430-1504), not only supplied him with funds, but, though an older man, became his pupil and worked with him. The skilled artisans of Nürnberg were employed in constructing astronomical instruments of an accuracy hitherto unknown in Europe, though probably still inferior to those of Nassir Eddin and Ulugh Begh (§§ 62, 63). A number of observations were made, among the most interesting being those of the comet of 1472, the first comet which appears to have been regarded as a subject for scientific study rather than for superstitious terror. Regiomontanus recognised at once the importance for his work of the new invention of printing, and, finding probably that the existing presses were unable to meet the special requirements of astronomy, started a printing press of his own. Here he brought out in 1472 or 1473 an edition of Purbach’s book on planetary theory, which soon became popular and was frequently reprinted. This book indicates clearly the discrepancy already being felt between the views of Aristotle and those of Ptolemy. Aristotle’s original view was that sun, moon, the five planets, and the fixed stars were attached respectively to eight spheres, one inside the other; and that the outer one, which contained the fixed stars, by its revolution was the primary cause of the apparent daily motion of all the celestial bodies. The discovery of precession required on the part of those who carried on the Aristotelian tradition the addition of another sphere. According to this scheme, which was probably due to some of the translators or commentators at Bagdad (§ 56), the fixed stars were on a sphere, often called the =firmament=, and outside this was a ninth sphere, known as the =primum mobile=, which moved all the others; another sphere was added by Tabit ben Korra to account for trepidation (§ 58), and accepted by Alfonso and his school; an eleventh sphere was