Rheticus had facilitated the publication of Copernicus' work,
and had clearly understood the basic principles of the new
planetary theory.
In 1551, with the help of six assistants, Rheticus recalculated
and produced the Opus Palatinum de Triangulis (Canon of the Science
of Triangles) which became the first publication of tables of all
six trigonometric functions. This was intended to be an
introduction to his greatest work, The Science of Triangles.
When he died his work was still unfinished, but like Copernicus,
Rheticus acquired a student, Valentinus Otho who supervised the
calculation (by hand) of some one hundred thousand ratios to at
least ten decimal places filling some 1,500 pages. This was finally
completed in 1596. These tables were accurate enough to be used as
the basis for astronomical calculations up to the early 20th
century.
