Anton Maria Schyrleus of Rheita

Who was Anton Maria Schyrleus of Rheita?

Anton Maria Schyrleus of Rheita was an astronomer and optician. He developed several inverting and erecting eyepieces, and was the maker of Kepler’s telescope. "Things appear more alive with the binocular telescope," he wrote, "doubly as exact so to speak, as well as large and bright." His binocular telescope is the precursor to our binoculars.

Two different stories exist about his early life. The most popular account holds that he is of Czech origin, born in 1597. According to this story he was a priest and a member of the order of Capuchin friars at Rheita, Bohemia, hence his name. At the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War in 1618, he left the order and established himself in Belgium.

The other, more probable account, starts in 1604, when Schyrleus is born in Reutte, Austria. After joining the Augustine order in 1622, he is sent to the university at Ingolstadt, where he probably follows courses in astronomy and learns how to grind lenses. Following his graduation he does not return to his convent but enters the Capuchin order, which sends him to Linz in 1636 where he is to teach philosophy. Here, he comes in the service of Kurfürst Philipp Christoph von Sötern, the archbishop of Trier and Speyer, who is held captive by the emperor, Ferdinand III. The archbishop sends him on a mission to negotiate with Pope Urban VIII. The emperor however, seeing this diplomatic activity as a form of spying, bans Schyrleus from his lands in 1641. From here on, both accounts of Schyrleus' life come together.