 From letters from a third party dated 1500 and 1507, we learn that he was a well-known instrument ("compass") maker and a geodesist, and from a letter dated 1517, that "he had also practicised as a physician for at least four years" and that he "comes from Erfurt".In 1515, he declared himself to be an "astronomer and physician, from Erfurt University".His death is officially quoted as the 15th entry in an official list of 20 people buried between December 20, 1531 and February 21, 1532.