Adam Ries

Adam Ries
Adam Ries in his 58th year of age, his only contemporary portrait
Born	January 17, 1492 Bad Staffelstein
Died	March 30, 1559 Annaberg
Nationality	German
Fields	Mathematics

Adam Ries (January 17, 1492 – March 30, 1559) was a German mathematician. He is also known by the name Adam Riese.

Almost nothing is known about Ries' childhood, youth and education. It is not even possible to determine the year of his birth with certainty. The caption on the only known contemporary portrait of the mathematician reads: ANNO 1550 ADAM RIES SEINS ALTERS IM LVIII. So he was in his 58th year of age at the time of the picture, which was made in 1550. From this it can be deduced that he was born in 1492, although if he did not turn 58 until the end of 1550, he could alternatively have been born in 1493.

The location of his birth, Staffelstein, can be determined with certainty, since he gives information about himself in the preface to his book, Coß. His father was the owner of the mill there, Contz Ries, and his mother, Eva Kittler, was his father's second wife.

The first decades after Ries' birth are not documented, so it is not known which schools he attended. There is also no information about the studies of the later mathematician in the matriculation registers of the universities which existed at that time.

The first time that Adam Ries was mentioned in a document was on 22 April 1517, when he appeared before the Council of Staffelstein because of a dispute over an inheritance. By 1509, he was already living with his younger brother, Conrad, in Zwickau, who attended the Latin school there. In 1518, Ries went to Erfurt, where he ran a mathematics school, and he wrote two of his mathematics books and had them published there.

In 1522 or 1523, he moved to the newly founded mining town of Annaberg where he spent the rest of his life. There he finished work on the manuscript of his algebra textbook, Coß, in 1524, although the book was not published until 1992 by B.G. Teubner. During this time, Ries became acquainted with Anna Leuber, the daughter of Freiberg master fitter, Andreas Leuber. The wedding of the couple was mentioned in the register of the St. Anne's Church in Annaberg in 1525. In the same year, he took the oath of citizenship, purchased a house in Johannisgasse in Annaberg and settled down. He first earned his living as a Rezessschreiber (a person who checked the calculations of the mines), and later as a Gegenschreiber (a bookkeeper of the mines) and Zehntner (regional financial administrator). In 1539, he bought "Riesenburg", a small castle outside of the town, whose buildings still bear his name today. After his last work appeared in print in 1550, Ries died on 30 March 1559. Because of scanty information, it is not known where he is buried, whether in Annaberg, the Riesenburg or elsewhere.