Johannes Virdung

Johann, Hans or Johannes Virdung of Hassfurt (15 March 1463 – 1538/39) was a celebrated astrologer of the early sixteenth century from the Electoral Palatinate.^[1] He had an official position at Heidelberg, at the court of the Elector Palatine. He wrote various works under generic names (Prognosticon, Practica), including a millennarian work, Practica von dem Entchrist around 1510.^[2][3][4]

He was a correspondent of Johannes Trithemius. One of the early sources for the Faust legend occurs in a letter of Trithemius to Virdung.^[5]

Virdung studied at the University of Leipzig beginning in 1481, then in Kraków from 1484 to 1486 or 1487. He returned to Leipzig in 1487, where he graduated as a "Magister" in 1491.^[6] It has been suggested^[7] that Virdung was of the school of the astronomer Albertus de Brudzewo, and had studied with him and Johannes de Glogovia^[8] in Kraków.