Leonhard Thurneysser zum Thurn (1530-1596), German scholar. Thurneysser was born in Basel, the son of a goldsmith. He served his apprenticeship then went to university to study medicine. He spent much of his life making journeys to study with the experts of the age in a wide diversity of sciences. His principal interest was metallurgy, but his mind was soon taken up by herbal medicines. In 1570 he moved to Munster and gained fame by treating the wife of the Elector of Brandenberg. He was denounced as a quack by his fellow physicians, so he fled the city. He spent his later years trying to earn a living as an alchemist. Despite his dubious history, Thurneysser did produce the remarkable book Archidoxa, complete with a paper astrolabe, published in Berlin in 1574. This woodcut comes from his book Melitsat kai hermeneia of 1583.