Johann Georg Dominicus von Linprun

Johann Georg Dominicus von Linprun was a Bavarian scientist and one of the co-founders of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, born on 10 January 1714 in Viechtach in the Bavarian Forest and died on 14 June 1787. He studied law and philosophy at Prague, Salzburg and Ingolstadt, worked as a court clerk, directed the lead and zinc mine at Rauschenberg and owned a silver mine at Bodenmais. His broad knowledge of mining and mineralogy led to his appointment in 1750 to the Mint and Mines office in Munich, where he was trusted with negotiations over coinage and represented Bavaria in talks on monetary standards in Vienna in 1753. He worked with Franz Topsl, Andreas Felix von Oefele and Johann Georg von Lori on the foundation of the Academy in 1759 and directed its philosophical class. The Academy published his treatises, including one on a measuring instrument he invented, and he set up its first astronomical observatory in Munich, open from 1760 to 1769 or 1770, though no serious observations were made there.