18th century illustration of a sundial

A diagram of a sundial, engraved by Johann Christoph Berndt for the celestial atlas 'Mercurii Philosphici Firmamentum Firmianum', named for Thomas's patron, Leopold Anton von Firmian, Archbishop of Salzburg. Corbinianus Thomas (1694-1767), a Benedictine monk, was Professor of Mathematics and Theology at the University of Salzburg. His star atlas was first published in 1730 at Frankfurt, with a second edition at Augsburg the following year. He used an odd system for nomenclature: Bayer Greek letter for the star, Roman numeral for the magnitude and Arabic numeral for the star catalogue reference.