“Tobias Mayer is universally considered as one of the greatest astronomers not only of the eighteenth century, but of all times and of all countries.” This is how the French astronomer, Jean Delambre, in his posthumously published Histoire de l'astronomie au XVIIIième siècle (Paris, 1827), introduces his readers to the Göttingen professor, whom Leonhard Euler had already recognized in 1760 as “undoubtedly the greatest astronomer in Europe”. Delambre's placing of Mayer in a historical perspective assumes special significance on account of the fact that he had previously written three volumes on ancient and medieval astronomy.