1512 in science

• Possible date – Nicolaus Copernicus begins to write Commentariolus, an abstract of what will eventually become De revolutionibus orbium coelestium; he sends it to other scientists interested in the matter by 1514. ==Exploration==

• António de Abreu discovers Timor island and reaches the Banda Islands and Seram. • Francisco Serrão reaches the Moluccas. • Juan Ponce de León discovers the Turks and Caicos Islands. • Pedro Mascarenhas discovers Diego Garcia and reaches Mauritius in the Mascarene Islands. ==Pharmaceutics==

• Hieronymus Brunschwygk's Big Book (of Distillation) describes medicinal herbs and the construction of stills for processing them. ==Technology==

• Martin Waldseemüller (of the Rhineland) produces and describes the first theodolite (which he calls the ''''). ==Births==

• March 5 – Gerardus Mercator, Flemish cartographer (died 1594) • approx. date – Robert Recorde, Welsh-born mathematician and physician (died 1558) ==Deaths==

• February 22 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian explorer (born 1454) • August 2 – Alessandro Achillini, Italian anatomist (born 1463) • September 29 – Johannes Engel, German astronomer and physician (born 1453) ==References==