A tellúrt egy erdélyi bányamérnök Müller Ferenc fedezte fel 1782-ben.

Tellurium was discovered in Transylvania in 1782 by Franz-Joseph Müller von Reichenstein in a mineral containing tellurium and gold. In 1789, another Hungarian scientist, Pál Kitaibel, also discovered the element independently in an ore from Deutsch-Pilsen which had been regarded as argentiferous molybdenite. In 1798, it was named by Martin Heinrich Klaproth who earlier isolated it from the mineral calaverite.