108

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)

Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanane.

Frankfurt: Impensis Joannis Godefridi Schonwetteri, excudebat Johan-Fridericus Weissius, 1635.
Octavo, first complete edition of 7 books, originally issued separately between 1618 and 1621; divisional title pages; illustrated with text woodcuts throughout, along with one folding table; bound in full contemporary German parchment with yapp edges; discolored, some toning to contents; ex libris American metallurgist and mine manager Robert Charles Sticht (1856-1922), with his 1909 bookplate inside the front board; 6 1/4 x 3 3/4 in.

"It has been ten years since I published my Commentaries on the Movements of the Planet Mars [Astronomiae Nova]. As only a few copies of the book were printed, and as it had so to speak hidden the teaching about celestial causes in thickets of calculations and the rest of the astronomical apparatus, and since the more delicate readers were frightened away by the price of the book too; it seemed to my friends that I should be doing right and fulfilling my responsibilities, if I should write an epitome, wherein a summary of both the physical and astronomical teaching concerning the heavens would be set forth in plain and simple speech." (Quoted in Rhonda Martens' Kepler's Philosophy and the New Astronomy from Kepler's Gesammelte Werke, ed. Dyck, Caspar & Hammer.)

"[Kepler's Epitome] was written as a textbook for a general audience, and, as a result, is a good resource for determining what Kepler believed he needed to do to render his new astronomy plausible. Here we see Kepler's metaphysics featured prominent, which suggests that he considered it part of his rhetorical arsenal. Second, his mature physics, metaphysics, and astronomy are finally presented together in one work, which allows for further exploration not only of the evolution of his thought but also on how he conceived of the relationship between these diverse elements. Finally, since books IV through VII were written after the Harmonice, they give evidence of the tension between Kepler's physics, metaphysics, and astronomy that, I argue, was brought about by Kepler's difficulty in developing a complete archetypal account in the Harmonice." (Quoted from Martens' Kepler's Philosophy and the New Astronomy, Princeton University Press, 2000.)

  • Notes: Ex libris Professor, Astronomer, Historian & Bibliophile Owen Gingerich.
  • Condition: *2, **4, ***4 [***4 blank & present], A-Z8, Aa-Kk8, Ll6; ††8, Aaa-Mmm8; †6, 4A-4S8, 4T2, 4U8 [4U8 blank & present].

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