Phases of Venus from Epitome of Copernican Astronomy, Kepler 1620

The ''Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae'' was an astronomy book on the

heliocentric system Heliocentrism (also known as the Heliocentric model) is the astronomical model in which the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun at the center of the universe. Historically, heliocentrism was opposed to geocentrism, which placed the Earth at ...

published by

Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws ...

in the period 1618 to 1621. The first volume (books I–III) was printed in 1618, the second (book IV) in 1620, and the third (books V–VII) in 1621.

Content

The book contained in particular the first version in print of his

third law of planetary motion In astronomy, Kepler's laws of planetary motion, published by Johannes Kepler between 1609 and 1619, describe the orbits of planets around the Sun. The laws modified the heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus, replacing its circular orbits ...

. The work was intended as a textbook, and the first part was written by 1615. Divided into seven books, the ''Epitome'' covers much of Kepler's earlier thinking, as well as his later positions on physics, metaphysics and archetypes. In Book IV he supported the Copernican cosmology. Book V provided mathematics underpinning Kepler's views. Kepler wrote and published this work in parallel with his '' Harmonices Mundi'' (1619), the last Books V to VII appearing in 1621. Kepler introduced the idea that the physical laws determining the motion of planets around the Sun were the same governing the motion of moons around planets. He justified this claim using the moons of

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousand ...

and observational data made by

Simon Marius Simon Marius ( latinized form of Simon Mayr; 10 January 1573 – 5 January 1625) was a German astronomer. He was born in Gunzenhausen, near Nuremberg, but spent most of his life in the city of Ansbach. He is most known for being among the first ...

in his 1614 book ''Mundus Iovialis''. The period of orbits and relative distances of the four moons satisfied Kepler's third law and he argued the Jovian system was like a mini

Solar System The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...

. The term "

inertia Inertia is the idea that an object will continue its current motion until some force causes its speed or direction to change. The term is properly understood as shorthand for "the principle of inertia" as described by Newton in his first law ...

" was first introduced in the ''Epitome''. Due to the book's support for

heliocentrism Heliocentrism (also known as the Heliocentric model) is the astronomical model in which the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun at the center of the universe. Historically, heliocentrism was opposed to geocentrism, which placed the Earth ...

, the first volume was put on the Index of Prohibited Books on 28 February 1619.Maurice Finocchiario, Retrying Galileo, 1633-1992, Chapter 1, page 20

Editions

* 1635 reprint
''Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae''
Vols. 1–3, Schönwetterus.

Translations

* 1939: ''Epitome of Copernican astronomy. Books IV and V, The organization of the world and the doctrine ...''; trans. by Charles Glenn Wallis. Annapolis: St John's Bookstore. * 1955: Reissued with Ptolemy's Almagest. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica (1955). * 1995: ''Epitome of Copernican astronomy; & Harmonies of the world''; translated by Charles Glenn Wallis. Amherst: Prometheus Books.

Notes

{{Authority control 1610s books 1621 books Astronomy textbooks Works by Johannes Kepler 17th-century Latin books