.

Johannes Kepler, 1571-1630. Harmonices mvndi libri v. Appendix habet comparationem huius operis cum Harmonices Cl. Ptolemĉi libro III, cumque Roberti de Fluctibus, dicti Flud. medici

oxoniensis speculationibus harmonicis, operi de Macrocosmo & microcosmo insertis. Accessit nvnc propter cognationem materiĉ eiusdem authoris liber. ante 23. annos editus Tubingĉ, cui titulus Prodromus, seu Mysterium cosmographicum, de causis c?lorum numeri, proportionis motuumque periodicorum, ex quinque corporibus regularibus ... , sumptibus G. Tampachii, excudebat I. Plancvs, 1619.

Ex libris Peiresc, his cypher on binding. First edition, first issue, with first state of the title, five plates, wood cut diagrams. Bound with three other Kepler works.

In this book Kepler announced the discovery of his third law of planetary motion: the square of the period of time of a planet is proportional to the cube of its mean distance from the sun. Kepler connected planetary motion with musical harmonies, with geometrical figures, with the relations of numbers. Newton's discoveries were based on Kepler's three laws. (Heralds of Science, 1955, p. 12)

Peiresc was a patron of the arts, letters and sciences and was greatly interested in Kepler's work.