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.
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