On “the astonishing succession of novelties in the heavens” from 1572 onwards, see Granada'sMiguel A. paper in this issue.
2.
BraheTycho, Opera omnia, ed. by DreyerJ. L. E. (Copenhagen, 1913–29; hereafter TBOO), i, 141.13–18: “Varij varia præsagiunt, sed mihi reformationem Ecclesiæ et Reipublicæ significare videtur, quia stella est, non Cometa, qualis a condito mundo nulla visa est, nisi quæ Magis solis apparuit…. Metuo tamen, antequam hæc reformatio fiat, maiorem partem horum præsentis sæculi propter malitiam suam bello peste et fame interituram.” Cf. SimonGérard, Kepler astronome astrologue (Paris, 1979), 78.
3.
KeplerJ., Gesammelte Werke, ed. by CasparMax (Munich, 1937–; hereafter JKGW), i, 270.25–36.
4.
Ibid., 271.25–26.
5.
Ibid., 271.26–272.9: “Illa enim extra limites zodiaci fulsit, in sidere Cassiopejae, loco coeli infrequenti, nec ullis Planetarum accessionibus nobilitato: Haec stationem sibi elegit proximè viam Regiam Solis, Lunae, caeterorumque Planetarum; sic ut ab omnibus Planetis salutaretur: Saturno verò penè corporaliter jungeretur. Illam etsi clarae aliquot stellae in Cassiopeja secundae magnitudinis circumstabant, vulgares tamen illae fuerunt, et de promiscuo fixarum numero, nulla proprij motus nobilitate insignes: Haec nostra verò in medium trium superiorum Planetarum sese ingessit. Jove et Marte Satellitibus anteambulonibus, Saturno stipatore pedissequo usa. Illa coeli partem duodecimam, quae à Tauro, signo terreo nomen habet, occupavit, nulla Planetarum conjunctione prae caeteris tunc temporis illustrem: Haec in signo igneo Sagittarij exarsit, in quo celebratissima illa revolutio Trigoni ignei superiori Decembri sumpserat initium; quod non nisi post octingentorum annorum intervalla fieri potest. Illa vulgare et ignobile tempus invasit, nulla peculiari nota insigne: Haec incidit in eum praecisè annum, quem Astrologi universi Trigoni ignei principio, eventurisque prodigijs coelestibus, diligentissimis praemonitionibus designarant; in eum praecisè mensem, quo mense Martis stella duobus superioribus ipsa quoque accessit …; in eum praecisè diem, quo die Mars post Saturnum prius superatum, etiam Jovem erat assecutus: Quid multis, in eum praecisè coeli locum, ad quem omnium Astrologorum oculi, congressum Jovis et Martis exspectantes, dirigebantur”.
6.
Ibid., 245.32–246.20.
7.
On the chronological coincidence of Kepler's composition of the Astronomia nova with that of De stella nova, see GranadaMiguel A., “‘A quo moventur planetae?’: The agent of planetary motion after the disappearance of the solid orbs”, Miscellanea kepleriana, forthcoming. I wish to thank the author for providing me with an early draft of his paper.
8.
JKGW, i, 246.18.
9.
VoelkelJames R., “Publish or perish: Legal contingencies and the publication of Kepler's Astronomia nova”, Science in context, xii (1999), 33–59, p. 44.
10.
Ibid., 44–46.
11.
JKGW, i, 246.19–21.
12.
Ibid., 246.29.
13.
Ibid., 246.16–17.
14.
On Kepler's self-appointment as a philosopher-astronomer, assigned the task of arriving at “a complete, mathematically detailed, and physically grounded representation of the cosmos”, see JardineNicholas, “The places of astronomy in early-modern culture”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxix (1998), 49–62, pp. 58–59.
15.
JKGW, i, 246.30–31.
16.
Ibid., 246.21–24.
17.
PatriziFrancesco, Nova de universis philosophia (Ferrara, 1591; hereafter NUP), 99v.
18.
PuliafitoAnna Laura, “‘Principio primo’ e ‘principi principiati’ nella Nova de universis philosophia di Francesco Patrizi”, Giornale critico della filosofia italiana, lxvii (1988), 154–201, p. 154.
19.
NUP, 60v. For a succinct summary of the Nova philosophia, see GranadaMiguel A., “New visions of the cosmos”, in The Cambridge companion to Renaissance philosophy, ed. by HankinsJames (Cambridge, 2007), 270–86, pp. 275–8.
20.
NUP, 2v. On the benefits of “studying Platonic philosophy in the form Patrizi had given it”, see DietzLuc, “Space, light and soul in Francesco Patrizi's Nova de universis philosophia (1591)”, in Natural particulars: Nature and the disciplines in Renaissance Europe, ed. by GraftonAnthonySiraisiNancy (Cambridge, MA, 1999), 139–69, pp. 139–40.
21.
NUP, 20r.
22.
Ibid.: “Sed lumen hoc, quod extra finitum mundum in infinitum protendi ostendimus. Quodque cœlum, seu mundum empyreum esse interpretamur, cum corpus sit, a corpore ne alio procedit, ac pendet…. An ab incorporea causa est productum”.
23.
On Patrizi's identification of light with space as similarly “immobile, indivisible and immaterial”, see Dietz, “Space, light and soul” (ref. 20), 155.
24.
NUP, 98v, 99r.
25.
Ibid., 99v.
26.
Ibid., 20r.
27.
Ibid., 21r.
28.
Ibid., 20r.
29.
Ibid.
30.
Dietz, “Space, light and soul” (ref. 20), 155.
31.
NUP, 20r: “Huiusmodi vero ea sunt, quæ nomine communi diuina nuncupantur: Animæ immortales, Mentes, Angeli, Deus ipse summus ac primus, quem vnum, bonumque appellamus”.
32.
Ibid., 21r.
33.
Ibid., 99r.
34.
Ibid., 99r: “Si alicubi lux sola congregetur, sui … flammæ … faciem ostentet…. Nam vbi remi in salum immerguntur, innumeræ ibi apparent stellulæ. Plures sub puppi, vbi temo aquam findit…. Mira res in Cypro nobis accidit, dum in agro Callopsidæ versaremur sub vesperam. Tum nubes nigerrima ab horizonte Austrino, ad medium fere cœlum est protensa, tempestatem minabatur magnam. Tunc versis equis domum reuertebamur. Illa in medio itinere in imbrem magnum est soluta, sine vento, crebris micationibus. Is imber, nos obruit. Videbam ego … in summis equi auriculis & crinibus, guttulas … multas, quæ frequentibus nobis fulgurationibus, lumine plenas. E pileo nostro pendentes alias non paucas. Et e pallio quo eram inuolutus, aliæ tales sine numero. Iurarunt postea, socius & famulus, se certo credidisse, dum id viderent, me totum combustum iri”.
35.
Ibid., 99v.
36.
Ibid.
37.
Ibid.
38.
Ibid.: “… in Panaugia iam probauimus, lucem esse sui natura substantiam … præsertim cœlestem lucem id a Conditore ab initio obtinuisse. Atque hinc sequi, vt sidera lux coagulata, & quasi compacta esse queant”.
39.
Ibid.
40.
Ibid.
41.
Ibid.
42.
Ibid.: “Et lux quæ in guttulis circa remos, & fratres Helenæ nautis apparet, & nos circundederunt, quamuis pusillum nihil obstante aqua de se proferunt teporem”.
43.
JKGW, i, 246.29.
44.
Ibid., 246.27–32: “Ostendatur exemplum, ubi lumen vel seipso stans, vel ab illustratione alterius dependens, caruerit subjecto materiato corporato. Dicet fortasse Patricius, tale lumen esse Solem? Principium petitur: De illis in coelo, quae sese non praebent contrectanda, disputatio est; quaero exemplum in terra”.
45.
Ibid., 246.34–37.
46.
Ibid., 246.27–38.
47.
Ibid., 246.40.
48.
Ibid.
49.
On Kepler's novel distinction in the Astronomiae pars optica between preternatural images “in the air” and experimentally produced “projected images”, see DupréSven, “Inside the camera obscura: Kepler's experiment and theory of optical imagery”, Early science and medicine, xiii (2008), 219–44.
50.
JKGW, i, 247.4–7: “At nobis hîc jam non est quaestio de loco, sed de corpore, quod fulgorem illum, quo de loquimur, repraesentaverit. Dicat Patricivs si placet, etiam illic fuisse speculum aliquod, dummodo corpus fateatur, neque immateriatos nobis ignes obtrudat…. In his terris verò quis unquam vidit ignem, cui non fuerit corpus?”.
51.
Ibid., 247.18.
52.
Ibid., 247.18–21.
53.
Ibid., 247.17–18.
54.
Ibid., 247.16. On the separation of natural magic from demonic magic and “the absorption of various aspects of the magical tradition into the new philosophies”, see HenryJohn, “The fragmentation of Renaissance occultism and the decline of magic”, History of science, xlvi (2008), 1–48, pp. 14–18.
55.
JKGW, i, 247.15.
56.
Ibid., 247.32–33.
57.
Ibid., 247.23–25.
58.
Ibid., 247.26.
59.
On the far-reaching implications of the comet of 1585 for Tycho's cosmology, for example, see GranadaMiguel A., “Did Tycho eliminate the celestial spheres before 1586?”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxxvii (2006), 125–45.
60.
Ibid., 247.33–35.
61.
Ibid., 247.27–32: “… olim … ingens in hac urbe ortum esset incendium; plures una nocte coelo sereno vidi trajectiones, quàm integro decennio anteacto. Aliqua igitur … pinguedo seu arida materia, aestu subvecta in frigidum aërem, et distributim consistens, coactaque in globulos, et sic incensa, seu mavis illuminata, tot species exhibuit ignium discurrentium”.
62.
Ibid., 247.32–33.
63.
BieriHans, Der Streit um das kopernikanische Weltsystem im 17. Jahrhundert: Galileo Galileis Akkommodationstheorie und ihre historischen Hintergrunde (Bern, 2008), 82.
64.
See, for example, GingerichOwen, “Kepler, Johannes”, in Dictionary of scientific biography, vii, 289–310, p. 289: “Although Kepler is remembered today chiefly for his three laws of planetary motion, these were but three elements in his much broader search for cosmic harmonies and a celestial physics.” Cf. Voelkel, “Publish or perish” (ref. 9), 44.
