Stars as the Armies of God: Lansbergen's Incorporation of Tycho Brahe's Star-Size Argument into the Copernican Theory

van Helden Albert , Measuring the universe (Chicago, 1985), 27, 30, 32, 50.

Ibid., 51.

Schofield Christine , “The Tychonic and semi-Tychonic world systems”, in Taton René Wilson Curtis (eds), The general history of astronomy: Planetary astronomy from the Renaissance to the rise of astrophysics, Part A (Cambridge, 1989), 33–44, p. 41.

Graney Christopher M. Grayson Timothy P. , “On the telescopic disks of stars — A review and analysis of stellar observations from the early 17th through the middle 19th centuries”, Annals of science, lxviii (2011), 351–73.

Graney Christopher M. , “Seeds of a Tychonic revolution: Telescopic observations of the stars by Galileo Galilei and Simon Marius”, Physics in perspective , xii (2010), 4–24; Graney Christopher M. , “The telescope against Copernicus: Star observations by Riccioli supporting a geocentric universe”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xli (2010), 453–467.

Graney Christopher M. , “Science rather than God: Riccioli's review of the case for and against the Copernican hypothesis”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xliii (2012), 215–25, p. 216.

Helden Van , op. cit. (ref. 1), 52; Graney , op. cit. (ref. 6), 216–18.

Brahe Tycho , Epistolarum astronomicarum libri (Nuremberg, 1601), 191–2. “Ad quid hoc est dicere? Num uoluntas Diuina irregulariter et in ordinate uspiam agit, contra, quam alias in toto Mundi Theatro apparet? Vbi omnia iusto tempore, mensura et pondere undiquaque rite disposita sunt? Nihil uacui, nihil frustranei, nihil sibi inuicem non certa harmonia, et proportione correspondens. Scilicet a Saturno ad fixas Stellas non quidpiam in usus Terricolarum destinatum continebitur, per interuallum, plusquam 700000. Semidiametrorum Terrae, Stellis fixis quae longe superius elatae sunt, his tamen non minimum inseruientibus. Scilicet etiam fixa sidera nonnulla totum Orbem Annuum, quem Sol describit (siue, ut ille uult, Terra) sua magnitudine aequabunt, nonnulla uero adhuc longe maiora erunt. Ipse vero Sol, praecipuum Mundi corpus ac luminare huic quantitati uix conferendus uideatur, cum tamen Stellae in Coeli expanso constitutae, minimam, respectu Solis in patefactione Creationis Mundi obtineant praerogatiuam, uti etiam per se comparatione eius quam minimam habent; Sed quasi ab Authoritate huius, et praeminentia, uti et reliqui Planetae dependeant. Et qualis quaeso Mundi uisibilis Symmetria sic prodibit, si maxima pars Creaturis uisibilibus destituta erit: Quaedam uero corpora coelestia in immensum ferme augeantur, quaedam uero utut per se uasta, cum his tamen uix conferri possint?”.

Ibid., 192.

Jorink Eric , Reading the book of Nature in the Dutch Golden Age , 1575–1715 (Leiden, 2010), 52; Howell Kenneth J. , God's two books: Copernican cosmology and Biblical interpretation in early modern science (Notre Dame, IN, 2002), 146–7; Vermij Rienk , The Calvinist Copernicans: The reception of the new astronomy in the Dutch Republic, 1575–1750 (Amsterdam, 2002), 81–4.

Vermij , op. cit. (ref. 10), 89.

Lansbergen Philips , Opera omnia (Middleburg, 1663; hereafter PLOO), 27. Lansbergen's Latin reads: “DE VERA DELINEATIONE SECUNDI COELI”.

PLOO, 27. “Vnde sequitur, singulas Fixas, Sphaeram Terrae magnitudine aequare; quod et captum, et fidem humanam, paene superat”.

PLOO, 27–8. “Addo, quod Proprietatibus Dei melius conveniat haec Sphaerae Fixarum Magnitudo, quam Tychonica: Quia ex ea rectius percipitur, Deum immensum esse atque infinitum. Nam Secundum Caelum infinito simile, quid arguat? nisi Deum revera infinitum; cum Coelum ac Terram impleat, Ier. 23. 25. et Coelum Coelorum ipsum non capiat, 1 Reg. 8. 27. Gloriosius denique supremae Majestati Divinae; quod tam vastum Atrium, Palatio suo praestruxerit, quam si id minus fecisset.” (Lansbergen's scriptural references have been changed to agree with modern versions.).

PLOO, 28. “Itaque rationem habuit, Numeri, Mensurae, ac Ponderis, in utriusque Caeli constructione: Eosque absoluta perfectione inter se coadunavit.”.

PLOO, 28. “Haec necesse est recte percipiamus; ne stupendae Caelorum, Corporumque Caelestium magnitudini inhaerentes; ea habeamus loco Creatoris, ut quondam Ethnici: Sed solum Deum honoremus ac veneremur, ut Creatorem laudandum in omnia secula, amen. Rom. 1. 25”.

PLOO, 28–9.

PLOO, 30. “Lux enim unius Solis, si tam eximia sit, ut oculi sine damno eam non ferant; quanto fortior censenda est, tot ac tantorum lucidorum Corporum; quae in Secundo Coelo colligitur et coit? Recte ergo Apostolus, 1 Tim. 6. 16. Deum ait habitare in luce inaccessibili. Nam si tam illustris sit splenor Octavae Sphaerae, quae Atrium est Divini Palatii; quam fortis et inaccessus erit Fulgor ipsius Habitaculi Divinae Majestatis?”.

The idea that stars are beings dates at least to Origen in the third century, and was addressed and rejected by Thomas Aquinas. See O'Meara Thomas F. , Vast universe: Extraterrestrials and Christian revelation (Collegeville, MN, 2012), 64–73.

PLOO, 30. “quibus ut Deus Zebaoth, hoc est, Exercituum, fortissime indies praeliatur”.

PLOO, 30. “Nam unaquaeque non Terram tantum, sed et Solem, et totum fere Orbem Terrae excedit. Deus autem sine dubio Vires iis addidit, Magnitudini analogas; ut instar Gigantum, ac fortium Bellatorum, Ordine in Coelo consistant, sine ullo motu. Nam uti nemo Terram movere potest, nisi solus Deus qui eam condidit, Hagg. 2. 22. sic nemo immensa ac praevalida haec Corpora, commovere novit; nisi Deus eorum Creator. Sunt ergo, vere magni et potentes Dei Exercitus; per quos, efficit quicquid vult Psal. 115. 3”.

PLOO, 31.

Riccioli Giovanni Battista , Almagestum novum (Bologna, 1651), Part II, Bk 9, Sec. 4, chap. 34, p. 477 (par. LXX & Respondent). “etsi falsitatis redargui non possit; prudentioribus tamen viris non posse satisfacere.” Also see Graney , op. cit. (ref. 6), 218.

Riccioli , op. cit. (ref. 23), chap. 30, 460–3; chap. 33, 467 (par. XI & Responsum); also see Graney , op. cit. (ref. 6), 218, and Graney Christopher M. , “The work of the best and greatest artist: A forgotten story of religion, science, and stars in the Copernican Revolution”, Logos, xv (2012), 97–124, pp. 113–15.

Phrase borrowed from Dava Sobel's book of the same title.