The Wittich Connection

Contents: Introduction; (1) The Libraries of Tycho Brahe & of Paul Wittich: The Misleading Attribution of the Copernican Annotations; Master Paul Wittich; Tycho's Attempts to Acquire Wittich's Library; & The Prague Tychoniana; (2) Wittich's Copernican Annotations: Reinhold's Annotations & the Liege "De revolutionibus"; The Vatican Wittich Copy; The Prague & Wroclaw Wittich Copies; & Why Annotate Four Copes of "De revolutionibus"?; (3) Reconstructing the Universe: Tycho's Early Transformations & Wittich's Visit; A Theft in the Castle?: Thycho's "Legal Brief" on the Ursus Affair, & Ursus' Account & Kepler's Interpretation; & Constructing Tycho's Cosmology. Appendix: The Vatican Annotations; & Wittich's Obituary in "Silesia Togata." Illus.

This collective volume in the history of early-modern science and medicine investigates the transfer of knowledge between Germany and Scotland focusing on the Scottish mathematician and physician Duncan Liddel of Aberdeen.

The Lord of Uraniborg is a comprehensive biography of Tycho Brahe, father of modern astronomy, famed alchemist and littérateur of the sixteenth-century Danish Renaissance. Written in a lively and engaging style, Victor Thoren's biography offers interesting perspectives on Tycho's life and presents alternative analyses of virtually every aspect of his scientific work. A range of readers interested in astronomy, history of astronomy and the history of science will find this book fascinating.

With unprecedented current coverage of the profound changes in the nature and practice of science in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe, this comprehensive reference work addresses the individuals, ideas, and institutions that defined culture in the age when the modern perception of nature, of the universe, and of our place in it is said to have emerged. Covering the historiography of the period, discussions of the Scientific Revolution's impact on its contemporaneous disciplines, and in-depth analyses of the importance of historical context to major developments in the sciences, The Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution is an indispensible resource for students and researchers in the history and philosophy of science.

This volume on the Netherlandish tracts about the comets of 1577 and 1618 shows how scholars managed to adapt their traditional, Aristotelian world views to novel cosmological developments, and investigates the close connections between cosmological ideas and political developments.

This is one of the most important studies in decades on Johannes Kepler, among the towering figures in the history of astronomy. Drawing extensively on Kepler's correspondence and manuscripts, James Voelkel reveals that the strikingly unusual style of Kepler's magnum opus, Astronomia nova (1609), has been traditionally misinterpreted. Kepler laid forth the first two of his three laws of planetary motion in this work. Instead of a straightforward presentation of his results, however, he led readers on a wild goose chase, recounting the many errors and false starts he had experienced. This had long been deemed a ''confessional'' mirror of the daunting technical obstacles Kepler faced. As Voelkel amply demonstrates, it is not. Voelkel argues that Kepler's style can be understood only in the context of the circumstances in which the book was written. Starting with Kepler's earliest writings, he traces the development of the astronomer's ideas of how the planets were moved by a force from the sun and how this could be expressed mathematically. And he shows how Kepler's once broader research program was diverted to a detailed examination of the motion of Mars. Above all, Voelkel shows that Kepler was well aware of the harsh reception his work would receive--both from Tycho Brahe's heirs and from contemporary astronomers; and how this led him to an avowedly rhetorical pseudo-historical presentation of his results. In treating Kepler at last as a figure in time and not as independent of it, this work will be welcomed by historians of science, astronomers, and historians.

The Danish aristocrat and astronomer Tycho Brahe personified the inventive vitality of Renaissance life in the sixteenth century. Brahe lost his nose in a student duel, wrote Latin poetry, and built one of the most astonishing villas of the late Renaissance, while virtually inventing team research and establishing the fundamental rules of empirical science. His observatory at Uraniborg functioned as a satellite to Hamlet’s castle of Kronborg until Tycho abandoned it to end his days at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II in Prague. This illustrated biography presents a new and dynamic view of Tycho’s life, reassessing his gradual separation of astrology from astronomy and his key relationships with Johannes Kepler, his sister Sophie, and his kinsmen at the court of King Frederick II.

This volume studies the fascinating millenarian background to the early Rosicrucian pamphlets with special emphasis on their reception in the Baltic area, but also with reference to the original authors in Tubingen.