Thinking Outside the Sphere Views of the Stars from Aristotle to Herschel Thinking Outside the Sphere

Thinking Outside the Sphere Views of the Stars from Aristotle to Herschel Thinking Outside the Sphere A Constellation of Rare Books from the History of Science Collection The exhibition was made possible by generous support from Mr. & Mrs. James B. Hebenstreit and Mrs. Lathrop M. Gates. CATALOG OF THE EXHIBITION Linda Hall Library Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering and Technology Cynthia J. Rogers, Curator 5109 Cherry Street Kansas City MO 64110 1 Thinking Outside the Sphere is held in copyright by the Linda Hall Library, 2010, and any reproduction of text or images requires permission. The Linda Hall Library is an independently funded library devoted to science, engineering and technology which is used extensively by The exhibition opened at the Linda Hall Library April 22 and closed companies, academic institutions and individuals throughout the world. September 18, 2010. The Library was established by the wills of Herbert and Linda Hall and opened in 1946. It is located on a 14 acre arboretum in Kansas City, Missouri, the site of the former home of Herbert and Linda Hall. Sources of images on preliminary pages: Page 1, cover left: Peter Apian. Cosmographia, 1550. We invite you to visit the Library or our website at www.lindahlll.org. Page 1, right: Camille Flammarion. L'atmosphère météorologie populaire, 1888. Page 3, Table of contents: Leonhard Euler. Theoria motuum planetarum et cometarum, 1744. 2 Table of Contents Introduction Section1 The Ancient Universe Section2 The Enduring Earth-Centered System Section3 The Sun Takes Center Stage Section4 The Spheres of the Planets Shatter Section5 The Sphere of the Fixed Stars Dissolves Section6 Motive Forces and the Stars Section7 Plurality of Worlds Section8 Measuring the Distance to the Stars Section9 From Solar Systems to Star Systems Section10 The First Map of the Galaxy Multiple Galaxies Confirmed: Coda Bibliography of Works Exhibited References from Secondary Sources List of Secondary Works Cited About the Exhibit THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE COLLECTION is the Library's special collection of rare books on science, engineering, and technology. It includes printed books from the fifteenth century to the present. Additional materials to support historical research are available in the Library's general collections of over one million volumes. 3 Introduction: From a Crystalline Sphere to a Plurality of Renaissance works of astronomy beautifully illustrate the Worlds stars fixed in a crystalline sphere at the perimeter of an earth-centered universe that had been conceived in ancient times. This sphere of the fixed stars was thought to rotate, setting the lower spheres of the planets in motion in their orbits around the unmoving earth. Nicolaus Copernicus stopped the motion of the stars but preserved them in their sphere. When a comet passed through the supposed solid spheres of the planets in 1577 and proved them to be nonexistent, astronomers rejected the concept of an orb of the stars as well, allowing them to be dispersed. In 1644, René Descartes placed our sun among the stars and appointed them with their own satellites, heralding a dramatic change in our perception of the universe. In the eighteenth century, the sun and other stars were Andreas Cellarius. Harmonia macrocosmica, 1661. perceived as comprising a star system, resulting in the To view images at high resolution, go to http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/ first map of the galaxy in 1785. Place cursor over “Collections” and select History of Cosmology . Table of Contents 4 Section 1: The Ancient Universe Section 1: The Ancient Universe Ancient philosophers set the stage for the role that the stars would play until the seventeenth century. Plato's Timaeus established the sphere of the stars and its circular movement. He described the sphere's dominion over the motion of the planets and sketched in broad strokes the size, speed, and direction of their orbits within it. Aristotle provided the physical foundations for the motions of the planets, defining the number of spheres required to account for their observed motions. He established the necessity of the role of the fixed stars in moving the planets in their orbits. Epicycles were fully integrated into this earth-centered system by Ptolemy in part to account for retrograde motion. He refined the model into an effective and Johannes Blaeu. Atlas maior, siue, Cosmographia Blauiana, 1662 (v.1, intro). accurate tool for predicting the motions of the planets. Table of Contents 5 Section 1: The Ancient Universe Plato (427-347 BCE). Timaeus. Paris: Badius Ascencius, 1520. Plato's cosmological work, Timaeus, introduced the concept of the sphere of the stars. The whole sphere was “a true cosmos or glorious world spangled…all over” with the stars. The starry sphere controlled the motion of the planets contained within it. In his Republic, this idea was part of a tale of a soldier, slain in battle, who returned to life while on his funeral pyre and told of what his soul had seen during a journey that seemed to last a thousand years. This hero, named Er, had traveled to a column of light, like a spindle, that extended up into the sky. The universe fitted onto it like a whorl of nested hemispheres. “There is one large hollow whorl which is quite scooped out, and into this is fitted another lesser one, and…others, making eight in all, like vessels which fit into one another. The largest is spangled...” and the others carried the planets. BibrefsPlato1520 6 Section 1: The Ancient Universe Aristotle (384-322 BCE). Opera. Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1495. This volume, open to the first page of Aristotle’s On the Heavens, is one of a set of five that comprise the first publication of Aristotle’s works in their original Greek. Aristotle, a student of Plato, lent his genius to a comprehensive treatment of cosmology that matched his brilliant investigations into the rest of the natural world. In the process, he established the necessity of the spherical shape of the universe. BibrefsAristotle1495 7 Section 1: The Ancient Universe Aristotle. (384-322 BCE). Aristotelis Stagiritae De coelo… Cum Averrois ... variis in eosdem commentariis. Venice: Iuntas, 1550. This commentary on Aristotle’s De Caelo (On the Heavens) was written by the twelfth century philosopher Averroes. Aristotle assigned the motion of the sphere of the stars to God as the final cause. This heavenly source of rotation was associated with its shape. “The perfect is naturally prior to the imperfect, and the circle is a perfect thing.....it follows that the body which revolves with a circular movement must be spherical... The bodies below the sphere of the planets are contiguous with the sphere above them. The sphere then will be spherical throughout.” BibrefsAristotle1550 8 Section 1: The Ancient Universe Regiomontanus (1436-1476) Epytoma in Almagestu Ptolemei. Venice: Landoia, 1496. The second century astronomer, Claudius Ptolemy, revolutionized astronomy by transforming the concentric spheres model into a highly effective tool for predicting the motions of the planets. His epic mathematical achievement was simply called the Almagest, or “great work.” This fifteenth century epitome of his book is one of the most highly regarded distillations of Ptolemy’s Almagest ever printed. An accomplished astronomer and a master of the Greek language, Regiomontanus took over the project from Georg von Peurbach, who had completed the first six (of thirteen) chapters before his death. Although Regiomontanus completed it in 1462, it was not printed until after Regiomontanus had also died. In this image, the author and Ptolemy sit together below a model of the geocentric system, with the starry vault above. Although the two astronomers were separated by a dozen centuries, the view of the cosmos had changed but little. BibrefsRegiomontanus1495 9 Section 1: The Ancient Universe Ptolemy (100-170 CE) Almagestum. Venice: Petrus Liechtenstein, 1515. Ptolemy made precise observations of the stars, and recorded them in his star catalog. It is printed for the first time in this edition of his Almagest. On this page, the decorated initial letter “B” shows one astronomer making observations while the another records them. The sphere of the fixed stars was at the perimeter of Ptolemy’s astronomical system, but the orbits of the planets in his system no longer reflected its symmetry. Ptolemy diverged from Aristotle’s ideal system by introducing the idea that the earth was not the precise center of the orbits of the planets. This insistence upon representing the true motion of the celestial bodies made them seem more real and less divine. For this he was criticized by some philosophers. BibrefsPtolemy1515 10 Section 2: The Enduring Earth-Centered System Section 2: The Enduring Earth-Centered System In the Renaissance few ancient ideas were more esteemed than the spherical form that was ascribed to the starry realm. The heavenly vault was celebrated in words and engravings. Many earth- centered works of astronomy were published long after Copernicus suggested placing the sun in the center of the universe in 1543. In this 1617 work by Robert Fludd, Astronomia is shown chained to the power of the Deity, conferring the astrological influences of the celestial bodies onto the earth, where they affect human activities. Astronomia’s crown, intersecting the eighth sphere, relays the motion of the stars to the planets, setting the Ptolemaic universe in motion. For this author and many others, the heavenly spheres of the planets continued to move by the guided influence of the outermost sphere of the fixed stars. Robert Fludd. Utriusque cosmi maioris, 1617. Table of Contents 11 Section 2: The Enduring Earth-Centered System Peurbach, Georg von. Theoricae novae planetarum. Basel: Henric petrina, 1573. Building on the work of Apollonius of Perga and particularly of Hipparchus, Ptolemy developed an intricate system to account for the retrograde motion of the planets.

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