Book:Johannes Kepler/Astronomia Nova

Subject Matter

 * Celestial Mechanics

Contents

 * Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion

Notable Quotes

 * What matters to me is not merely to impart to the reader what I have to say, but above all to convey to him the reasons, subterfuges, and lucky hazards which led me to my discoveries. When Christopher Columbus, Magellan and the Portuguese relate how they went astray on their journeys, we not only forgive them, but would regret to miss their narration because without it the whole grand entertainment would be lost. Hence I shall not be blamed if, prompted by the same affection for the reader, I follow the same method.
 * -- from the Preface

Critical View

 * ... the Astronomia Nova was an enormous tome in which the important new ideas were unfortunately buried almost out of sight among long accounts of 's many fruitless hypotheses and blind alleys, which he took peculiar pleasure in describing.