Midwest Book Review
The brilliant German mathematician Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), one of the founders of modern astronomy, revolutionzed the Copernican heliocentric theory of the universe with his three laws of motion: that the planets move not in circular but elliptical orbits, that their speed is greatest when nearest the sun, and that the sun and planets form an integrated system. The Epitome of Copernican Astronomy is a textbook of Copernican science, remarkable for the prominence given to physical astronomy and for the extension to the Jovian system of the laws recently discovered to regulate the motions of the plants. Here is presented an elaborate system of celestial harmonies depending on the varying velocities of the planets.
