Three Treatises on Copernican Theory by Copernicus Nicolaus; Rosen Edward;

Author:Copernicus, Nicolaus; Rosen, Edward;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2018-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

THE NARRATIO PRIMA OF RHETICUS

“Free in mind must be he who desires to have understanding.”

ALCINOUS

TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS JOHN SCHÖNER, as to his own revered father, G. Joachim Rheticus sends his greetings.

On May 14th I wrote you a letter from Posen in which I informed you that I had undertaken a journey to Prussia,1 and I promised to declare, as soon as I could, whether the actuality answered to report and to my own expectation. However, I have been able to devote scarcely2 ten weeks to mastering the astronomical work of the learned man to whom I have repaired; for I had a slight illness and, on the honorable invitation of the Most Reverend Tiedemann Giese, bishop of Kulm, I went with my teacher to Löbau and there rested from my studies for several weeks.3 Nevertheless, to fulfill my promises at last and gratify your desires, I shall set forth, as briefly and clearly as I can, the opinions of my teacher on the topics which I have studied.

First of all I wish you to be convinced, most learned Schöner, that this man whose work I am now treating is in every field of knowledge and in mastery of astronomy not inferior to Regiomontanus. I rather compare him with Ptolemy, not because I consider Regiomontanus inferior to Ptolemy, but because my teacher shares with Ptolemy the good fortune of completing, with the aid of divine kindness, the reconstruction of astronomy which he began, while Regiomontanus—alas, cruel fate—departed this life before he had time to erect his columns.

My teacher has written a work of six books in which, in imitation of Ptolemy, he has embraced the whole of astronomy, stating and proving individual propositions mathematically and by the geometrical method.

The first book contains the general description of the universe and the foundations by which he undertakes to save the appearances and the observations of all ages. He adds as much of the doctrine of sines and plane and spherical triangles as he deemed necessary to the work.

The second book contains the doctrine of the first motion4 and the statements about the fixed stars which he thought he should make in that place.

The third book treats of the motion of the sun. And because experience has taught him that the length of the year measured by the equinoxes depends, in part, on the motion of the fixed stars, he undertakes in the first portion of this book to examine by right reason and with truly divine ingenuity the motions of the fixed stars and the mutations of the solstitial and equinoctial points.

The fourth book treats of the motion of the moon and eclipses; the fifth, the motions of the remaining planets; the sixth, latitudes.

I have mastered the first three books, grasped the general idea of the fourth, and begun to conceive the hypotheses of the rest. So far as the first two books are concerned, I have thought it unnecessary to write anything to you, partly because I have a special plan,5 partly

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