In Planetary Systems from the Ancient Greeks, Theodor S. Kepler seeks to present a bird’s-eye view of the astronomical nature of the work of Newton’s predecessors. Rather than dwelling only on the influence of each thinker’s great ideas, Jacobsen tracks the actual details of their development by investigating the various systems involved and how they were used. As such, this book is an attempt to describe the specific processes through which (pre-Newtonian) astronomers derived a knowledge of the cosmos by observing the heavens and trying out detailed models to account for their observations. Planetary Systems from the Ancient Greeks contributes to scholarship on historical astronomy by offering an approach between that of popular, exact astronomical information and formal, fully referenced scholarly investigation. Each chapter is organized around a key astronomer (Eudoxus, Hipparchus, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler) and offers relevant biographical introduction, exposition of the astronomical system, and assessment of their contributions. As Jacobsen suggests, the present elementary study of these historical astronomical systems also yields valuable insights for visualizing the salient facts of general astronomy.

Masterpiece of historical insight and scientific accuracy and the definitive work on Greek astronomy and the Copernican Revolution. Includes surveys of European and Islamic cosmologies of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

This is the only detailed history of early astronomy available in English. Formerly published under the title History of the Planetary Systems from Thales to Kepler, it is recognized as a masterpiece of both historical insight and scientific accuracy. Beginning with the astronomical ideas of the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, and pre-philosophic Greeks (Homer and Hesiod), it moves up through Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Xenophanes, Parmenides, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Democritus, and other early Greek cosmologists. The Pythagoreans are considered next, with their occasionally remarkable anticipations of modernity, and then Plato’s astronomical thought. The enormously important system of concentric spheres for planets, usually associated with Eudoxus, is described in detail, followed by a discussion of Aristotle, Heraclides, and Aristarchus. The theory of epicycles — which held for almost 2,000 years — is then considered, with chapters on the dimensions of the world and the finished Ptolemaic system. Medieval European and Islamic cosmologies are then described in detail. Nicolas of Cusa, Regiomontanus, Calcagnini, and other transitional figures from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance are then followed by detailed chapters on Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler. “Standard reference on Greek astronomy and the Copernican revolution.” — Sky and Telescope. “A classical book in the field of the history of astronomy.”— Philosophy and Science.

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