Forerunner

OF COSMOGRAPHICAL DISSERTATIONS,

containing

THE COSMOGRAPHIC

MYSTERY

ON THE ADMIRABLE PROPORTION OF THE

celestial orbs: and on the genuine and proper causes

of the number, magnitude, and periodic

motions of the heavens,

Demonstrated by the five regular Geometric bodies. These are the "Platonic solids": the tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron. Kepler famously proposed that the distances between the known planets could be explained by nesting these shapes within one another.

A small book first brought to light at Tübingen in the Year of Christ

1596

MASTER JOHANNES KEPLER OF WÜRTTEMBERG, AT THAT

time Mathematician to the Illustrious Estates of Styria.

But now, after 25 years, revised by the same author, and with most noteworthy notes

partly corrected, partly explained, and partly confirmed: finally, in all its

parts compared to other works of related subject matter, which the Author since

that time has published in various places under the auspices of two Emperors,

Rudolf and Matthias Rudolf II and Matthias were Holy Roman Emperors and patrons of Kepler.; and also under the patronage of the

Illustrious Estates of Upper Austria original: "Austriæ Supr-Anisanæ"

in various places.

Especially to illustrate the circumstances of the work called "The Harmony of the World," Kepler's "Harmonice Mundi" (1619), which expanded on the musical and mathematical harmonies of the cosmos. and its

progress in subject matter and method.

Added is the learned ACCOUNT by MASTER GEORG JOACHIM RHETICUS, regarding

the "Books of Revolutions" Referring to "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" by Copernicus. and the admirable hypotheses on the number, order, and distances

of the Spheres of the World, by that most excellent Mathematician and

Restorer of all Astronomy, LORD NICOLAUS COPERNICUS.

A L S O,

By the same JOHANNES KEPLER, an APOLOGY for his work "The Harmony of the World" against

the "Analytical Demonstration" of the Illustrious Doctor Robert Fludd, original: "Roberti de Fluctibus" a

Physician of Oxford. Fludd was an English physician and mystical philosopher who clashed with Kepler over the nature of mathematical harmony.

With Imperial Privilege for 15 years.

A rectangular decorative woodcut printer's mark featuring elaborate scrolling foliage and floral motifs. To the right of the woodcut is a circular red ink stamp, possibly a library mark, surmounted by a crown and containing stylized letters.

F R A N K F U R T,

Reprinted by the presses of ERASMUS KEMPFER, at the expense of

GOTTFRIED TAMPACH.

In the Year 1621.