Decorative floral horizontal headpiece with intricate scrollwork, foliage, and geometric patterns.

TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS, HIGH-

BORN, MOST NOBLE,

AND ENERGETIC LORD, SIGISMUND

Friedrich, Free Baron of Herberstein, in Neuperg and Guetten-

haag, Lord in Lankowitz, Chamberlain and Hereditary

Cup-bearer of Carinthia, Councilor to his Imperial Majesty and the most serene Arch-

duke of Austria, Ferdinand,

and Governor of the Province

of Styria:

TO THE LORDS N. N. “N. N.” stands for "Names to be Noted," a placeholder for the individual members of the council. OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS ESTATES OF STYRIA,

The Five-man Ordinary Council, most distinguished men, my merciful

and generous Lords, health and my service to you.

Decorative historiated initial Q containing a central circular motif.

WHAT I promised seven months ago (1) Kepler likely refers to the time since he first conceived the geometric model of the solar system in July 1595.—a work beautiful by the testimony of the learned, pleasant, and far to be preferred over annual prognostications Astrological calendars or almanacs that predicted weather and political events, which were the "best-sellers" of the time.: I finally present at last to your Excellencies, most distinguished men. It is a work, I say, of small size and modest labor, but of material that is wonderful in every way. For whether one looks at its antiquity; (2) it was attempted two thousand years ago by Pythagoras An ancient Greek philosopher who believed the universe was structured according to mathematical ratios and "the music of the spheres."; or its novelty, it is now being published by me for the first time among mankind. Does its scale please you? There is nothing in this entire world greater or more vast. Is dignity desired? Nothing is more precious, nothing more beautiful than this most translucent temple of God. Do you wish to know something secret? Nothing is or has been more hidden in the nature of things. Only in this one matter does it not satisfy everyone: that its usefulness is obscure to the unthinking. And this is that "Book of Nature," so greatly celebrated in sacred sermons; which Paul The Apostle Paul, referencing Romans 1:20. sets before the nations, so that they might contemplate God in it, as if seeing the Sun in water or a mirror. For why should we Christians take less delight in this contemplation, whose proper duty it is to celebrate, worship, and admire God with true cult? This is done with an even more devoted mind the more rightly we understand what and how great the things are that our God has created. Surely David, a true worshiper of God, sang many hymns to the Creator, the true God, in which he draws his arguments from the admiration of the heavens. "The heavens declare," he says, "the glory of God" original: "Cœli enarrant." Psalm 19:1.. "I shall see your heavens, the works of your fingers, the Moon and the stars, which you have founded" Psalm 8:3.. "Great is our Lord, and great is his power; who counts the multitude of the stars, and calls them all by their names" Psalm 147:4-5.. In another place, full of the spirit and full of sacred joy, he cries out and calls to the world itself: "Praise the Lord, you heavens; praise him, Sun and Moon," etc. Psalm 148. What voice do the heavens have? What voice have the stars, by which they might praise God like a human? Is it not that, while they provide humans with the arguments for praising God, they themselves are said to praise God? While we reveal this voice to the heavens and the nature of things in these pages, and make it clearer, let no one accuse us of vanity or of labor spent in vain.

I say nothing of the fact that in this matter of Creation—which the Philosophers Referring to followers of Aristotle, who argued the universe was eternal and had no beginning. denied—there is a great argument: while we perceive how God, in the manner of one of our own architects, ordered...