Keplers New Star (1604): Context and Controversy

310 Pages·2020·5.822 MB·English

by  Patrick J. Boner

Kepler’s New Star (1604)
Medieval and Early Modern
Philosophy and Science
Editors
C.H. Lüthy (Radboud University)
P.J.J.M. Bakker (Radboud University)
Editorial Consultants
Joel Biard (University of Tours)
Simo Knuuttila (University of Helsinki)
Jürgen Renn (Max-Plank-Institute for the History of Science)
Theo Verbeek (University of Utrecht)
Volume 31
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/memps
Kepler’s New Star (1604)
Context and Controversy
Edited by
Patrick J. Boner
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration: The “novus sydus,” flanked by Jupiter and Saturn, as it appeared in the foot of the
Serpent Bearer in October 1604. Elias Molerius, De sydere nova (Geneva: Jacob Stoer, 1606). Courtesy of the
Zentralbibliothek Zürich.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Boner, Patrick, editor.
Title: Kepler’s new star (1604) : context and controversy / edited by
 Patrick J. Boner.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2021] | Series: Medieval and early
 modern philosophy and science, 2468–6808 ; volume 31 | Includes
 bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020042170 (print) | LCCN 2020042171 (ebook) |
 ISBN 9789004431638 (hardback) | ISBN 9789004437272 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Kepler, Johannes, 1571–1630. De stella nova. |
 Supernovae—History. | Astronomy—History—17th century.
Classification: LCC QB843.S95 K47 2021 (print) | LCC QB843.S95 (ebook) |
 DDC 523.8/4465—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020042170
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020042171
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
ISSN 2468-6808
ISBN 978-90-04-43163-8 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-43727-2 (e-book)
Copyright 2021 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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Contents
List of Figures vii
Abbreviations ix
Notes on Contributors x
Introduction 1
1 Straight Paths and Evanescent Bodies: The Physics and Dynamics
of Celestial Novelties in Kepler’s De stella nova 17
Dario Tessicini
2 Of Mites and Men (and Stars): Kepler on the Question of Star Sizes
in De stella nova 41
Christopher M. Graney
3 The Measure of the Universe in De stella nova 63
Javier Luna
4 Celestial Novelty and the Science of the Stars: Kepler vs. Krabbe
on Accuracy and Authority in Early Modern Germany 81
Patrick J. Boner
5 Stars, Crystals and Courts: Johannes Kepler and Anselmus
Boëtius de Boodt 107
Jonathan Regier
6 Kepler’s Astrological Play 129
Aviva Rothman
7 The Nova of 1600 in Cygnus and the Christianization
of the Constellations 145
Miguel Á. Granada
8 Epicurean Astronomy? Atomistic and Corpuscular Stars
in Kepler’s Century 181
Pietro Daniel Omodeo
vi Contents
9 The Correspondence of Clavius, Dal Monte, Magini and Other Italian
Astronomers on the Nova of 1604 204
Matteo Cosci
10 The Scientific Legacy of Kepler’s ‘Stella Nova’ 259
William P. Blair
Bibliography 267
Index of Persons 293
Index of Places 297
Figures
1.1 Johannes Kepler, De stella nova (Prague: Paulus Sessius, 1606), p. 90 27
2.1 The more distant an object, as seen from the Earth (E), measures a certain ap-
parent size (indicated by the shaded region), the greater its physical magnitude.
A and B each have the same apparent size as seen from E, but B is over four
times more distant than A, so B has over four times the diameter and over sixty-
four times (43) the volume of A 42
2.2 Tycho’s geoheliocentric hypothesis. With the Earth immobile at the center (V),
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn circle the Sun (as in the Copernican
hypothesis), while the Sun, Moon, and stars circle the Earth. Johann Georg
Locher, Disquisitiones mathematicae, de controversiis et novitatibus astron-
omicis (Ingolstadt: Elisabeth Angermaier, 1614), p. 52. Source: ETH-Bibliothek
Zürich 43
2.3 Above—the relative sizes of celestial bodies calculated by Brahe for (from left
to right, upper row) the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Moon, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, as well as for (lower row) a large star and a mid-range star in a geohelio-
centric universe (where the stars lie just beyond Saturn, as in Fig. 2.2). The Sun,
stars, and planets all fall into a fairly consistent range of sizes.
Below—the arrowed dots are the above figure, reproduced to scale and
compared to the relative size of a mid-range star calculated by Brahe for the
Copernican universe, where the stars are vastly more distant and far more
enormous to explain their apparent sizes as seen from the Earth (as in Fig. 2.1).
Brahe called the immense Copernican stars ‘absurd’ 45
2.4 Sketch of the Copernican system by Thomas Digges. Note his description of the
heavens as the “palace of felicity,” with lights “far excelling our Sun both in quan-
tity and quality,” the court of the angels and the dwelling of the elect. Leonard
and Thomas Digges, A Prognostication Everlasting (London: Thomas Marsh, 1576).
Source: History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries 47
2.5 Kepler’s illustration in Chapter 16 of De stella nova (p. 86), showing the globe of
the Sun, the orbit of Earth, the orbit of Saturn, and the sphere of the fixed stars.
Source: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich 53
2.6 A star as seen through a small-aperture telescope. This appearance of a sphere
of measurable size is entirely spurious—an artifact of diffraction. However,
early telescopic astronomers took such telescopic images to be the physical
bodies of stars. John F. W. Herschel, Treatises on Physical Astronomy, Light and
Sound Contributed to the Encyclopædia Metropolitana (1828), p. 491 & Plate 9.
Source: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich 61
3.1 The parallax of the nova determined according to the distance of the Moon.
Johannes Kepler, De stella nova (Prague: Paulus Sessius, 1606), p. 79 68
viii Figures
3.2 The parallax of the nova according to the heliocentric perspective. Johannes
Kepler, De stella nova (Prague: Paulus Sessius, 1606), p. 82 69
3.3 The circular descent of the new star according to Johannes Kepler, De stella
nova (Prague: Paulus Sessius, 1606), p. 91 75
4.1 Original appearance of the comet according to David Herlicius, Astronomische
und historische Erklerung des newen Sterns oder ungeschwäntzten Cometen
(Szczecin: Joachim Rhete, 1604), 1r 91
7.1 Nova of 1600 in Blaeu’s globe of 1602. Peter van der Krogt, Globi Neerlandici: The
Production of Globes in the Low Countries (Utrecht: HES, 1993), p. 198 146
7.2 Daniel Mögling, Collegium Fraternitatis, 1618. José Bouman and Cis van
Heertum, eds., Divine Wisdom, Divine Nature: The Message of the Rosicrucian
Manifestoes in the Visual Language of the Seventeenth Century (Amsterdam: In
de Pelikaan, 2014), p. 98 151
7.3 Constellation of Cygnus. Johann Bayer, Uranometria (Augsburg: Christophorus
Mangus, 1603). 155
7.4 Tycho’s figure of the comet of 1580 with respect to Cygnus. TBOO, 13, 324 163
7.5 Christianization of the planets. Julius Schiller, Coelum stellatum christianum
(Augsburg: Andreas Aperger, 1627). Source: Biblioteca de reserva, Universitat de
Barcelona 175
7.6 Transformation of Cygnus into the Cross of Christ. Julius Schiller, Coelum stel-
latum christianum (Augsburg: Andreas Aperger, 1627). Source: Biblioteca de
reserva, Universitat de Barcelona 177
9.1 Andrea Argoli (1570–1657) in his old age. Lorenzo Crasso, Elogii degli huomini
letterati, vol. 2 (Venice: Combi & La Noù, 1666), p. 26 214
9.2 Relative position of the nova of 1572 in Cassiopeia according to Christoph
Clavius, In Sphaeram Ionannis De Sacrobosco commentarius (Lyon: Jean de
Gabiano, 1607 [5th ed.]), p. 218 223
9.3 Franciscus Ingolus, De stella anni 1604 tractatus (1604–1605), Biblioteca Apostolica
Vaticana, MS Ott.lat.2484 pt. 1, c. 143v (selection): astrological diagrams. Image
reproduced by concession of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (all rights
reserved) 238
9.4 Tycho’s posthumous star chart for Ophiuchus. Tycho Brahe, Astronomiae instau-
ratae progymnasmata (Prague, 1602), cc. 267v–268r (composite image) 253
10.1 Three views of the remnant of Kepler’s supernova, from NASA’s Great
Observatories: (left) an optical light view from Hubble Space Telescope; (middle)
an infrared light view from the Spitzer Space Telescope; (right) the appearance in
X-ray light from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Hubble’s camera shows details in
the densest knots of circumstellar material, as shown in the enlargement. Spitzer
shows hot dust that has been heated by the expanding supernova shock wave.
The chemical composition of the X-ray emitting gas is what clinched the identifi-
cation of Kepler’s supernova as a Type Ia. Figure courtesy of the author 260
Abbreviations
OGG GALILEI, Galileo, Le opere di Galileo Galilei. Ed. Antonio Favaro. 20 vols.
Florence: G. Barbèra, 1890–1909.
JKGW KEPLER, Johannes, Gesammelte Werke. Ed. Max Caspar, Walther von Dyck,
et al. 22 vols. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1937–.
TBOO BRAHE, Tycho, Opera omnia. Ed. J. L. E. Dreyer et al. 15 vols. Copenhagen:
Swets & Zeitlinger, 1972.