A CLASSIC WORK OF KEPLER
IN AN ATTRACTIVE FAUX LEATHER FACSIMILE
HARMONICES MUNDI
By Johannes Kepler
1968 Facsimile of the 1619 edition, in Latin. Leatherette cover. Near fine condition.
Description: Johannes Kepler HARMONICES MUNDI [The Harmony of the World] Facsimile of 1619 Publication by Lincii Austriae Brussels: Culture et Civilisation, 1968, 8 x 11.5 in., 255 pp. Many illustrations.
Condition: Hardbound in tan faux leather with gilt title on spine. Book is in near fine condition, with only the slightest edgewear. Three small plates following page 52 are missing from the facsimile according to a note by a former owner inside the front cover, but I believe this was the way the facsimile was produced since the book seems complete. A very attractive copy.
Information: One of Kepler's major works, in which his "third law" was first enunciated. Kepler ties the regular figures of geometry to the relative sizes of planetary orbits and posits a musical harmony that their motions obey.
Historical Note from Wikipedia: Harmonice Mundi (Harmonices mundi libri V) (Latin: The Harmony of the World, 1619) is a book by Johannes Kepler. In the work, written entirely in Latin, Kepler discusses harmony and congruence in geometrical forms and physical phenomena. The final section of the work relates his discovery of the so-called third law of planetary motion.
Kepler began working on Harmonice Mundi around 1599, which was the year Kepler sent a letter to Michael Maestlin detailing the mathematical data and proofs that he intended to use for his upcoming text, which he originally planned to name De harmonia mundi. Kepler was aware that the content of Harmonice Mundi closely resembled that of the subject matter for Ptolemy's Harmonica, but was not concerned. The new astronomy Kepler would use (most notably the adoption of elliptic orbits in the Copernican system) allowed him to explore new theorems. Another important development that allowed Kepler to establish his celestial-harmonic relationships was the abandonment of the Pythagorean tuning as the basis for musical consonance and the adoption of geometrically supported musical ratios; this would eventually be what allowed Kepler to relate musical consonance and the angular velocities of the planets. Thus, Kepler could reason that his relationships gave evidence for God acting as a grand geometer, rather than a Pythagorean numerologist.
The concept of musical harmonies intrinsically existing within the spacing of the planets existed in medieval philosophy prior to Kepler. Musica universalis was a traditional philosophical metaphor that was taught in the quadrivium, and was often called the "music of the spheres." Kepler was intrigued by this idea while he sought explanation for a rational arrangement of the heavenly bodies. When Kepler uses the term "harmony" it is not strictly referring to the musical definition, but rather a broader definition encompassing congruence in Nature and the workings of both the celestial and terrestrial bodies. He notes musical harmony as being a product of man, derived from angles, in contrast to a harmony that he refers to as being a phenomenon that interacts with the human soul. In turn, this allowed Kepler to claim the Earth has a soul because it is subjected to astrological harmony.
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