CELESTIAL NOVELTIES ON THE EVE OF THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION (1540-1630)

229 Pages·2013·5.458 MB·English

by  Dario Tessicini & Patrick Boner

Celestial Novelties on the Eve
of the Scientific Revolution
1540-1630
Edited by
Dario Tessicini and Patrick J. Boner
Comets, ‘new stars’ and other ‘celestial novelties’ constitute
unexpected celestial phenom- the main subject of this volume,
ena up to Galileo’s telescopic whose aim is to shed light on
discoveries have attracted the their reception and interpreta-
interest of historians of sci- tion in science, natural philoso-
ence, intellectual and cultural phy, medicine, and their wider
historians. These early modern impact on European society.
Comete, ‘nuove stelle’ e altri feno- stituiscono il tema principale di questo
meni imprevedibili, incluse le scoperte volume, che si propone di far luce sulla
telescopiche di Galilei, hanno attirato loro ricezione e interpretazione nella
l’attenzione di storici della scienza, delle idee e della scienza, nella ilosoia naturale, nella medicina, e
cultura. Le novità celesti della prima modernità co- sul forte impatto che ebbero sulla società europea.
CONTENTS
Patrick Boner - Dario Tessicini, Introduction • Adam Mosley, Past portents predict:
cometary historiae and catalogues in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries • Tayra M.C.
Lanuza Navarro - Víctor Navarro Brotons, Prophecy and politics in Spain: celestial
novelties and the science of the stars, 1572-1630 • Dario Tessicini, The comet of 1577 in Italy:
astrological prognostications and cometary theory at the end of the sixteenth century • Isabelle
Pantin, Francesco Giuntini et les nouveautés célestes • Elide Casali, Astrologia ‘cristiana’ e
nuova scienza. Pronostici astrologici sulle comete (1577-1618) • John Henry, Jean Fernel on
celestial inluences and the reform of medical theory • Nick Jardine, How to Present a Coper-
nican Comet: The Form and Tactics of Christoph Rothmann’s Dialexis on the Comet of 1585 •
Miguel Angel Granada, Tycho Brahe’s anti-Copernican campaign: his criticism of Maestlin
and Thomas Digges in the Astronomiae Instauratae Progymnasmata • Francesco Bar-
reca - Patrick J. Boner, A perfect similitude: science and politics in Kepler’s dedicatory letters
to De stella nova and the Astronomia nova • Édouard Mehl, Comètes et taches solaires
en Allemagne (1610-1630): l’aile hétérodoxe (Faulhaber, Mayr, Mögling) et le point de départ
de la ‘fable du monde’ cartésienne • Giorgio Strano, Galileo, reliable observer: astronomical
accuracy and the optical limits of the telescope • Index of names.
Biblioteca di «Galilaeana», vol. 3
2013, cm 17 ¥ 24, xvi-284 pp.
[isbn 978 88 222 6254 7]
C E L S. O
ASA DITRICE EO LSCHKI
Casella postale 66 • 50123 Firenze P.O. Box 66 • 50123 Firenze Italy
[email protected] • [email protected] [email protected] • www.olschki.it
Tel. [phone] Fax [phone]
chapter 5
The History and Historiography
of Early Modern Comets
AdamMosley*
…
Comets, importing change of times and states, brandish your crystal
tressesinthesky.
williamshakespeare,HenryVI,Part1(1591)
∵
1 1577andAllThat:WhatEveryHistorianofAstronomyKnows
Historians’understandingsofthenatureandsignificanceoftheearlymodern
studyofcometshaveundergoneconsiderablemodificationinrecentyears.In
thetraditionalview,currentduringthemid-twentiethcentury,cometsplayed
animportantpartinthetransformationofastronomyandcosmologyassoci-
atedwiththe‘ScientificRevolution’asawhole,ormorespecificallywiththeso-
called ‘Astronomical Revolution’ and subsequent ‘Newtonian synthesis’. Two
particular comets, one that appeared in 1577 and the one subsequently seen
in1680and1681,werethoughttohaveplayedkeyrolesinbringingaboutthe
demiseofAristoteliancosmologyandtheriseofNewtonianphysics.Thusin
* IamextremelygratefultoKarenMoran,ofTheRoyalObservatory,Edinburgh,andMonica
Azzolini,oftheUniversityofEdinburgh,forfacilitatingmyuseoftheextensivecomet-related
.d
evre literatureintheCrawfordCollectionattheObservatory;andtoboththeSpecialCollections
se departmentoftheUniversityofAberdeenandtheScienceMuseumLibraryatWroughton
r sth forallowingmeaccesstotheirsixteenth-andseventeenth-centurycometologicalliterature.
g
ir llA AversionofthisessaywaspresentedattheconferenceCelestialNovelties,ScienceandPolitics
.LL ontheEveoftheScientificRevolution(1540–1630),MuseoGalileo,Florence,September2011;
IR
B .4 Iwouldliketorecordmygratitudetotheorganisersofthatconference,DarioTessicini,
10 PatrickBonerandMiguelA.Granada,andtotheotherparticipants,whosecommentsand
2
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the history and historiography of early modern comets 283
C.DorisHellman’swork,TheCometof1577:ItsPlaceintheHistoryofAstronomy,
thefirstofthesecometswasdiscussedwithreferencetothosewhoseobser-
vations and calculations of parallax rendered it a supralunary phenomenon,
contrarytothereceivedscholasticview;thosewhomaintainedthatitwassub-
lunary;thosewhofailedtodeterminewhetheritwassub-orsupralunary;and
those(thepreachersandpoets)whousedthecometto‘furthertheirown’,that
isanon-astronomical,‘purpose’.1Hellman’saccount,thoughsensitivetoearlier
cometarystudiesandtotherangeofindividualswhowroteonthe1577phe-
nomenon,helpedtopropagatetheviewthattheobservationalworkofTycho
Brahe(1546–1601),inparticular,wasresponsibleforestablishingthesupralu-
narityofthiscomet,addingtotheevidencealreadyprovidedbythenovaof
1572thattheheavenswerenotfree,asAristotlehadsupposed,ofnoveltyand
change. Moreover, historians came to think that Tycho established a celes-
tialtrajectoryforthecometthatwasincompatiblewiththeexistenceofsolid
spheres in the heavens, and so struck the scholastic vision of the cosmos a
doubleblow.This,itwasthought,notonlyrenderedpossibleTycho’sowngeo-
heliocentricworldsystem,inwhichtheSunwasheldtomovearoundtheEarth
andtheplanetstheSun;italsoclearedthewayforKepler’sadoptionofellipses
asthe true form of circumsolarplanetary orbits.Tychowasthereforewidely
creditedwith‘dissolvingthecelestialspheres’,akeystepinthelongastronom-
icalrevolutionrunningfromCopernicustoNewton.
Subsequent scholarship has modified this picture in a number of ways.
Attentionpaidtoothercometsoftheperiodhascreated,forexample,amore
nuancedpictureofhowstudyofthecometof1577shapedastronomyandcos-
mology.ThusJaneL.Jervisexploredfifteenth-centurycometaryinvestigations
up to and including those of Regiomontanus (1436–1476), who produced an
influentialbutproblematicaccountofhowthealtitudeordistanceofacomet
couldbecalculatedusingparallax(see6.ABriefNoteonCometaryParallax,
below).2 Though listed amongst the publications to be produced at his own
Nurembergpress,Regiomontanus’sDecometaemagnitudine,longitudinequeac
delocoeiusvero,problemataXVIwasnotactuallyprinteduntil1531,whenitwas
editedbyJohannesSchöner(1477–1547),andthereisnoevidencethatitprevi-
.d
e
vre
se
r sth (cid:4605) Hellman(1944).
g
ir llA (cid:4606) Jervis(1985).TychoBrahediscussedtheproblemswithRegiomontanus’smethodintheDe
.LL mundiaethereirecentioribusphaenomenis;seeTBOO,IV,83–84,123–124.Heveliuscriticised
IR
B .4 itinhisCometographia;seeHevelius(1668),295–297,especiallyp.296:‘Youcanneverbe
10 satisfiedwiththeRegiomontinecalculation’[NunquamincalculoRegiomontaniacquiescere
2
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284 mosley
ouslyexisted,letalonecirculated,inmorethanonemanuscript.3Onceithad
notonlybeenpublished,butalsoreadandassimilated,however,Regiomon-
tanus’sworkpromptedastronomerstostudycometswithaviewtodetermin-
ingtheirparallaxandhencetheirdistancefromtheEarth.Inthemeantime,
however, as Peter Barker and Bernard Goldstein in particular have empha-
sised,andWolfgangKokotthasdemonstratedindetail,aseriesofcometsthat
appearedinthe1530salsohelpedtoshapethesubsequentstudyandinterpre-
tationofcometsintotheseventeenthcentury.4Severalcommentatorsonthese
comets, but most particularly Peter Apian (1494–1552), author of the Astro-
nomicumCaesareum(1540),directedattentiontowardsoneimportantfeature
theydisplayed,theconsistentantisolarityoftheirtails.5Thisledtospeculation
thatcometswerenot,infact,terrestrialvapourselevatedto,andignitedwithin,
the upper atmosphere of the Earth, but lenses of compressed aether which
focusedandprojectedthelightofthesun.Whathasbeendubbedthe‘optical
theoryofcomets’thusconstitutedonewayinwhichsixteenth-centuryscholars
begantorethinktherelationshipbetweenterrestrialandcelestialregionson
opticalgrounds—thebasisonwhichJeanPena(1528–1558)rejectedtheexis-
tence of celestial spheres in his DeusuOptices (1557)—and to give renewed
considerationtoalternativecosmologies,particularlytotheStoicnotionofa
gradationfromimpureairtopurestaether,ratherthanadeterminatebound-
ary between heavens and Earth.6 Other observed properties of comets also
providedthosewhonoticedthemwithreasontoquerythereceivedinterpre-
tationofboththephenomenaandthecosmos.GirolamoCardano(1501–1576),
in his widely read De subtilitate (1550), suggested that the fact that comets
moved more slowly than the moon was in itself sufficient grounds to place
themaboveitintheheavens.(Aristotlehadarguedfromtheoppositeobserv-
ationtotheoppositeconclusioninhisMeteorologica,342a30–33).ButCardano
alsosuggestedthatparallaxobservationscouldbeusedtoestablishcometary
supralunarity more securely.7 Thus astronomers were thoroughly primed to
(cid:4607) Zinner(1968),206–210,346.
(cid:4608) BarkerandGoldstein(1988);Kokott(1981)and(1994).
.d
evre (cid:4609) Apianus(1540),N2v–O3r.
se (cid:4610) Barker(1993)and(1985).
r sth (cid:4611) Cardano,(1550),81v–83r,especially81v–82r:‘Buttodiscernwhetheracometisproducedin
g
ir llA theregionoftheelementsorinheavenisextremelyeasy.Forifithasgreaterparallaxthan
.LL theMoon,itisnecessarilyintheregionoftheelements.Butiflesser[parallax],thanwithout
IR
B .4 doubtitwillbeproducedinheaven’[Seddeprehendereancometesinelementoremregione
10 sit,anincoelofiat,facileestadmodum.NamsimaioremhabeatdiversitatemquamLuna,in
2
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the history and historiography of early modern comets 285
attempttodeterminetheparallaxofthenovaof1572andthecometof1577,
whentheyappeared.Thatsofewdidsosuccessfullyinthecaseofthelatter
phenomenonmaybeattributedtothedifficultyofdiscriminatingbetweenpar-
allax and proper motion, particularly using Regiomontanus’s recommended
technique.
Otherstudieshaveshown,however,thateventheobservationsofthecomet
of1577whichsoughttoestablishitsparallaxweremuchlessdecisiveinshaping
cometarytheorythanhassometimesbeensupposed.Inhisownlifetime,Tycho
Brahemetwithconsiderableoppositionregardinghisascriptionofsupralunar-
itytothecometof1577,principallyfromtheScottishphysicianandAristotelian
John Craig (†c. 1620).8 After his death, Kepler strove to defend Tycho’s work
on the very same point against the onslaught of an Italian scholastic, Scipio
Chiaramonti (1565–1652).9 Although not much work has been done on this
laterdebate,ithasbeentakennoteoftotheextentthatitintersectedwitha
betterknowndisputebetweenGalileoandtheJesuits.AsStillmanDrakeand
C.D.O’Malleyshowedintheirtranslationofandcommentaryonthetextsof
thatcontroversy,inthisinstanceitwastheJesuitswhosupportedtheTychonic
account of the place of comets in the universe, while Galileo suggested that
they were optical phenomena whose location could not be determined by
parallactic techniques.10 Tycho’s work was thus not as widely or as rapidly
accepted by other figures regarded as champions of the ‘new’ astronomy as
someaccountsmightseemtohavesupposed.
Morerecently,TabittavanNouhuyshasdemonstrated,withrespecttothe
LowCountriesatleast,thewiderangeofapproachesandinterpretationsthata
thoroughaccountofearlymoderncometologyneedstoaccommodate.While
itistruethatsomeDutchscholarswereconcernedtodeterminethedistanceof
cometsfromtheEarth,speculationabouttheirphysicalplaceandnatureinter-
actedwithorthodoxscholasticopinioninavarietyofways,withStoicnatural
philosophy again providing the intellectual resources to modify Aristotelian
cosmology on a piecemeal rather than a wholesale basis. Significantly, some
suchmodificationshappenedlongbeforetheresultsofTycho’sstudyofthe1577
cometwerewidelydisseminated.However,formany,perhapsevenmostDutch
writersoncomets,thephysicalcharacteristicsandcosmologicalimplications
.d
e
vre ofthephenomenawereofmuchlessinterestthantheirpresumedsignificance
se
r sth
g
ir llA
.LL (cid:4612) Mosley(2002).
IR
B .4 (cid:4613) Kepler(1625),respondingtoChiaramonti(1621)andprovokingChiaramonti(1626).Ihope
10 onafutureoccasiontopublishananalysisofthisdispute.
2
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th (cid:4605)(cid:4604) DrakeandO’Malley(1960).
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286 mosley
forhumanaffairsamidsttheuncertaintyandturmoiloftheDutchRevoltand
theRemonstrantControversy.11VanNouhuys’sworkhasthuscontributedsub-
stantiallytoourunderstandingoftheastrologicalstudyandinterpretationof
comets.SotoohasSaraSchechnerGenuth’sstudyfocusedonEnglishcome-
tologyintheseventeenthcentury.EvenuptoNewtonandHalleyandbeyond,
thisworkhasmadeclear,learnedinterpretationofcometswasboundupwith
popular notions in a complex set of ways. Thus the view that comets were
harbingersofill-fortunepersistedintotheeighteenthcentury,butwasration-
alisedinnewwaysasnaturalphilosophicalorthodoxieschanged.12Thisisan
importantinsightthat,aswillbediscussedbelow,hasnotyetbeenexplored
sufficientlythoroughlywithrespecttotheearlierpartoftheperiod.13
A third strand of work has challenged still more thoroughly the received
understandingoftheplaceofTychoBrahe’scometaryworkinunderminingthe
Aristotelianworld-picture.Inthemid-1980s,EdwardRosenquestionedTycho’s
righttobecreditedwith‘dissolvingthecelestialspheres’,andsubsequentwork
by Edward Grant, Peter Barker and Bernard Goldstein, Michel-Pierre Lerner,
and W.G.L. Randles, has shown just how complicated the entire question of
the conceptualisation and dissolution of the heavenly spheres is.14 Ortho-
doxscholasticsdidnotnecessarilyattributeanyofthequalitiestotheceles-
tialspheresthatTycho’scometaryworkwasthoughttohavecontradicted—
notably rigidity and impenetrability. Moreover the prior availability, once
again,ofStoiccosmologicalthought,meantthatthepossibilityofentirelyfluid
heavens was seriously entertained by early modern scholars long before the
cometof1577appeared.OurunderstandingofboththenatureofTycho’swork
onthatcometanditsimportanceinshapinghisownviewoftheheavenshave
alsobeensubstantiallyqualified.WhilethecometarytreatisebyRothmannin
the present volume has been implicated in the changing of Tycho’s opinion
regardingthefluidityoftheheavens,ithasalsobeenpointedoutthatTychodid
not,inhistreatiseonthecometof1577,presenthimselfashavingdemonstrated
thattheheavenswerefluidandthecelestialspheresdidnotexistbydetermin-
ingthecomet’strajectory.Instead,Tychousedwhatlittlepositiveinformation
hecouldderiveaboutthecomet’sdistancefromtheEarth,viaconsiderationof
.d
e
vre
se
r sth (cid:4605)(cid:4605) VanNouhuys(1998).
g
ir llA (cid:4605)(cid:4606) SchechnerGenuth(1997).SeealsoSchaffer(1993).
.LL (cid:4605)(cid:4607) Niccoli(1990),thoughexcellentontherelationshipbetweenpopularandeliteprophecy
IR
B .4 andpolitics,doesnotfocusoncomets.
10 (cid:4605)(cid:4608) Rosen(1985);Grant(1987)and(1994),especially189–219;GoldsteinandBarker(1995);
2
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th Lerner(1989)and(2008);Randles(1999).
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the history and historiography of early modern comets 287
itsparallax,todeviseacometaryhypothesis—thatis,inthetechnical,period,
sense of the term, a mathematical model of the comet’s motion. This model
itself utilised assumptions, including the circumsolarity of the geoheliocen-
tric world system, that already required the heavens to be free of rigid and
impenetrable celestial spheres.15 As Robert S. Westman noted in 1972, more-
over,Tychowasnotthefirsttoattempttoassignthe1577cometahypothesis;
in this he was preceded by Michael Maestlin, who concluded, on the basis
ofhisefforts,thatonlytheCopernicanplanetaryhypothesescouldbetrue.16
ThoughMaestlin’sattemptwasperhapsitselfinspiredbySeneca’ssuggestion
thatthelawsgoverningcometswouldonedaybeknown,17wemaywellcon-
clude on this basis that Tycho’s conclusions in the De mundi aetherei recen-
tioribusphaenomeniswerestronglyshapedbyhispossessionandstudyofthe
cometaryworksofbothRothmannandMaestlin.
2 Historia:Comets,Astronomy,andHistoricalAstrology
Giventhelabourthatithastakentoreachourcurrentunderstandingofearly
moderncometology,itisbothreassuringanddisquietingtoconsidertheextent
towhichevenourmorenuancedunderstandingofworkonthecometof1577
wasestablishedhistorical‘fact’asearlyastheseventeenthcentury.Itisreassur-
ingtotheextentthatwecanconsiderthehistoricalaccountsofearlymodern
authorssuchasGiovanniBattistaRiccioli(1598–1671)andJohannesHevelius
(1611–1687)independentassessments,byexpertsclosertotheeventsinwhich
weareinterested,corroboratingourown.Itisdisquieting,however,insofaras
we have come to appreciate that in astronomy, the most historical of all the
physical sciences, historia was an established rhetorical and epistemological
toolintheearlymodernperiod.18Historicalclaims,andhistoricalstudies,were
ofgreatvalueintheself-consciousdirectionandlegitimationofastronomical
work in the Renaissance, so if our histories look similar to those of our sub-
jects then it may be that we are guilty not only of finding precisely what we
werelookingforbutalsooflookingforexactlywhatoneormoreofoursub-
jectswantedustosee.Itisquiteclear,forexample,thatTychointendedhis
.d
e
vre
se
r sth
g
ir llA (cid:4605)(cid:4609) Mosley(2007),72–73.
.LL (cid:4605)(cid:4610) Westman(1972).
IR
B .4 (cid:4605)(cid:4611) Seneca,Naturalesquaestiones,7.25.3.
10 (cid:4605)(cid:4612) OnhistoriagenerallyseePomataandSiraisi(2005).Forhistoricallegitimationinastro-
2
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th nomy,seeJardine(1988b),258–286,and(2000),121–145;Grafton(1997).
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288 mosley
Demundiaethereirecentioribusphaenomenis(1588)tobereadasthedefinitive
studyofthecometof1577andadecisivedemonstrationthatitwasacelestial
ratherthanameteorologicalphenomenon.Thiswasthepurposeofhisexten-
siveanalysisofothers’accountsofit,andhispresentationoftheseaccounts
was appropriately selective, focusing on the observational data pertinent to
theproofordisproofofthethesisofsupralunarity,theinterpretationofthat
databytheauthorinquestionand—whenthatinterpretationwasconsidered
to be wanting—his own analysis of the observations along with an explan-
ation of any discrepancy. It is a measure of Tycho’s success that the agenda
thatrunsthroughtheDemundiaethereirecentioribusphaenomenis(1588),and
indeedhiscategoriesofcometaryauthor,wereadoptedalmostwithoutdemur
byC.DorisHellman.
Hellman,however,washardlythefirsttobepersuadedbyTycho’saccount.
HistoriansofastronomysometimestreatAlexandreGuyPingré’stwo-volume
CométographieouTraitéhistoriqueetthéoriquedescomètes(1783–1784)asone
oftheearliestworksofmoderncometology,andcriticsofthereceivedviewof
Tycho’scometaryworkanditsimportancehavesometimessuggestedthatit
canbetracedbacktosucheighteenth-centurytexts.19Likelaterauthors,Pin-
grécertainlyattributedagreatdealtoTycho’sworkonthecometof1577:‘Tycho
observed the motions with the greatest possible precision: he found that on
9Novemberithadaparallaxof19minutes52seconds,andonthe26January
followingthatitdidnotexceed2minutes.Thisobservationseemeddecisive
againstthePeripatetics:onecouldconcludethattheplaceofthecometwas
abovetheheavenofthemoon,thattheheavenswereliabletogeneration;and,
finally, that the path which the comet had taken, always moving away from
theEarth,demonstratedthattheheavensdidnothavethatsoliditywhichthe
Schoolhadattributedtothem.’20Buttheparticularimportanceofthecomet
of 1577 was already an established feature of cometary and astronomical lit-
erature of the seventeenth century on which Pingré himself drew.21 Thus, in
(cid:4605)(cid:4613) See,forexample,VanNouyhuys(1998),24,92.
(cid:4606)(cid:4604) Pingré(1783–1784),I,84:‘Tychoenobservalesmouvemensavectoutel’exactitudepos-
.d
evre sible:iltrouvaquele9deNovembresaparallaxeavoitétéde19minutes52secondes,&
se quele26Janviersuivantellen’avoitpasexcedédeuxminutes.Cetteobservationparut
r sth décisivecontrelesPéripatéticiens:onenconcluoitquelelieudesComètesétoitau-delà
g
ir llA ducieldelaLune,quelesCieuxétoientsusceptiblesdegénération;qu’enfin,lechemin
.LL queleComèteavoittenuens’éloignanttoujoursdelaTerre,démontroitquelesCieux
IR
B .4 n’avoientpointcettesoliditéquel’Écoleleurattribuoit.’
10 (cid:4606)(cid:4605) Pingré(1783–1784),I,vi,singledoutforpraiseStruyck(1740).Inchaptersixofthework,
2
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th however,Pingré(1783–1784),I,79–104,thecitedsourcesincludeTycho’sDemundiaetherei
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the history and historiography of early modern comets 289
chapterIIIofbookVIIIofRiccioli’sAlmagestumnovum(1651–1655),a‘chrono-
logicalandastronomicalhistoriaof154comets’,thecometof1577isthefirstto
besingledoutfordetailedattention,andthisconsistsofadiscussionfirstof
Tycho’sobservationsandconclusions,thenJohannesPraetorius’s,andfinally
those of Landgrave Wilhelm and others—but only as discussed by Tycho in
his Demundiaethereirecentioribusphaenomenis.22Ricciolidevotedafurther
lengthysectionofthebook,chapterXVIII,tothetopicof‘Whetherthecometof
1577wasdemonstratedtobeabovethemoonorbelow:orwhetheritwasshown
to have smaller or greater parallax than the moon’, and this engaged closely
notonlywithTycho’sargumentsonthematterbutalsothesubsequentdebate
betweenChiaramontiandKepler.23Other,later,cometswerealsodiscussed,
includingthoseofthe1580sandof1618.24Bycontrast,JohannesHevelius,in
hisCometographia(1668),offeredafulleraccountofearliercometsalongside
thecloseconsiderationoflaterones;thoughfocusedonthecometof1652,the
workalsoofferedahistoriaofcometssincethebeginningoftheworld,detailed
discussionofthecometarystudiesofRegiomontanusandApian,andenumer-
ation of the full range of theories—including Rothmann’s—concerning the
physicalnatureofcomets.25Onceagain,however,hesingledoutthecometof
1577asthefirsttohavebeensufficientlywellobservedforitstrajectorythrough
theheavenstobecorrectlydetermined.26
recentioribusphaenomenis(identifiedasvolume2oftheAstronomiaeinstaurataeprogym-
nasmata),Snellius’seditionofthepresentworkbyRothmann,Gassendi’sVitaTychonis
(1654),Kepler’sDecometislibellitres(1619),andHevelius’sCometographia.
(cid:4606)(cid:4606) Riccioli(1651–1655),II,3–23,especially10–13.
(cid:4606)(cid:4607) Riccioli(1651–1655),II,77–90,especially77:‘CaputXVIII.AnCometaAnni1577.demon-
stratussitsupraLunamaninfra:seuUtrumostensussitminorem,anmaioremhabere
ParallaxinLunari?’
(cid:4606)(cid:4608) Riccioli(1651–1655),II,13–23,90–117.From93–94,RicciolifocusesonRothmann’scon-
siderationoftheparallaxofthecometof1585,drawingonTycho’seditionoftheKassel-
Uraniborgcorrespondence,Brahe(1596),andScipioChiaramonti’scritiqueinChiara-
monti(1636),114–137.ThoughRicciolidoesnotherereferdirectlytoSnellius’seditionof
Rothmann’sDialexis,Chiaramontihadstudieditclosely.
.d
evre (cid:4606)(cid:4609) Hevelius(1668),especially791–913.
se (cid:4606)(cid:4610) Hevelius(1668),452:‘AlthoughindeedIwouldgreatlyhavelikedtoaddstillcertainpar-
r sth ticularthingsaboutthoseoldercomets,howevermorewasinnowaypossible.Therefore,
g
ir llA havingalreadyleftallthoseothersbehind,weshallturntothecometof1577,observed
.LL byTychoBrahe.Forthiswasthefirstofallofthemcorrectlyandassiduouslyinvesti-
IR
B .4 gated,anddescribedsufficientyfully,sothatwithoutgreattroubleitispossibleforusto
10 nowsketchitstrueappearance’[etsivelmaximevoluerim,deantiquioribusillisCometis,
2
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th adhucquaedamspecialiorasuperaddere,tamenneutiquampluralicuit.Idcirco,relictisiis
g
iryp
o
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Granada, M. A., Mosley, A., & Jardine, N. (2014). Christoph rothmann's discourse on the comet of 1585 : An edition and translation
with accompanying essays. BRILL.
Created from ed on 2022-06-07 16:13:39.
290 mosley
ForbothRiccioliandHevelius,therefore,Tycho’sworkonthecometof1577
wasofparticularimportance.Still,itwouldbeincorrecttoconcludeonthis
basisthatlatercommentatorsweremisledbyTychoaloneinplacingsomuch
weightontheDemundiaethereirecentioribusphaenomenis.Indeed,itwasnot
evenTychowhomostforcefullyclaimedforhiscometarystudiesthecreditfor
dissolvingthecelestialspheresthathistoriansnowwishtoreassign.Thatclaim
was made by Kepler on Tycho’s behalf, in the Astronomia nova (1609).27 All
thatTychostated,inawidely-circulatedletterofSeptember1588,wasthathis
cometarystudiesofrecentyears—meaningmorethanjustthatofthecomet
of 1577—had persuaded him of the fluidity of the heavens.28 In making this
remarkhemaywellhavebeenobscuringadebttoRothmann’scometarytreat-
ise; but it was the geoheliocentric world system that a fluid heavens made
possible, rather than fluidity itself, for which he was most anxious to secure
credit.29 Kepler had his own reasons, of course, for suggesting that the non-
existenceofthecelestialsphereswasanacceptedfactandthatTychowasthe
onewhowasresponsibleforestablishingit.Inthisrespectthereceivedhisto-
riographyiscertainlycorrect:thedissolutionofthespheresandtheprimacyof
Tycho’sobservationaldataweresinequibusnonforKeplerianellipses.
Contingentfeaturesofoursubjects’worksandcareers,aswellastheircon-
scious rhetorical strategies, have also shaped our historical judgments. Had
Tycho succeeded in his aspiration of publishing a third volume in his series
onrecentcelestialphenomena,dealingwiththecometsfollowingthatof1577,
itislikelythatwewouldlongagohaveattributedequalornear-equalimpor-
tancetothecometsofthe1580sinthecosmologicalandcometologicaldebates
ofthelatersixteenthcentury.Afterall,Tycho’sDemundiaethereirecentioribus
phaenomeniswasnotpublisheduntil1588andnotcommerciallyavailableuntil
1603, so even within his own network of correspondents—and, as we now
believe, for Tycho himself—the study of these comets was of considerable
iamomnibus,conferamusnosadCometamanno1577,aTychoneBrahaeodeprehensum.
Hicnamqueprimusomniumrite&studiosepervestigatus,acsatisetiamprolixedescrip-
tusest;utsinemagnonegotionobisnuncliceatgenuinameiusfaciemdelineare].
.d
evre (cid:4606)(cid:4611) Kepler(1609),(****)r:‘BRAHEdemonstratedfromthepathsofcometsthatthereareno
se solidspheres’[BRAHEUSextrajectionibusCometarumdemonstravit,nullosesseorbes
r sth solidos].Thisremarkappearsinthesummaryofeachchapter’sargumentatthestart
g
ir llA of the work; the chapter in question, ch. 2 of part I, is less explicit, stating only that
.LL Tychohasdestroyedthesolidityoftheplanetaryorbsbymostcertainarguments,without
IR
B .4 mentioningcomets.SeeKepler(1609),8.
10 (cid:4606)(cid:4612) TychoBrahetoCasparPeucer,12September1588;seeTBOO,VIII,130.13–34.
2
©
th (cid:4606)(cid:4613) Mosley(2007),71–79.
g
iryp
o
C
Granada, M. A., Mosley, A., & Jardine, N. (2014). Christoph rothmann's discourse on the comet of 1585 : An edition and translation
with accompanying essays. BRILL.
Created from ed on 2022-06-07 16:13:39.