The Renaissance of Astronomy

by Noel Swerdlow

Overview

The Renaissance of Astronomy provides a comprehensive, technically grounded account of the works of Regiomontanus, Copernicus, Tycho, Kepler and Galileo. There is nothing comparable to it in scope and detail. It is the fruit of a lifetime of study devoted to the subject.

It is the first book to provide systematic, rigorous introductions to the work of the five great astronomers who replaced the geocentric model of the planetary system with a heliocentric one. It also offers novel analyses on many points of detail—-for example, the astrological interests and practices of Regiomontanus, Kepler, and Galileo. Technical expositions are accompanied by a very large number of diagrams of high quality, made by the author, Noel Swerdlow. The section on Tycho Brahe was left incomplete at Swerdlow's death.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031847592
Publisher:	Springer Nature Switzerland
Publication date:	09/19/2025
Series:	Sources and Studies in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences
Pages:	1230
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Noel Swerdlow (1941-2021) was the preeminent expert on Renaissance astronomy. After retiring from the University of Chicago, where he spent his entire career, he was invited to join Caltech as a Visiting Research Schole, where he spent his final years. He was particularly known for his work on Copernicus, about which he co-authored a book with Otto Neugebauer, also published in Sources and Studies. He was a MacArthur fellow, famed for his brilliant scholarship and generous mentorship of early career scholars.

Table of Contents

Preface.- Regiomontanus:The Rebirth of Ptolemy.- Copernicus: The Paraphraser of Ptolemy.- Tycho Brahe: The Phoenix of Astronomy.- Kepler: The New Astronomy.- Galileo: The New System of the World.- Bibliography.- A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE WRITINGS OF NOEL M. SWERDLOW.