The reception of Kepler's astronomy in England, 1596-1650
This thesis attempts to gather all the evidence bearing on the English reception of Kepler's astronomy from the time when Kepler might first have been read up to around 1650/ when foreign secondary influences changed the content of English keplerian astronomy. Kepler first attained fame in England in the early 1600s, and from that time, he was in direct communication with English mathematicians and other scholars. As a result, there was an audience awaiting his Astronomia Nova (1609), which contained his first two laws of planetary motion. Some of its readers adopted the first law, which states that the planetary orbits are elliptical. Over the following decade, there was little apparent promotion of keplerian astronomy in England, but in the universities, libraries were beginning to stock Kepler's books, and dons were recommending his writings to their students of astronomy. Thereafter, the assimilation of the first law into English astronomical thought was very rapid, owing to the work of mathematicians in the universities and in London. Some consideration was given also to Kepler's new celestial physics. Until his death in 1630, Englishmen continued to communicate directly with Kepler, for whom they felt
Apt, Adam Jared
Influence ; Astronomy ; History ; England ; 17th century
The reception of Kepler's astronomy in England, 1596-1650. This thesis attempts to gather all the evidence bearing on the English reception of Kepler's astronomy from the time when Kepler might first have been read up to around 1650/ when foreign secondary influences changed the content of English keplerian astronomy. Kepler first attained fame in England in the early 1600s, and from that time, he was in direct communication with English mathematicians and other scholars. As a result, there was an audience awaiting his Astronomia Nova (1609), which contained his first two laws of planetary motion. Some of its readers adopted the first law, which states that the planetary orbits are elliptical. Over the following decade, there was little apparent promotion of keplerian astronomy in England, but in the universities, libraries were beginning to stock Kepler's books, and dons were recommending his writings to their students of astronomy. Thereafter, the assimilation of the first law into English astronomical thought was very rapid, owing to the work of mathematicians in the universities and in London. Some consideration was given also to Kepler's new celestial physics. Until his death in 1630, Englishmen continued to communicate directly with Kepler, for whom they felt
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