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In: Astronomy·History - Other·History - Modern (1750+)
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #35744.
Dorothy Stimson’s work is a scholarly survey of how the Copernican heliocentric model moved from controversy to acceptance. The book opens with an elaborate illustration from Riccioli’s Almagestum Novum, describing mythic figures, Astrea, Argus, and Ptolemy, arrayed around the celestial spheres to symbolize the competing cosmologies of the time. From this visual prologue Stimson launches into a two‑part structure: the first part sketches the development of astronomical thought up to 1400, while the second traces the reception of Copernican ideas through the sixteenth century, including the roles of Bruno, Galileo, and the Church. Detailed chapter headings, footnotes, and an extensive bibliography reveal a meticulous approach that treats the subject as a history of ideas rather than a technical astronomy text.
The author writes in a formal, early‑twentieth‑century academic voice, employing dense footnotes and classical references that echo the scholarly conventions of her era. Readers who enjoy intellectual histories, the evolution of scientific paradigms, or the interplay between religion and early modern science will find Stimson’s careful analysis rewarding, while those seeking a narrative‑driven story may prefer a more popular account.
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"Astrea, goddess of the heaven, wearing angel's wings and gleaming everywhere with stars, stands at the right; on the left is Argus of the hundred eyes, not tense, but indicating by the position of the telescope at his knee rather than at the eyes in his head, that while observing the work of God's hand, he appears at the same time to be worshipping as in genuflexion." (Riccioli: Alm. Nov., Præfatio, xvii). He points to the cherubs in the heavens who hold the planets, each with its zodiacal sign: above him at the top is Mars, then Mercury in its crescent form, the Sun, and Venus also in the crescent phase; on the opposite side are Saturn in its "tripartite" form (the ring explanation was yet to be given), the sphere of Jupiter encircled by its four satellites, the crescent Moon, its imperfections clearly shown, and a comet. Thus Father Riccioli summarized the astronomical knowledge of his day. The scrolls quote Psalms 19:2, "Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge."
Astrea holds in her right hand a balance in which Riccioli's theory of the universe (an adaptation of the Tychonic, see p. 68) far outweighs the Copernican or heliocentric one. At her feet is the Ptolemaic sphere, while Ptolemy himself half lies, half sits, between her and Argus, with the comment issuing from his mouth: "I will arise if only I am corrected." His left hand rests upon the coat of arms of the Prince of Monaco to whom the Almagestum Novum is dedicated.
At the top is the Hebrew Yah-Veh, and the hand of God is stretched forth in reference to the verse in the Book of Wisdom (10:20): "But thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number and weight."
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