Valued today for its development of the third law of planetary motion, Harmonice mundi (1619) was intended by Kepler to expand on ancient efforts to discern a Creator's plan for the planetary system--an arrangement thought to be based on harmonic relationships. Challenging critics who characterize Kepler's theories of harmonic astronomy as "mystica
Reviews
Honorable Mention for the 1994 Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Physics and Astronomy, Association of American Publishers "By 1618, Kepler had discovered his harmonic (or third) law of planetary motions... Bruce Stephenson writes with great clarity and precision and leads the reader confidently through this rather complex byway of astronomical history... Kepler's polyhedral theory of planetary distances is then studied in detail, followed by the core of the book: a thorough investigation of Kepler's musical harmonies of the heavens."--New Scientist
