he forwarded from Padua in 1590, together with a letter in which he gave an account of the unfinished first volume of Tycho's work.[1] A copy was sent to Tycho's old friend Scultetus, who let Monavius of Breslau partake of his joy over it. To Thomas Savelle of Oxford, a younger brother of the celebrated founder of the two Savillian professorships, who was then travelling on the Continent, Tycho sent two copies of the book, together with a letter in which he, among other things, asked him to remind Daniel Rogers about the copyright which he had promised to procure Tycho for his books in England.[2] To Caspar Peucer, who had already heard of the book from Rantzov, Tycho sent a copy, and added a very long letter in which he entered fully into his reasons for rejecting the Copernican system, and discussed some passages of Scripture which had been made use of to prove the solidity of the celestial spheres. In this letter he also gives an interesting sketch of the plan of the great work to which the three volumes on the new star and comets were to be introductory. It was to consist of seven books; the first was to describe his instruments, the second the trigonometrical formulæ required in astronomy, the third the new positions of fixed stars from his observations, the fourth was to deal with the theories of the sun and moon, the fifth and sixth with the theories of the planets, the seventh with the latitudes of the planets.[3] With the exception of the first chapter (which he made into a separate book), the contents of this projected work
- ↑ Carteggio inedito di Ticone Brahe, G. Keplero, &c., con G. A. Magini. Ed. Ant. Favaro, Bologna, 1886, p. 193.
- ↑ A Collection of letters illustrative of the progress of science in England. Edited by J. O. Halliwell. London, 1841, p. 32. Tycho also sent Savelle four copies of his portrait engraved at Amsterdam (by Geyn, 1586), and inquired whether there were any good poets in England who would write an epigram on this portrait or in praise of his works. He added that Rogers might also show his friendship by helping him in this matter.
- ↑ Weistritz, i. pp. 239–264, reprinted from Resen's Inscriptiones Hafnienses.
