Hypotheses astronomicae. Wittenberg, 1571: PEUCER CONFUTATION OF COPERNICUS THEORY

Extremely rare first and only edition of Caspar Peucer confutation of Copernicus theory

Peucer, Kaspar. Hypotheses astronomicae, seu theoriae planetarum. Ex Ptolomaei et aliorum veterum doctrina ad obseruationes Nicolai Copernici, & canones motuum ab eo conditos accommodatae. Opera et studio Casparis Pevceri in Academia VVitebergensi. Witebergae : Iohannes Schvvertel, 1571.

8to, contemporary vellum covered by a XVIII handcoloured paper, pp. [16], 610, [but 614], [8 - Index], Signatures: )(⁸ A-2Q⁸.Final leaf blank. Numbers 80, 128, 237, and 238 repeated in pagination; other errors in pagination.

The Wittenberg interpretation

In 1543, Nicholas Copernicus changed the scientific world by publishing De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. This was the first time that a heliocentric model had seriously been considered, and publicised, and a resulted in a slew of opinions on how the universe may worked. One of the places where the debate reached the highest level was the University of Wittenberg, at that time home to many astronomers, astrologists and mathematicians, such as Erasmus Reinhold, Philip Melanchthon, Caspar Peucer, Georg Rheticus, and Albrecht Hohenzollern.

The work of such figures became known as the Wittenberg Interpretation, which historians recognise as important in fostering acceptance for the heliocentric explanation of the universe, and the wider shift of public views over time, and the beginning of the Scientific Revolution

Caspar Peucer, Philipp Melanchthon's son in law, a pupil of Reinhold's and his immediate successor as professor of mathematics at Wittenberg detailed his theories about Copernican model at first in his "Elementa doctrinae de circulis coelestibus et primo motu" then expanded and completed in the present "Hypotheses astronomicae", 1571, mirroring the ideas of his two main mentors.

He attempted to bring Copernican parameters back to a geocentric framework and in this way reconciled astronomical hypotheses and physics, proposing a geocentric arrangement of Copernicus's model for the precession of the equinoxes and the millenarian motions of the heavens.

In the introduction, he pointed out the problems of astronomy, especially the imprecision of the tables (either Alfonsine or Copernican) and the difficulty of reducing all heavenly motions to regular ones. However, the most remarkable uncertainty regarded hypotheses: "How unsatisfied the specialists [artifices] of our century are about the common hypotheses, is witnessed by their writings."

Neither Ptolemy nor Proclus, neither Alfonso nor Peuerbach could perfect astronomy. Even Copernicus's astronomy entailed errors, if not absurdities: "The absurdity of the Copernican [hypotheses] is offensive and far from the truth. (cit.)"; "Later, from the truth, offensive and not fit to be taught in the schools (cit.)"

Peucer wished that a great astronomer could continue and complete the emendation of astronomy undertaken by Reinhold, whose premature death he regretted. The only living astronomer capable of restoring astronomy who occurred to his mind was old Rheticus, who was then in Cracow.

"Hypotheses astronomicae (Wittenberg, 1571). Most astronomers of the sixteenth century suspended judgment on Copernicus' heliocentric cosmology, but they were quite willing to accept his principle that celestial motions should be explained by uniform motions in combinations of circles: this very rare book by the Wittenberg astronomy professor fits into that pedagogic stile ", The Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology.

Kaspar Peucer (1525–1602) was a German reformer, physician, and scholar of Sorbian origin. He studied mathematics, astronomy, and medicine at the University of Wittenberg from 1540. In 1543, he became a lodger in the house of one of the most famous professors in Wittenberg, the theologian and humanist Philipp Melanchthon, whose daughter Magdalena he married in 1550

After graduation Peucer quickly became a professor at the University of Wittenberg, replacing Erasmus Reinhold following his death in 1553; he began a lower math professor in 1550 then, worked his way up to higher mathematics in 1554. While working as a professor at Wittenberg, Peucer taught alongside notable other mathematicians of the time and graduates of Wittenberg such as Erasmus Reinhold and Michael Maestlin. In his time at Wittenberg, Peucer was also one of the main promoters, along with Melanchthon, of the astrological department/program, continuing to study, ultimately gaining his title as a doctor of medicine in 1560. It was during this time that Peucer began thinking more critically about his astrology views. He believed astrology was not only a practical art but an essential part of natural philosophy. The idea is that astrology fits perfectly into the teleological worldview in which it shows the critical work of God's creation, the stars being a secondary asset.

Despite his medical profession, he was, after the death of Melanchthon, one of the leading Protestants in Saxony.

In 1574 Peucer was officially charged with Crypto-Calvinism in an inter-Lutheran fight for power and put in jail in the famed Pleissenburg Fortress in Leipzig for twelve years. Released in 1586, he went to the Duchy of Anhalt, where he became Councillor and personal physician to the Prince of Anhalt.

Only three copies in USA: Brown University Library, Smithsonian Libraries and Princeton.

Conditions: restoration at spine, some mark of use but general a good copy of an extremely rare first and only edition.

References: Palau, 324086 ; Lalande, p. 95; Houzeau-Lancaster, n°12737