De la Sfera del Mondo: An Exploration of Piccolomini’s Universe
摘要
In 1540 Piccolomini published two astronomical treatises written in the vernacular. One of these, De la Sfera del Mondo, is an adaptation of the most popular university textbook of his days, Sacrobosco’s De Sphaera while adding a number of topics. Central to the discussions in the present chapter are Piccolomini’s ideas on the ten-sphere universe, his understanding of precession and the related motion of the solar apogee, as well as the information he provides on cosmic dimensions.