Aristarchus of Samos, the Ancient Copernicus
A History of Greek Astronomy to Aristarchus, Together with Aristarchus's Treatise on the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon

Prefaced by a history of ancient Greek astronomy, this 1913 edition of Aristarchus' only surviving treatise includes a facing-page translation.

Thomas Heath (Author)

9781108062336, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 September 2013

440 pages, 34 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.64 kg

The Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos was active in the third century BCE, more than a thousand years before Copernicus presented his model of a heliocentric solar system. It was Aristarchus, however, who first suggested - in a work that is now lost - that the planets revolve around the sun. Edited by Sir Thomas Little Heath (1861–1940), this 1913 publication contains the ancient astronomer's only surviving treatise, which does not propound the heliocentric hypothesis. The Greek text is based principally on the tenth-century manuscript Vaticanus Graecus 204. Heath also provides a facing-page English translation and explanatory notes. The treatise is prefaced by a substantial history of ancient Greek astronomy, ranging from Homer's first mention of constellations to work by Heraclides of Pontus in the fourth century BCE relating to the Earth's rotation. Heath's collection of translated ancient texts, Greek Astronomy (1932), is also reissued in this series.

Preface
Part I. Greek Astronomy to Aristarchus of Samos: 1. Sources of the history
2. Homer and Hesiod
3. Thales
4. Anaximander
5. Anaximenes
6. Pythagoras
7. Xenophanes
8. Heraclitus
9. Parmenides
10. Anaxagoras
11. Empedocles
12. The Pythagoreans
13. The atomists, Leucippus and Democritus
14. Oenopides
15. Plato
16. The theory of concentric spheres
17. Aristotle
18. Heraclides of Pontus
19. Greek months, years, and cycles
Part II. Aristarchus on the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and the Moon: 1. Aristarchus of Samos
2. The treatise on sizes and distances
3. Content of the treatise
4. Later improvements on Aristarchus's calculations
Greek text, translation and notes
Index.

Subject Areas: History of mathematics [PBX]