Disputation on Planetary Systems from Chapter 4 of
Christoph Clavius,
In Sphaeram Ioannis de Sacro Bosco Commentarius.
Venice, 1596. Edited by James M. Lattis.
(Emended by the editor with corrections from later editions)

Some Clavius background

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Biographical sketch of Clavius

Very selective bibliography on Clavius

The primary text

Brief notes on the text

This is Clavius's Disputation on the cosmological systems that competed with each other in the late sixteenth century. Clavius's Commentary on the Sphere of Sacrobosco was published many times in many places across Europe for over forty years and employed as an introductory text book at many schools. Thus, it must have been known to a significant fraction of persons educated from about 1570 to around 1615. Occupying most of Chapter 4, this Disputation is a remarkable and important summary of the diversity of cosmological thought in the late sixteenth century. Few texts are better qualified to bear witness to the context in which the literate public would have received the cosmological debates of that era.

The text was transcribed directly from the original printed version of 1596. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected, and a few corrections have been taken from the final edition of 1611. Page breaks are indicated by a page reference enclosed in pointy brackets. Italics are used as in the original, i.e. generally to indicate quotations. E.g. the text begins with a quotation from Sacrobosco's Sphere, on which Clavius, like many other medieval and early modern astronomy educators, wrote his commentary. Italics also indicate titles. The original contains marginal notes, which here appear enclosed by hyphens.

Images, scanned from the 1596 edition, appear in roughly the same place with respect to the text as in the printed book.

Some Clavius background

The primary text

Brief notes on the text

The Latin text

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