John Smith Gallery

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630). Harmonices mundi [Harmony of the World], Linz, Austria, 1619. [D.1.9]

Smith owned most of the works published by the astronomer Kepler, whose extensive output would subsequently influence Isaac Newton in his theory of universal gravitation. In Harmonices Mundi Kepler sought to explain the physical harmonies that underlie planetary motion. Inspired by Pythagoras and Plato, Kepler argued that the harmony and order of the universe depended on ratios of simple numbers corresponding to the consonant intervals of the musical scale. Informed by 17th-century empirical techniques, he also sought to show how musical ratios evident in the makeup of the universe also governed human fate.