Contributed by
William E. Emba
"Published posthumously, it is a short story about a dream
of life on the moon. There is no mathematical content in
the actual story, but Kepler included voluminous notes, plus
a selenographical appendix, to go with the story, much of it
explicit (if elementary) astronomical calculations."
"Edward Rosen's translation (KEPLER'S SOMNIUM: THE DREAM OR
POSTHUMOUS WORK ON LUNAR ASTRONOMY, University of Wisconsin
Press, 1967) includes Kepler's notes, along with his own
extensive commentary and battery of appendices."
"Self-reference freaks will appreciate Kepler's footnote 5,
attached to the narrator's statement that his mother (the
witch whose occult powers got him to the moon, and thus not
to be trifled with) does not approve of him writing. There
is no footnote 5."
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