Complete Collection of Kepler's Works. 387 



pose be not forestalled by other publications. This he did 

 not do; and to the edition of 1614 the editor appended the 

 tables which Ralph Handson had published in his translation 

 of the Trigonometry of Pitiscus (of the first edition of which 

 I have not found the date). The first sines actually published, 

 as far as I can find, were those at the end of Thomas Fale's 

 Horologiographia, first published in 1 593 ; they are to minutes, 

 with a radius of 100000. The first complete canon which I 

 can find is that of Blundeville, in his Exercises, first published 

 in 1597. They are taken from Clavius, and are to every 

 minute, with a radius of ten millions. These Exercises went 

 through seven editions at least, and were latterly corrected 

 from Pitiscus. John Speidell, well-known afterwards for his 

 logarithms, published a small table in 1609, to every ten mi- 

 nutes, and to a radius of 1000. Briggs began his calculation 

 of sines about 1600, in ignorance, we may suppose, of the ap- 

 pearance of the Opus Palatinum four years before. This is 

 all I have been able to find on the matter. 



There is a work expressly on the history of the trigonome- 

 trical canon, which is sometimes cited by foreign writers ; it 

 is by Frobesius, and was printed at Helmstadt about 1750; 

 but I cannot find any copy of this work in London. 



LXIII. Complete Collection of Kepler's Works. 

 By Dr. J. Lhotsky,* 



OROFESSOR Frisch of Stutgardt has recently published 

 % a programme of his intended collection of the works of 

 the great German astronomer and philosopher, which, like a 

 splendid luminary, will enliven the dim polygraphy of the pre- 

 sent age. Considering Kepler as the real founder of modern 

 astronomy, the collecting of his works (many of them very 

 rare) is a tribute most due to such great merit. Our present 

 epoch seems especially adapted to such an undertaking. Mo- 

 numents are everywhere raised to the honour and memory of 

 men who have deserved well of humanity or of their country, 

 in one or another department of human knowledge or enter- 

 prise. In following up the track marked out by Kepler in 

 astronomical science, a degree of accuracy and perspicuity has 

 been acquired, which is one of the proudest trophies of the 

 human mind. In such a time, it is impossible that the claims 

 and memory of Kepler could be kept in abeyance any longer. 

 He, the modest searcher and deep thinker, ought to obtain 

 his share of attention and general recognition, so long with- 



* Communicated by the Author. 



