Title page and dedication of Kepler's Opera Omnia, edited by Frisch

What it is

This is the title page and dedication of volume 1 of the collected works of Johannes Kepler, titled Joannis Kepleri Astronomi Opera Omnia. The title page says it was edited by Ch. Frisch and printed in Frankfurt am Main and Erlangen by Heyder & Zimmer in 1858. The facing page carries a Latin dedication to Emperor Maximilian II, signed by the editor Christianus Frisch. The Commons record for the scan credits Hans-Joachim Albinus. The image is a scan of a printed book, not Kepler's own manuscript.

Why it matters

Kepler's major works were printed and reprinted over centuries, and this nineteenth-century edition gathered them into one set. The dedication names Maximilian II, the ruler under whom Kepler worked as imperial mathematician. It shows how later scholars chose to present Kepler, and how an editor could address a long-dead emperor in Latin in 1858.

Look closer

• What does the title page emphasise about Kepler, and what does it leave out?
• Why might an editor in 1858 dedicate a edition of Kepler's works to a sixteenth-century emperor?
• How does this printed edition differ from reading Kepler's original texts?