Astronomia reformanda

Astronomiae ad lumen physicum reformandae synopsis: novis non ad placitum fictis, sed veris et realibus, e coeli natura desumptis hypothesibus superstruenda

A overview of astronomy, how it must be reformed in the light of physics, and built anew, not of diverse opinions but regularly and realistically, from the nature of the heavens deduced from hypotheses

Origin of the work:
  1632 Leszno

Editions:
  An unpublished treatise, now lost

Contents:

This was a short work based on natural scientific hypotheses valid from the Middle Ages until the time of Copernicus.

In addition to the Physics (the Physica), Comenius also put together a textbook on astronomy. As he wrote to his friend Jan Mochinger in 1633, it was a straightforward piece, so simply phrased that a student merely reading through it would understand heavenly phenomena even without the assistance of a teacher. It was based on geocentric theory, and opposed the new heliocentric opinions advanced by Copernicus in his De revolutionibus orbium caelestium (On the Revolutions of the Orbs of the World). The book was not published, because Filip Lansberg, to whom it was dedicated, had died in the meantime, and duty called Comenius to other things.

For further study, see also:

J. A. Komenský, Letter to Jan Mochinger, 1633, in: Adolf Patera, J. A. Komenského korrespondence. Prague 1892, p18

J. V. Novák & J. Hendrich, Jan Amos Komenský, jeho život a spisy. Prague 1932, pp679-680