Heaven on Earth connects the lives of Nicolaus Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, and Galileo Galilei, juxtaposing their scientific work with insight into their personal lives and political considerations, to show how their intergenerational collaboration made the scientific revolution possible.
...readers ought to continue on to the footnotes to get a full sense of how much the author, who translated many of the original sources, enjoys this material ...Fauber’s chronicling of these four astronomers’ scientific advances and their surrounding intrigues is lively and unfailingly fascinating, down to the footnotes.
The writing is sometimes a touch too casual—Galileo, writes the author, was born 'too early to see the lax republican model of Venetian government spread over Europe like jam on toast'—but the story is seldom less than fascinating ... A readable, enjoyable contribution to the history of science.
Fauber,...seamlessly merges biography, history, and science in this amazing look at the four 16th-century astronomers whose work revealed the heliocentric solar system ... In addition to these four figures, Fauber brings 16th-century Europe—when plagues scoured the populace, religious controversies could get one burned at the stake, and a wealthy patron made the difference between success and anonymity—to life. Rich with detail, this is an extraordinary saga of stubborn scientific curiosity, and of the first inklings of this planet’s true place in the universe.
