Sky's Dark Labyrinth (34 page)

This is a story based on truth. As such, bringing it to life would have been impossible without the existing manuscripts of the astronomers involved and rendered far more difficult without the extraordinary efforts of the numerous historians and writers who have previously published non-fiction accounts of these various stories and people.

There are some wonderful biographical examinations of these
characters
in print, and if I have piqued your curiosity about the characters in this book at all, then I encourage you to progress to these other books, and decide for yourself whether you agree with my
interpretation
of events and personalities.

Two books particularly spring to mind because they not only paint the people so well but also the times in which they lived: Dava Sobel's
Galileo's Daughter
and James A. Conner's
Kepler's Witch
. Other sources of mine include
Kepler
by Max Caspar,
On Tycho's Island
by John Robert Christianson,
The Sleepwalkers
by Arthur Koestler,
Galileo, Bellarmine and the Bible
by Richard J. Blackwell,
The First Copernican
by Dennis Danielson,
The Mercurial Emperor: The Magic Circle of Rudolf II in Renaissance Prague
by Peter Marshall,
Copernicus and His Successors
by Edward Rosen,
Astronomies and Cultures in Early Medieval Europe
by Stephen C. McCluskey,
Tycho Brahe: A Picture of Scientific Life and Work in the Sixteenth Century
and
A History of Astronomy from Thales to Kepler
by J.L.E. Dreyer,
Science and Civic Life in the Italian Renaissance
by Eugenio Garin and
The Galileo Affair
, edited by Maurice A. Finocchiaro.

Then, of course, there are the books by the great men themselves:
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
by Galileo Galilei,
Mysterium Cosmigraphicum, Astronomia Nova, Harmonices Mundi, Somnium
and
Epitome Astronomia Copernicanae
by Johannes Kepler.

I have made a few, hopefully acceptable, changes to the chronology in order to fashion this story into fiction but in spirit I believe I have
remained true to the people, the science and the events. There is only one main character in this book who is entirely fictitious. That
character
is Pippe.

Then there are my heartfelt thanks to the people who have believed in this project and been involved in bringing it to fruition: Peter Tallack, Duran Kim, Neville Moir, Caroline Oakley, Hamish Macaskill, Maria White, Alison Rae, Jan Rutherford, Brenda Conway, Alison Boyle, Nic Cheetham, Ruth Seeley and Kim McArthur.

And of course, Nicola Clark, my wife and invaluable assistant.