On the Shoulders of Giants

It took centuries and the courage of several scientists to provide correct answers to fundamental questions about the Universe. Nicolaus Copernicus in the treatise «On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres», Galileo Galilei in «Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems», Johannes Kepler in «Harmony of the World», Isaac Newton in «Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy», and Albert Einstein in his numerous articles on the principle of relativity opened the eyes of contemporaries to how the celestial sphere is structured and what happens beyond the visibility of the telescope. It is these works and ideas that changed the direction of scientific thought, while earlier works marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity.
Excerpts from original texts are supplemented with comments by Stephen Hawking, who also composed a biographical sketch for each of the authors, so that the reader can trace the global evolution of astrophysical views and the thought processes of individual geniuses.