Strena Seu de Nive Sexangula, On the Six Cornered Snowflake, Johannes Kepler's 1611 primary text from Godfrey Tampach, Frankfurt, confirmed against multiple independent rare book and bibliographic listings agreeing on publisher, place and year, is the first scientific treatise on crystallography, written as a New Year's gift for Kepler's friend at court, Matthaus Wackher von Wackenfels. Its strength is that it is the founding primary text of the field, in Kepler's own hand. Its limit is that it is a short occasional tract posing the question of six sided symmetry rather than a developed modern explanation of it; readers wanting that explanation should look to later crystallography.
Facts
Citation
AuthorJohannes Kepler
PublisherGodfrey Tampach
Apud Godefridum Tampach, Frankfurt am Main, 1611 first edition, per Sophia Rare Books and Heritage Auctions cataloguing of surviving copies. Publication Year1611
Source Typeprimary-text
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
Reliability tier 1: the founding primary text of its field, confirmed against multiple independent bibliographic listings, a short occasional tract rather than a developed modern explanation. NotesJohannes Kepler's own treatise on the six-cornered snowflake, 1611.
Claims Backed By This Source (9 claims)
This source backs 9 claims across the atlas. As facts: 7 well-attested, 1 partially Attested. Plus 1 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Sources, 7 claims: 7 well-attested.
- Articles, 1 claims: 1 partially Attested.
- Sacred Geometry, 1 claims: 1 general references.
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