INTRODUCTION
Man and the stars
SECTION I
The dawn of astronomy: Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Biblical Cosmos
SECTION II
The cosmos becomes a sphere
SECTION III
The geometry of the cosmos
SECTION IV
The skies of Islam
SECTION V
Evangelisation of the cosmos
SECTION VI
The Renaissance of Astronomy
SECTION VII
Galileo: the cosmos through the telescope
SECTION VIII
From Galileo to Newton
Star myths
Philosophers and the cosmos
The precession of the equinoxes
Aratus’
Phænomena
The Antikythera mechanism
Massimo Mogi Vicentini after the mechanical model by Michael T. Wright