| Preface | |
| Short Biography of O. von Guericke | |
| The System of the World, According to the More Common Philosophical Theories | |
| What the World Is, or What Is Usually Understood by the Term, World | p. 1 |
| The Motion of Stars, the Wanderers or Planets, as well as the Stationary or Fixed Stars | p. 5 |
| The Two Systems of the Ancients: That Based upon the Presumed Inactivity of the Earth and That Based upon Its Movement | p. 7 |
| A Brief Resume of the System of the World Based upon Ptolemy's Theory of the Immovability of the Earth | p. 9 |
| A Revised Pythagorean System of the World Wherein, According to Copernicus, the Sun Is Held To Be in Its Center | p. 12 |
| The Daily and Annual Movement of the Earth According to Copernicus | p. 14 |
| Objections of the Astronomers and Natural Philosophers to the Copernican System | p. 15 |
| Objections to the Copernican Theory from the Sacred Scriptures and their Refutations | p. 17 |
| The World System According to Tycho Brahe, the Noble Dane. He Assigns the Earth to the Center of the World and the Sun to the Center of the Planets Which Revolve around It (with the Exception of the Moon) | p. 26 |
| Another System Wherein the Earth Is Situated in the Center of the World and Moves about Its own Axis in the Space of Twenty-four Hours | p. 29 |
| The Corrected and Improved Copernican Theory of the World | p. 31 |
| The Sun | p. 31 |
| The Sun Spots | p. 32 |
| Mercury | p. 34 |
| Venus | p. 35 |
| The Earth and the Moon | p. 36 |
| Mars | p. 36 |
| Jupiter | p. 39 |
| Saturn and Planets in General | p. 40 |
| A General Discussion of the Distances of the Stars | p. 41 |
| The Distance of the Moon from the Center of the Earth | p. 45 |
| The Size of the Moon | p. 47 |
| The Distance of the Sun from the Earth | p. 48 |
| The Size of the Sun | p. 52 |
| The Distances of the Planets from the Earth and their Magnitudes | p. 55 |
| The Height or Distance of the Fixed Stars from our Earth, According to the Followers of Ptolemy and Aristotle | p. 57 |
| The Height or Distance of the Fixed Stars from the Earth According to the Followers of Tycho | p. 59 |
| The Distance of the Stars According to the Followers of Pythagoras or Copernicus Who Locate the Sun in the Center of the World | p. 61 |
| The Number of Fixed Stars and the Revelations of Telescopes in this Century as to their Great Extent | p. 64 |
| The Magnitude of the Fixed Stars | p. 66 |
| Heaven or the Heavens as well as the Atmosphere and Celestial Matter | p. 68 |
| The Firmament and the Waters above It. According to the Sacred Scriptures | p. 72 |
| The Empyrean Heaven | p. 74 |
| Are there any other Worlds Beyond This of Ours, and if there Are, Can They be Counted, or Are They Uncountable? | p. 77 |
| Imaginary Space Outside the World | p. 78 |
| Empty Space | |
| Why the Author Was Led to Investigate the Vacuum | p. 83 |
| Space and Time | p. 84 |
| Empty Space | p. 86 |
| Space | p. 89 |
| The Space Existing between the Earth Bodies Is Commonly Called Sky | p. 91 |
| Is Space, The Universal Container of All Things, Finite or Infinite? | p. 93 |
| That Which Is and That Which Is Said not to Be | p. 97 |
| Is Space, the Universal Container of All Things, Created, or Uncreated? | p. 99 |
| Infinity, Immensity, and Eternity | p. 102 |
| Numbers | p. 104 |
| The Heaven Which Is Called the Abode of the Blessed | p. 107 |
| The Greatest and the Smallest | p. 109 |
| Individual Experiments | |
| Concerning the Origin, Nature, and Characteristics of Air | p. 111 |
| The First Vacuum Experiment Performed through the Extraction of Water | p. 114 |
| The Second Vacuum Experiment Performed through the Extraction of Air | p. 115 |
| The Construction of a Special Type of Apparatus for Producing a Vacuum | p. 117 |
| The Third Experiment Demonstrating a Vacuum | p. 120 |
| The Fourth Experiment: the Production of a Vacuum through the Extraction of Water from a Glass Vessel | p. 121 |
| A Fifth and More Accurate Method of Producing a Vacuum | p. 123 |
| The Sixth Experiment to Obtain the Best Possible Vacuum | p. 125 |
| Does a Vacuum Exist in Nature, or Not? | p. 130 |
| Experiments Concerned with Exhalation and Fermentation | p. 134 |
| The Experiment in Which Clouds and Wind and the Colors of the Rainbow Can Be Produced in Glasses | p. 135 |
| Fire in a Vacuum | p. 138 |
| An Experiment in Which Air Is Consumed by Fire | p. 139 |
| Light in a Vacuum | p. 140 |
| Sound in a Vacuum | p. 141 |
| Experiments Performed with Animals in a Vacuum | p. 143 |
| The Construction of a Kind of Hydraulic-pneumatic Apparatus Which Can Be Used not only for Carrying out Numerous Experiments but also Used as a Source of Mental Recreation and Study | p. 144 |
| The Use and Operation of the Aforementioned Apparatus | p. 145 |
| A New Discovery through the Use of this Apparatus Which Indicates the Weight of the Atmosphere | p. 149 |
| Other Experiments of this Kind Which Demonstrate the Weight of the Atmosphere as well as the Limit to Which Aversion of a Vacuum Extends | p. 151 |
| Concerning the Weight of Air | p. 155 |
| How to Determine the Pressure that a Cylinder of Air of any Given Circumference Exerts | p. 157 |
| The Experiment Demonstrating that as a Result of Air Pressure, Two Hemispheres Can Be Joined Together in Such a Way that They Cannot Be Separated by Sixteen Horses | p. 160 |
| A Further Experiment Wherein the Hemispheres Which Could not Be Drawn Apart by Twenty-four Horses Are Separated by the Admission of Air | p. 163 |
| Another Experiment Wherein It Is Shown that the Aforementioned Hemispheres Can Be Separated by a Weight | p. 165 |
| Another Experiment Demonstrating that All Vessels Can Be Compressed and Broken by Air Pressure | p. 167 |
| A Glass Vessel Which Can Forcibly Pull More than Twenty, indeed Fifty or More Strong Men | p. 168 |
| An Experiment to Raise a Great Weight | p. 171 |
| An Experiment Employing a New and Heretofore Untested Airgun | p. 172 |
| Experiments Which Show how Air Pressure Varies at Different Altitudes | p. 174 |
| Experiments Showing how Air Pressure Fluctuates According to the Weather | p. 176 |
| The Cause of Suction | p. 177 |
| Experiments Concerned with the Expansion and Condensation or Compression of Air | p. 178 |
| An Experiment Demonstrating Proof of a Vacuum through the Descent of Mercury in a Glass Tube Sealed at the Top | p. 181 |
| Common Objections to the Existence of a Vacuum and their Refutation | p. 183 |
| The Opinions of the Reverend Kircher and Zucchi at Rome, as well as Father Cornaeus, Professor at the University of Wurtzburg, Concerning the Magdeburg Experiments | p. 187 |
| A New Thermometer, so-called Magdeburg | p. 189 |
| Mundane Virtues and Other Allied Subjects | |
| A General Discussion of Mundane Virtues | p. 193 |
| The Incorporeal Impulsive Virtue of the Earth | p. 195 |
| The Nature and Characteristics of the Impulsive Virtue | p. 198 |
| Experiment with a Globe Freely Suspended in Water | p. 202 |
| The Conserving Virtue of the Earth | p. 204 |
| The Expulsive Virtue of the Earth | p. 206 |
| The Directing Virtue of the Earth | p. 208 |
| The Difference between the Conserving and Directing Virtue of the Earth | p. 211 |
| The Turning Virtue | p. 212 |
| The Sound-producing and Echo-producing Virtue | p. 213 |
| The Heat-producing Virtue | p. 218 |
| The Light-producing and Coloring Virtue | p. 219 |
| The Nature and Characteristics of Vision | p. 222 |
| The Difference in Appearance between Stars at Greater and Lesser Distances | p. 224 |
| The Experiment Wherein these Aforementioned Important Virtues Can Be Excited through Rubbing on a Sulphur Globe | p. 227 |
| Other Corporeal and Incorporeal Virtues | p. 232 |
| The Sphere of Land and Sea and Its Companion, the Moon | |
| The Sphere of Land and Sea, or the Earth, and Its Size | p. 235 |
| The Size of our Sphere of Land and Sea Relative to the Planetary System | p. 237 |
| The Earth Is Composed of an Infinite Variety of Things both Externally and Internally | p. 238 |
| The Earth Spirit | p. 242 |
| The Sea and Its Tides | p. 244 |
| The Air Surrounding the Earth and the Elementary Fire, that Has Been Postulated | p. 247 |
| The Height of the Air around the Earth | p. 249 |
| An Observation Made in the Carpathian Mountains in Hungary by David Frolich Which Seems to Make a Significant Contribution to the Existing Opinion about the Height of Perceptible Air and Stratification | p. 250 |
| The Stratification of the Atmosphere | p. 252 |
| The Refraction of Air and the Consequent Difference in the Appearance of Stars, both as to their Location and Size | p. 254 |
| The Eccentricity of the Sun and Moon | p. 257 |
| The Motion or Circulation of the Air | p. 260 |
| The Sphere of Earth and Water Does not Lie at Rest in the Air | p. 261 |
| The Sphere of Earth and Water Is not in the Center of the World | p. 263 |
| The Rotation of the Earth | p. 266 |
| "Latio" or the Forward Motion of the Earth | p. 268 |
| The Moon | p. 272 |
| The Appearance of the Moon and Its Spots | p. 274 |
| The Forward Motion of the Moon | p. 276 |
| The Moon's Motion | p. 277 |
| The Conjunction and Comparison of the Moon with our Sphere of Earth | p. 278 |
| The Distance and Size of the Moon | p. 280 |
| Are There or Are There not Animals on the Moon? | p. 282 |
| Eclipses | p. 283 |
| The Destruction of the Earth | p. 285 |
| Appendix to this Fifth Book. Comets | p. 287 |
| Our Planetary System | |
| The World, What It Is, and What Is Included in the Term, in this Treatise | p. 309 |
| In What Sense the World Is One Body and Why It Should Be Termed a Unity | p. 311 |
| The Forward Motion of the World | p. 312 |
| The Peripatetic Concept of the World | p. 314 |
| The Motion of the World According to the Followers of Tycho | p. 315 |
| The Movement of the World as Set Forth by the Author and in Part by Certain other Writers | p. 316 |
| The Earth Bodies | p. 318 |
| The Sun | p. 319 |
| The Size of the Sun and Its Distance from the Earth | p. 322 |
| The Wandering Stars or Planets | p. 327 |
| The Forward Motion of the Planets | p. 329 |
| Planetary Motion | p. 331 |
| The Distance of the Planets | p. 331 |
| The Size of the Planets | p. 334 |
| Are there Animals on the Planets? | p. 335 |
| The True System of the World | p. 341 |
| The Boundaries of our World | p. 345 |
| The Fixed Stars and the Boundary Which Confines Them | |
| The Distance of the Fixed Stars from our Earth or rather from the Sun | p. 351 |
| The Size and Number of the Stars | p. 357 |
| The Fixed Stars and What They really Are | p. 361 |
| Father Kircher's Opinions concerning the Fixed Stars along with our own Remarks | p. 365 |
| The Limit or Outermost Boundary of the Stars | p. 382 |
| Index of Subjects | p. 389 |
| Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved. |
