Nova Stereometria dolorium vinariorum / New solid geometry of Wine Barrels Suivi de Accessit stereometriæ archimedeæ svpplementvm / A supplement to the archimedean solid Geometry has been added - Joha

Johannes Kepler (Weil der Stadt, 1571-Regensburg, 1630) is the famous astronomer and mathematician who discovered the three planetary laws named after him. In 1615 he published the Nova stereometria doliorum vinariorum // New solid geometry of wine barrels, his most important mathematical monograph. It made him a precursor of infinitesimal mathematics. He himself told the reader in the dedication to his two patrons that his second marriage caused him to write this mathematical treatise. When he stocked up with wine barrels in his capacity as head of a new family he was astonished at the way in which the seller used the gauging rod. The man explored all wine barrels with one and the same rod indifferently without paying heed to the shape, and without ratiocination or calculation.Hence Kepler felt obliged to try to lay down, according to geometrical laws, a new foundation for the mathematical certainty of this measurement and to bring to light its fundamentals, if there should be any. To