On the shoulders of giants

To give correct answers to fundamental questions about the universe, it took centuries and the courage of several scientists. Nikolai Copernicus in the treatise "On the rotation of the heavenly spheres", Galileo Galileo in the dialogue about the two main systems of the world, Johann Kepler in the Harmony of the World, Isaac Newton in the "mathematical principles of natural philosophy" and Albert Einstein in his many articles about the principle of relativity The eyes opened to contemporaries to how the heavenly arch is arranged and what happens outside the visibility of the telescope. It was these works and these ideas that changed the direction of scientific thought, and the earlier ones marked the transition from the Middle Ages to the present.
Excerpts from original texts were supplemented by comments by Stephen Hawking, which also made up a biographical essay for each of the authors so that the reader can trace The global evolution of astrophysical views and the course of thoughts of private genius