The birth of modern science during the scientific revolution, from the 16th to the 18th century, marked the death of the physics and cosmology of Aristotle from Stagira (384–322 BC). Aristotelian views had dominated human thought for centuries, and familiarity with them is a prerequisite for understanding the principles of modern science.

This anthology of translated and annotated excerpts from Aristotle's treatises on physics and cosmology presents, in his own words, the general conceptual framework of his physics and his views on the composition and structure of the universe, the nature of heavenly bodies, the causes of their motions, as well as the relationship between the macrocosm and the microcosm.

The extensive introduction contains a detailed outline of Aristotelian physics and cosmology, and presents their roots in the thought of the 6th and 5th centuries BC. This edition is aimed at historians of science, philosophy, and ideas, classical philologists, as well as any reader interested in ancient Greek philosophy and science and the principles of modern science.

The series "Ancient Scientific Literature / Sources" hosts texts spanning the entire range of surviving Greek scientific literature from Antiquity to the Byzantine Period (mathematics, astronomy, natural philosophy and cosmology, medicine and pharmacology, botany and zoology, geography, mechanics, optics, harmony, etc.). The aim of the series is to offer the reader authoritative annotated translations of the texts into Modern Greek, based on the most reliable international critical editions.