  Johannes Kepler described the Copernican universe as consisting of a central,
small, brilliant sun with its planetary system, all surrounded by giant stars.
These stars were far larger than, and much dimmer than, the sun -- his De
Stella Nova shows that every visible star must exceed the size of the Earth's
orbit, and the most prominent stars may exceed the size of the entire planetary
system. His other writings, including his response to Ingoli, his Dissertatio
cum Nuncio Sidereo, and his Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae, also reflect this
Copernican universe. To Kepler, such a universe was an illustration of divine
power -- and solid evidence against the stars being suns, against the universe
of Giordano Bruno. Kepler's starry universe was in fact the Copernican universe
supported by observations of the stars, which showed them to have measureable
apparent sizes. Not until the later seventeenth century were those apparent
sizes shown to be spurious, allowing for a universe in which the stars were
suns.
