From Mica
The Beginnings of Sidereal Astronomy, Part II
a talk by Professor Giuseppe Longo, University of Napoli Federico II, Italy on October 2, 2010
This talk, which is the second in a series of three, described the most relevant developments which took place during the XVIII century and laid the foundations of modern sidereal astronomy.
Media
Slides (PDF Format)
Audio recording
The book he recommended at the very end was: The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy, Michael Hoskin (Editor).