Reading Classics, Chronologically Through the Ages discussion

“Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) was a mathematician and astronomer who proposed that the sun was stationary in the center of the universe and the earth revolved around it. Disturbed by the failure of Ptolemy's geocentric model of the universe to follow Aristotle's requirement for the uniform circular motion of all celestial bodies and determined to eliminate Ptolemy's equant, an imaginary point around which the bodies seemed to follow that requirement, Copernicus decided that he could achieve his goal only through a heliocentric model. He thereby created a concept of a universe in which the distances of the planets from the sun bore a direct relationship to the size of their orbits. At the time Copernicus's heliocentric idea was very controversial; nevertheless, it was the start of a change in the way the world was viewed, and Copernicus came to be seen as the initiator of the Scientific Revolution.” Source

Commentariolus was a small manuscript, written as an introduction to Copernicus’s ideas. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the source of the quote above, is a great overview of the life of Copernicus, and his ideas and writing.

Given that this is not his most famous work, it might be a little difficult to find. If you’re having trouble obtaining a copy, please send me a message.

The most interesting thing I found about this essay was the reason Copernicus is famous: he was the first to place the sun, rather than the earth, at the center of the universe. The leads to the logical conclusion that the earth is in motion.

Moments show a bit of Copernicus's pride. I can hear the eye roll when he says, "For the principle arguments by which the natural philosophers attempt to establish the immobility of the earth rest for the most part on the appearances. It is particularly such arguments that collapse here." Or the bit of self-congratulations behind his claim. "Yet Mercury too will be understood, if a person of unusual talent attack the problem."

He ends with the phrase "ballet of the planets" which I find beautiful and poetic, even if, in the first part of the sentence, he claims to have explained the entire structure of the universe. There was so much he did not know, and there is so much we don't know, too.