For two millennia the geocentric model of the universe, best expressed by the ancient astronomer Ptolemy in his treatise – the Almagest – existed in a balanced equilibrium of interlocking celestial spheres and interlocutory terrestrial arguments. The Platonic dogma was that ideal motion was uniform and circular.
In the 16th century this ancient and erroneous model slowly became unhinged, with the presentation and eventual success of a revised heliocentric model.
The book that presented a heliocentric or sun centred model of the solar system was de Revolutionibus written by a shy and unassuming Polish Cleric and published in Nuremberg in 1543 in the month of his death.
What we now consider the Copernican heliocentric model of the universe is a refinement of the hypothesis first proposed around 1508 and later delineated in his book published in 1543 by the Polish cleric Mikolaj Kopernik, (1473 – 1543), known today by his Latin name Nicholas Copernicus.
Many myth surrounds the work of Copernicus, partly because of a misinterpretation of the title of his book of 1543 – de Revolutionibus – and partly because of lack of good scholarship and the personal agendas of writers on the subject.
The title describes the orbit of the planets and nothing more.
In the 16th century this ancient and erroneous model slowly became unhinged, with the presentation and eventual success of a revised heliocentric model.
The book that presented a heliocentric or sun centred model of the solar system was de Revolutionibus written by a shy and unassuming Polish Cleric and published in Nuremberg in 1543 in the month of his death.
What we now consider the Copernican heliocentric model of the universe is a refinement of the hypothesis first proposed around 1508 and later delineated in his book published in 1543 by the Polish cleric Mikolaj Kopernik, (1473 – 1543), known today by his Latin name Nicholas Copernicus.
Many myth surrounds the work of Copernicus, partly because of a misinterpretation of the title of his book of 1543 – de Revolutionibus – and partly because of lack of good scholarship and the personal agendas of writers on the subject.
The title describes the orbit of the planets and nothing more.
