1543 - Science

Science

Six Books Concenerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbits (De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium Libri VI) by astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus defy Church doctrine that the Earth is the center of the universe and establish the theory that the earth rotates daily on its axis and, with other planets, revolves in orbit around the sun (see Rheticus, 1540). The Christian Church continues to look askance at anything other than the geocentric Ptolemaic system that has been dogma for nearly 1400 years. Also Ptolemy's intricate geometric and trigonometric tables have made it difficult to calculate the dates of Easter and other Church holidays. Copernicus fills 95 percent of his book with technical information, but the clear and simple tables he presents make it much easier to calculate dates of holidays. He has not permitted his work to be published earlier, but his student Rheticus has persuaded him to complete it and has taken it to a Nuremberg printer. Copernicus corrects the proofs on his deathbed, and he dies of apoplexy and paralysis at Frauenburg, East Prussia, May 24 at age 70 just as the work is published. Copernicus's heliocentric principle was recognized in antiquity but is considered as revolutionary as his title (the word revolution will derive from his Revolutionibus) (see Tycho Brahe, 1572; 1576; Kepler, 1609; Galileo, 1613).

Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus said the Earth revolved about the sun, defying Church doctrine that insisted the opposite was true. (Reprinted from John Clark Ridpath, Cyclopedia of Universal History. Vol. 3. Ohio: The Jones Brothers Publishing Company, 1890.)