The gradual acceptance of the Copernican theory of the universe Part 3

At this period the professor of astronomy at Bologna was the famous teacher Dominicus Maria di Novara (1454-1504), a man "ingenio et animo liber" who dared to attack the immutability of the Ptolemaic system, since his own observations, especially of the Pole Star, differed by a degree and more from the traditional ones.[85] He dared to criticise the long accepted system and to emphasize the Pythagorean notion of the underlying harmony and simplicity in nature[86]; and from him Copernicus may have acquired these ideas, for whether they lived together or not in Bologna, they were closely a.s.sociated. It was here, too, that Copernicus began his study of Greek which later was to be the means[87] of encouraging him in his own theorizing by acquainting him with the ancients who had thought along similar lines.

[Footnote 85: Ibid: I, 240 and note. Little is known about him today, except that he was primarily an observer, and was highly esteemed by his immediate successors; see Gilbert: _De Magnete_.]

[Footnote 86: Clerke in _Ency. Brit._, "Novara."]

[Footnote 87: Prowe: I, 249.]

In the spring of the year (1501) following his visit to Rome,[88]

Copernicus returned to the Chapter at Frauenburg to get further leave of absence to study medicine at the University of Padua.[89] Whether he received a degree at Padua or not and how long he stayed there are uncertain points.[90] He was back in Ermeland early in 1506.

[Footnote 88: Prowe: I, 279.]

[Footnote 89: Ibid, 294.]

[Footnote 90: Ibid: I, 319.]

His student days were ended. And now for many years he led a very active life, first as companion and a.s.sistant to his uncle the Bishop, with whom he stayed at Schloss Heilsberg till after the Bishop's death in 1512; then as one of the leading canons of the chapter at Frauenburg, where he lived most of the rest of his life.[91] As the chapter representative for five years (at intervals) he had oversight of the spiritual and temporal affairs of two large districts in the care of the chapter.[92] He went on various diplomatic and other missions to the King of Poland,[93] to Duke Albrecht of the Teutonic Order,[94] and to the councils of the German states.[95] He wrote a paper of considerable weight upon the much needed reform of the Prussian currency.[96] His skill as a physician was in demand not only in his immediate circle[97] but in adjoining countries, Duke Albrecht once summoning him to Konigsberg to attend one of his courtiers.[98]

He was a humanist as well as a Catholic Churchman, and though he did not approve of the Protestant Revolt, he favored reform and toleration.[99] Ga.s.sendi claims that he was also a painter, at least in his student days, and that he painted portraits well received by his contemporaries.[100] But his interest and skill in astronomy must have been recognized early in his life for in 1514 the committee of the Lateran Council in charge of the reform of the calendar summoned him to their aid.[101]

[Footnote 91: Prowe: I, 335-380.]

[Footnote 92: Ibid: II, 75-110, 116, 124.]

[Footnote 93: Ibid: II, 204-8.]

[Footnote 94: Ibid: II, 110.]

[Footnote 95: Ibid: II, 144.]

[Footnote 96: Ibid: II, 146.]

[Footnote 97: Ibid: II, 293-319.]

[Footnote 98: Ibid: II, 464-472.]

[Footnote 99: Ibid: II, 170-187.]

[Footnote 100: Holden in _Pop. Sci._, 109.]

[Footnote 101: Prowe: II, 67-70.]

He was no cloistered monk devoting all his time to the study of the heavens, but a cultivated man of affairs, of recognized ability in business and statesmanship, and a leader among his fellow canons. His mathematical and astronomical pursuits were the occupations of his somewhat rare leisure moments, except perhaps during the six years with his uncle in the comparative freedom of the bishop's castle, and during the last ten or twelve years of his life, after his request for a coadjutor had resulted in lightening his duties. In his masterwork _De Revolutionibus_[102] there are recorded only 27 of his own astronomical observations, and these extend over the years from 1497 to 1529. The first was made at Bologna, the second at Rome in 1500, and seven of the others at Frauenburg, where the rest were also probably made. It is believed the greater part of the _De Revolutionibus_ was written at Heilsburg[103] where Copernicus was free from his chapter duties, for as he himself says[104] in the Dedication to the Pope (dated 1543) his work had been formulated not merely nine years but for "more than three nines of years." It had not been neglected all this time, however, as the original MS. (now in the Prague Library) with its innumerable changes and corrections shows how continually he worked over it, altering and correcting the tables and verifying his statements.[105]

[Footnote 102: Copernicus: _De Revolutionibus_, Thorn edit., 444. The last two words of the full t.i.tle: _De Revolutionibus...o...b..um Coelestium_ are not on the original MS. and are believed to have been added by Osiander. Prowe: II, 541, note.]

[Footnote 103: Ibid: II, 490-1.]

[Footnote 104: Copernicus: Dedication, 4. (Thorn edit.)]

[Footnote 105: Prowe: II, 503-508.]

Copernicus was a philosopher.[106] He thought out a new explanation of the world machine with relatively little practical work of his own,[107] though we know he controlled his results by the acc.u.mulated observations of the ages.[108] His instruments were inadequate, inaccurate and out of date even in his time, for much better ones were then being made at Nurnberg[109]; and the cloudy climate of Ermeland as well as his own active career prevented him from the long-continued, painstaking observing, which men like Tycho Brahe were to carry on later. Despite such handicaps, because of his dissatisfaction with the complexities and intricacies of the Ptolemaic system and because of his conviction that the laws of nature were simple and harmonious, Copernicus searched the writings of the cla.s.sic philosophers, as he himself tells us,[110] to see what other explanation of the universe had been suggested. "And I found first in Cicero that a certain Nicetas had thought the earth moved. Later in Plutarch I found certain others had been of the same opinion." He quoted the Greek referring to Philolaus the Pythagorean, Heraclides of Pontus, and Ecphantes the Pythagorean.[111] As a result he began to consider the mobility of the earth and found that such an explanation seemingly solved many astronomical problems with a simplicity and a harmony utterly lacking in the old traditional scheme. Unaided by a telescope, he worked out in part the right theory of the universe and for the first time in history placed all the then known planets in their true positions with the sun at the center. He claimed that the earth turns on its axis as it travels around the sun, and careens slowly as it goes, thus by these three motions explaining many of the apparent movements of the sun and the planets. He retained,[112]

however, the immobile heaven of the fixed stars (though vastly farther off in order to account for the non-observance of any stellar parallax[113]), the "perfect" and therefore circular orbits of the planets, certain of the old eccentrics, and 34 new epicycles in place of all the old ones which he had cast aside.[114] He accepted the false notion of trepidation enunciated by the Arabs in the 9th century and later overthrown by Tycho Brahe.[115] His calculations were weak.[116] But his great book is a sane and modern work in an age of astrology and superst.i.tion.[117] His theory is a triumph of reason and imagination and with its almost complete independence of authority is perhaps as original a work as an human being may be expected to produce.

[Footnote 106: Ibid: II, 64.]

[Footnote 107: Ibid: II, 58-9.]

[Footnote 108: Rheticus: _Narratio Prima_.]

[Footnote 109: Prowe: II, 56.]

[Footnote 110: Copernicus: Dedication, 5-6. See Appendix B.]

[Footnote 111: For a translation of this dedication in full, see Appendix B.

In the original MS. occurs a reference (struck out) to Aristarchus of Samos as holding the theory of the earth's motion. (Prowe: II, 507, note.) The finding of this pa.s.sage proves that Copernicus had at least heard of Aristarchus, but his apparent indifference is the more strange since an account of his teaching occurs in the same book of Plutarch from which Copernicus learned about Philolaus. But the chief source of our knowledge about Aristarchus is through Archimedes, and the editio princeps of his works did not appear till 1544, a year after the death of Copernicus. C.R. Eastman in _Pop. Sci._ 68:325.]

[Footnote 112: Delambre: _Astr. Mod._ pp. xi-xii.]

[Footnote 113: As the earth moves, the position in the heavens of a fixed star seen from the earth should differ slightly from its position observed six months later when the earth is on the opposite side of its...o...b..t. The distance to the fixed stars is so vast, however, that this final proof of the earth's motion was not attained till 1838 when Bessel (1784-1846) observed stellar parallax from Konigsberg. Berry: 123-24.]

[Footnote 114: _Commentariolus_ in Prowe: III, 202.]

[Footnote 115: Holden in _Pop. Sci._, 117.]

[Footnote 116: Delambre: _Astr. Mod._, p. xi.]

[Footnote 117: Snyder: 165.]

Copernicus was extremely reluctant to publish his book because of the misunderstandings and malicious attacks it would unquestionably arouse.[118] Possibly, too, he was thinking of the hostility already existing between himself and his Bishop, Dantiscus,[119] whom he did not wish to antagonize further. But his devoted pupil and friend, Rheticus, aided by Tiedeman Giese, Bishop of Culm and a lifelong friend, at length (1542) persuaded him.[120] So he entrusted the matter to Giese who pa.s.sed it on to Rheticus, then connected with the University at Wittenberg as professor of mathematics.[121] Rheticus, securing leave of absence from Melancthon his superior, went to Nurnberg to supervise the printing.[122] This was done by Petrejus.

Upon his return to Wittenberg, Rheticus left in charge Johann Schoner, a famous mathematician and astronomer, and Andreas Osiander, a Lutheran preacher interested in astronomy. The printed book[123] was placed in Copernicus's hands at Frauenburg on May 24th, 1543, as he lay dying of paralysis.[124]

[Footnote 118: Copernicus: Dedication, 3.]

[Footnote 119: Prowe: II, 362-7.]

[Footnote 120: Ibid: II, 406.]

[Footnote 121: Ibid: II, 501.]

[Footnote 122: Ibid: II, 517-20.]

[Footnote 123: Four other editions have since appeared; at Basel, 1566, Amsterdam 1617, Warsaw 1847, and Thorn 1873. For further details, see Prowe: II, 543-7, and Thorn edition pp. xii-xx. The edition cited in this study is the Thorn one of 1873.]

[Footnote 124: Prowe: II, 553-4.]

Copernicus pa.s.sed away that day in ignorance that his life's work appeared before the world not as a truth but as an hypothesis; for there had been inserted an anonymous preface "ad lectorem de hypothesibus huius opera" stating this was but another hypothesis for the greater convenience of astronomers.[125] "Neque enim necesse est eas hypotheses esse veras, imo ne verisimiles quidem, sed sufficit hoc unum, si calculum observationibus congruentem exhibeant."[126] For years Copernicus was thought to have written this preface to disarm criticism. Kepler sixty years later (1601) called attention to this error,[127] and quoted Osiander's letters to Copernicus and to Rheticus of May, 1541, suggesting that the system be called an hypothesis to avert attacks by theologians and Aristotelians. He claimed that Osiander had written the preface; but Kepler's article never was finished and remained unpublished till 1858.[128] Giese and Rheticus of course knew that the preface falsified Copernicus's work, and Giese, highly indignant at the "impiety" of the printer (who he thought had written it to save himself from blame) wrote Rheticus urging him to write another "praefatiunculus" purging the book of this falsehood.[129] This letter is dated July 26, 1543, and the book had appeared in April. Apparently nothing was done and the preface was accepted without further challenge.