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Precursors of Copernicus' heliocentric theory


In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus published a book arguing that the Earth revolves around the Sun: De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. This is sometimes painted as a sudden triumph of rationality over …

If anyone seizes this opportunity to link Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars also to that center, provided he understands their spheres to be so large that together with Venus and Mercury the earth too is enclosed inside and encircled, he will not be mistaken, as is shown by the regular pattern of their motions. But since such things could not be comprehended except by a keen intellect and continuing diligence, Plato does not conceal the fact that there were very few philosophers in that time who mastered the study of celestial motions. • Mariken Teeuwen and Sínead O’Sullivan, eds., Carolingian Scholarship and Martianus Capella: Ninth-Century Commentary Traditions on De nuptiis in Context, The Medieval Review (2012).

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