This letter is dated 1536, and implies that the work of Copernicus. was then written, and known to persons who studied astronomy. Delambre says that Achilles Gassarus of Lindau, in a letter dated 1540, sends to his friend George Vogelin of Constance, the book De Revolutionibus. But Mr. De Morgan' has pointed out that the printed work which Gassarus sent to Vogelin was the Narratio by Rheticus of Feldkirch, a eulogium of Copernicus and his system prefixed to the second edition of the De Revolutionibus, which appeared in 1566. In this Narration, Rheticus speaks of the work of Copernicus as a Palingenesia, or New Birth of astronomy. Rheticus, it appears, had gone to Copernicus for the purpose of getting knowledge about triangles and trigonometrical tables, and had had his attention called to the heliocentric theory, of which he became an ardent admirer. He speaks of his "Preceptor" with strong admiration, as we have scen. "He appears to me," says he, "more to resemble Ptolemy than any other astronomers." This, it must be recollected, was selecting the highest known subject of comparison. 66 CHAPTER III. Sequel to COPERNICUS. THE RECEPTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE COPERNICAN Theory. Sect. 1.-First Reception of the Copernican Theory. THE theories of Copernicus made their way among astronomers, in the manner in which true astronomical theories always obtain the assent of competent judges. They led to the construction of Tables of the motion of the sun, moon, and planets, as the theories of Hipparchus and Ptolemy had done; and the verification of the doctrines was to be looked for, from the agreement of these Tables with observation, through a sufficient course of time. The work De Revolutionibus contains such Tables. In 1551 Reinhold improved and republished Tables founded on the principles of Copernicus. "We owe," he says in his preface, "great obligations to Copernicus, both for his laborious * Ast. Mod. i. p. 188. I owe this and many other corrections to the personal kindness of Mr. De Morgan. observations, and for restoring the doctrine of the Motions. But though his geometry is perfect, the good old man appears to have been, at times, careless in his numerical calculations. I have, therefore, recalculated the whole, from a comparison of his observations with those of Ptolemy and others, following nothing but the general plan of Copernicus's demonstrations." These "Prutenic Tables" were republished in 1571 and 1585, and continued in repute for some time; till superseded by the Rudolphine Tables of Kepler in 1627. The name Prutenic, or Prussian, was employed by the author as a mark of gratitude to his benefactor Albert, Markgrave of Brandenbourg. The discoveries of Copernicus had inspired neighboring nations with the ambition of claiming a place in the literary community of Europe. In something of the same spirit, Rheticus wrote an Encomium Borussiæ, which was published along with his Narratio. The Tables founded upon the Copernican system were, at first, much more generally adopted than the heliocentric doctrine on which they were founded. Thus Magini published at Venice, in 1587, New Theories of the Celestial Orbits, agreeing with the Observations of Nicholas Copernicus. But in the preface, after praising Copernicus, he says, "Since, however, he, either for the sake of showing his talents, or induced by his own reasons, has revived the opinion of Nicetas, Aristarchus, and others, concerning the motion of the earth, and has disturbed the established constitution of the world, which was a reason why many rejected, or received. with dislike, his hypothesis, I have thought it worth while, that, rejecting the suppositions of Copernicus, I should accommodate other causes to his observations, and to the Prutenic Tables." This doctrine, however, was, as we have shown, received with favor by many persons, even before its general publication. The doctrine of the motion of the earth was first publicly maintained at Rome by Widmanstadt,' who professed to have received it from Copernicus, and explained the System before the Pope and the Cardinals, but did not teach it to the public. Leonardo da Vinci, who was an eminent mathematician, as well as painter, about 1510, explained how a body, by describing a kind of spiral, might descend towards a revolving globe, so that its apparent motion relative to a point in the surface of the globe, might be in a 1 See Venturi, Essai sur les Ouvrages Physico-Mathématiques de Leonard da Vinci, avec des Fragmens tirés de ses Manuscrits apportés d'Italie. Paris, 1797; and, as there quoted, Marini Archiatri Pontificii, tom. ii. p. 251. straight line leading to the centre. He thus showed that he had entertained in his thoughts the hypothesis of the earth's rotation, and was employed in removing the difficulties which accompanied this supposition, by means of the consideration of the composition of motions. In like manner we find the question stirred by other eminent men. Thus John Muller of Konigsberg, a celebrated astronomer who died in 1476, better known by the name of Regiomontanus, wrote a dissertation on the subject "Whether the earth be in motion or at rest," in which he decides ex professo2 against the motion. Yet such discussions must have made generally known the arguments for the heliocentric theory. We have already seen the enthusiasm with which Rheticus, who was Copernicus's pupil in the latter years of his life, speaks of him. “Thus,” says he, "God has given to my excellent preceptor a reign without end; which may He vouchsafe to guide, govern, and increase, to the restoration of astronomical truth. Amen." Of the immediate converts of the Copernican system, who adopted it before the controversy on the subject had attracted attention, I shall only add Mastlin, and his pupil, Kepler. Mastlin published in 1588 an Epitome Astronomic, in which the immobility of the earth is asserted; but in 1596 he edited Kepler's Mysterium Cosmographicum, and the Narratio of Rheticus: and in an epistle of his own, which he inserts, he defends the Copernican system by those physical reasonings which we shall shortly have to mention, as the usual arguments in this dispute. Kepler himself, in the outset of the work just named, says, "When I was at Tübingen, attending to Michael Mæstlin, being disturbed by the manifold inconveniences of the usual opinion concerning the world, I was so delighted with Copernicus, of whom he made great mention in his lectures, that I not only defended his opinions in our disputations of the candidates, but wrote a thesis concerning the First Motion which is produced by the revolution of the earth." This must have been in 1590. The differences of opinion respecting the Copernican system, of which we thus see traces, led to a controversy of some length and extent. This controversy turned principally upon physical considerations, which were much more distinctly dealt with by Kepler, and others of the followers of Copernicus, than they had been by the dis 2 Schoneri Opera, part ii. p. 129. coverer himself. I shall, therefore, give a separate consideration to this part of the subject. It may be proper, however, in the first place, to make a few observations on the progress of the doctrine, independently of these physical speculations. Sect. 2.-Diffusion of the Copernican Theory. THE diffusion of the Copernican opinions in the world did not take place rapidly at first. Indeed, it was necessarily some time before the progress of observation and of theoretical mechanics gave the heliocentric doctrine that superiority in argument, which now makes us wonder that men should have hesitated when it was presented to them. Yet there were some speculators of this kind, who were attracted at once by the enlarged views of the universe which it opened to them. Among these was the unfortunate Giordano Bruno of Nola, who was burnt as a heretic at Rome in 1600. The heresies which led to his unhappy fate were, however, not his astronomical opinions, but a work which he published in England, and dedicated to Sir Philip Sydney, under the title of Spaccio della Bestia Trionfante, and which is understood to contain a bitter satire of religion and the papal government. Montucla conceives that, by his rashness in visiting Italy after putting forth such a work, he compelled the government to act against him. Bruno embraced the Copernican opinions at an early period, and connected with them the belief in innumerable worlds besides that which we inhabit; as also certain metaphysical or theological doctrines, which he called the Nolan philosophy. In 1591 he published De innumerabilibus, immenso, et infigurabili, seu de Universo et Mundis, in which he maintains that each star is a sun, about which revolve planets like our earth; but this opinion is mixed up with a large mass of baseless verbal speculations. Giordano Bruno is a disciple of Copernicus on whom we may look with peculiar interest, since he probably had a considerable share in introducing the new opinions into England; although other persons, as Recorde, Field, Dee, had adopted it nearly thirty years earlier; and Thomas Digges ten years before, much more expressly. Bruno visited this country in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and speaks of her and of her councillors in terms of praise, which appear to show that 3 See Burton's Anat. Mel. Pref. "Some prodigious tenet or paradox of the earth's motion," &c. "Bruno," &c. his book was intended for English readers; though he describes the mob which was usually to be met with in the streets of London with expressions of great disgust: "Una plebe la quale in essere irrespettevole, incivile, rozza, rustica, selvatica, et male allevata, non cede ad altra che pascer possa la terra nel suo seno.' The work to which I refer is La Cena de le Cenere, and narrates what took place at a supper held on the evening of Ash Wednesday (about 1583, see p. 145 of the book), at the house of Sir Fulk Greville, in order to give "Il Nolano" an opportunity of defending his peculiar opinions. His principal antagonists are two "Dottori d' Oxonia," whom Bruno calls Nundinio and Torquato. The subject is not treated in any very masterly manner on either side; but the author makes himself have greatly the advantage not only in argument, but in temper and courtesy: and in support of his representations of "pedantesca, ostinatissima ignoranza et presunzione, mista con una rustica incivilità, che farebbe prevaricar la pazienza di Giobbe," in his opponents, he refers to a public disputation which he had held at Oxford with these doctors of theology, in presence of Prince Alasco, and many of the English nobility. Among the evidences of the difficulties which still lay in the way of the reception of the Copernican system, we may notice Bacon, who, as is well known, never gave a full assent to it. It is to be observed, however, that he does not reject the opinion of the earth's motion in so peremptory and dogmatical a manner as he is sometimes accused of doing thus in the Thema Cali he says, "The earth, then, being supposed to be at rest (for that now appears to us the more true opinion)." And in his tract On the Cause of the Tides, he says, "If the tide of the sea be the extreme and diminished limit of the diurnal motion of the heavens, it will follow that the earth is immovable; or at least that it moves with a much slower motion than the water." In the Descriptio Globi Intellectualis he gives his reasons for not accepting the heliocentric theory. "In the system of Copernicus there are many and grave difficulties: for the threefold motion with which he encumbers the earth is a serious inconvenience; and the separation of the sun from the planets, with which he has so many affections in common, is likewise a harsh step; and the introduction of so many immovable bodies into nature, as when he makes the sun and the stars immovable, the bodies which are peculiarly lucid and radiant; and his making the moon adhere to the earth in a sort of epicycle; and some • Opere di Giordano Bruno, vol. i. p. 146. Ib. vol. i. p. 179. |