Much like Galileo, I have often wondered how Copernicus reconciled science with religion. Thus, chancing upon this book at the Big Bad Wolf event was just a no-brainer for me. Besides, I thought it was a steal at PhP 230.00.
The geocentric model ( i.e. the sun, moon, planets and stars revolved around the earth) was the primary accepted model up until the 16th century when Nicolas Copernicus’ book “De revolutionibus orbium coelestium ” or “On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres” was published posthumously.
It was interesting to learn about some Copernican facts like he was actually a practicing Physician and that Mathematics and Astronomy was mostly just a passion he couldn’t let go. That he learned Greek so he can actually read Greek manuscripts pertaining to his passion. As a Canon ( i.e. an administrator of sorts) he did the more mundane things of taking care of the estate. This brought into his attention the more practical concerns like recommending the standardization of minting coins since coins were being minted with no standards thus devaluing the actual value of the coins. He also worked on how to impose a bread tariff by tying the value of a penny loaf to the cost of wheat. That is, cheaper wheat means bigger loaf and inversely, smaller loaf means costlier wheat.
On top of the heliocentric concept, his book ( ” On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres” ) also provided basis on how to fix the Julian calendar.
What is interesting to note though is that part of what was so difficult for the heliocentric concept’s acceptance was that the idea that the Earth actually moved. And of course, that his ideas literally contradicted with the Scriptures.
I particularly liked Sobel’s attempt of inserting an Interplay to better illustrate how (Georg Joachim de Porris) Rheticus came to understand the Copernicus model from the great scientist himself and thus equipped him with helping in the eventual publication of the book.
It was an afternoon well-spent, reading the book that is. There are some nuggets that I purposely did not share here though. It is for you to find out 🙂
#solidweekendread #fascinatingfacts
my take 