The Sleepwalkers (65 page)

But,
though
Canon
Giese
prevailed
in
extracting
from
Canon
Koppernigk
an
indirect
public
statement
of
his
religious
views,
he
did
not
succeed
for
another
fifteen
years
in
persuading
him
to
publish
his
views
on
astronomy.
And
when
the
first
version
of
the
Copernican
system
appeared
in
print
it
was,
as
a
climax
of
Copernican
obliqueness,
not
written
or
signed
by
him,
but
by
a
disciple,
Joachim
Rheticus.

7.
The Commentariolus

The
first
intimation
of
the
Copernican
system
was
contained
in
the
short
treatise
which
Canon
Nicolas
wrote
at
Heilsberg
Castle,
or
at
the
beginning
of
his
stay
in
Frauenburg.
³²
It
was,
as
I
mentioned
before,
circulated
in
manuscript
only,
and
bore
the
title:

"A
brief
outline
of
Nicolai
Copernicus'
hypotheses
on
the
heavenly
motions."
³³

The
treatise
begins
with
a
historical
introduction,
in
which
Copernicus
explains
that
the
Ptolemaic
system
of
the
universe
was
unsatisfactory,
because
it
did
not
fulfil
the
basic
demand
of
the
ancients
that
each
planet
should
move
with
uniform
speed
in
a
perfect
circle.
Ptolemy's
planets
move
in
circles,
but
not
with
uniform
velocity.
³⁴
"Having
become
aware
of
these
defects,
I
often
considered
whether
there
could
perhaps
be
found
a
more
reasonable
arrangement
of
circles
...
in
which
everything
would
move
uniformly
about
its
proper
centre,
as
the
rule
of
absolute
motion
requires."
Copernicus
then
claims
that
he
has
constructed
a
system
which
solves
"this
very
difficult
and
almost
insoluble
problem"
in
a
manner
much
simpler
than
Ptolemy's,
provided
that
certain
basic
assumptions
or
axioms,
seven
in
number,
are
granted
to
him.
He
then
sets
down,
without
further
ado,
his
seven
revolutionary
axioms,
which,
translated
into
modern
language,
are:

1. That
   the heavenly bodies do not all move round the same centre;
   

2. That
   the
   earth
   is
   not
   the
   centre
   of
   the
   universe,
   only
   of
   the
   moon's
   orbit
   and
   of
   terrestrial
   gravity;
   

3. That
   the sun is the centre of the planetary system and therefore of the
   universe;
   

4. That,
   compared to the distance of the fixed stars, the earth's distance
   from the sun is negligibly small;
   

5. That
   the apparent daily revolution of the firmament is due to the earth's
   rotation on its own axis;
   

6. That
   the
   apparent
   annual
   motion
   of
   the
   sun
   is
   due
   to
   the
   fact
   that
   the
   earth,
   like
   the
   other
   planets,
   revolves
   around
   the
   sun;
   and
   

7. That
   the apparent "stations and retrogressions" of the planets
   are due to the same cause.
   

Then,
in
seven
short
chapters,
the
new
circles
and
epicycles
of
sun,
moon
and
the
planets
are
described
in
crude
outline,
but
without
proof
or
mathematical
demonstrations
"reserving
these
for
my
larger
work".
The
last
paragraph
of
the
treatise
proudly
announces:

"Then Mercury runs on
seven circles in all; Venus on five; the earth on three; and round it
the moon on four; finally, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn on five each.
Altogether, therefore, thirty-four circles suffice to explain the
entire structure of the universe and the entire ballet of the
planets."

I
shall
discuss
the
scientific
relevance
of
the
Commentariolus
in
the
next
chapter;
at
present
we
are
only
concerned
with
its
repercussions.
The
names
of
the
scholars
to
whom
Canon
Koppernigk
sent
his
manuscript
are
unknown,
and
so
is
their
number;
but
its
reception
was
disappointing,
and
its
echo,
at
the
beginning,
practically
nil.
Nevertheless,
the
first
pebble
had
fallen
into
the
pond
and
gradually,
in
the
course
of
the
following
years,
the
ripples
spread
by
rumour
and
hearsay
in
the
Republic
of
Letters.
This
led
to
the
paradoxical
result
that
Canon
Koppernigk
enjoyed
a
certain
fame,
or
notoriety,
among
scholars
for
some
thirty
years
without
publishing
anything
in
print,
without
teaching
at
a
university
or
recruiting
disciples.
It
is
a
unique
case
in
the
history
of
science.
The
Copernican
system
spread
by
evaporation
or
osmosis,
as
it
were.

Thus
in
1514,
Canon
Koppernigk
was
invited,
among
a
number
of
other
astronomers
and
mathematicians,
to
participate
in
a
Lateran
Council
on
the
reform
of
the
calendar.
The
invitation
was
sent
by
Canon
Sculteti,
the
benefactor
who
had
arranged
the
famous
loan
for
the
Koppernigk
brothers,
and
who
had
meanwhile
become
domestic
chaplain
to
Leo
X.
Copernicus
refused
to
attend
on
the
grounds
that
the
calendar
could
not
be
satisfactorily
reformed
until
the
motions
of
the
sun
and
moon
were
more
precisely
known;
but
he
mentioned
the
fact
of
the
invitation
nearly
thirty
years
later,
in
the
dedication
of
the
Book
of
Revolutions
.