The Sleepwalkers (66 page)

The
next
ripple
on
record
is
a
request,
in
1522,
by
the
learned
Canon
Bernhard
Wapowsky
in
Cracow,
for
Copernicus'
expert
opinion
on
Johann
Werner's
astronomical
treatise,
On
the
Motion
of
the
Eighth
Sphere
.
Copernicus
complied.

Ten
years
later,
the
personal
secretary
of
Pope
Leo
X
gave
a
lecture
on
the
Copernican
system,
to
a
select
company
in
the
Vatican
gardens,
which
was
favourably
received.

Another
three
years
later,
Cardinal
Schoenberg,
who
enjoyed
the
Pope's
special
confidence,
urgently
entreated
Copernicus
"to
communicate
your
discoveries
to
the
learned
world"
by
word
of
print.

Yet,
in
spite
of
these
encouragements,
Canon
Koppernigk
hesitated
for
another
six
years,
before
he
had
his
book
printed.
Why?

8.
Rumour and Report

News
travelled
fast
and
far
in
the
sixteenth
century.
The
pulse
of
all
humanity
was
quickening
as
if
our
planet,
after
traversing,
on
its
journey
through
space,
some
somnolent
and
bemused
zone
of
the
Universe,
were
now
emerging
into
a
region
bathed
in
vivifying
rays,
or
filled
with
cosmic
benzedrine
in
the
interstellar
dust.
It
seemed
to
act
simultaneously
on
all
levels
of
the
nervous
system
of
mankind,
on
the
higher
as
well
as
on
the
lower
centres,
as
a
stimulant
and
aphrodisiac,
manifesting
itself
as
a
thirst
of
the
spirit,
an
itch
of
the
brain,
a
hunger
of
the
senses,
a
toxic
release
of
passions.
The
human
glands
seemed
to
produce
a
new
hormone
which
caused
the
sudden
surge
of
a
novel
greed:
curiosity
–
the
innocent,
lecherous,
creative,
destructive,
cannibalistic
curiosity
of
the
child.

The
new
machines
–
type
foundry
and
printing
press
–
ministered
to
this
devouring
curiosity
by
a
flood
of
broadsheets,
news
letters,
almanacs,
libellea
,
pasquils,
pamphlets
and
books.
They
spread
the
news
at
a
hitherto
unknown
speed,
increased
the
range
of
human
communication,
broke
down
isolation.
The
broadsheets
and
brochures
were
not
necessarily
read
by
all
the
people
on
whom
they
exercised
their
influence;
rather,
each
printed
word
of
information
acted
like
a
pebble
dropped
into
a
pond,
spreading
its
ripples
of
rumour
and
hearsay.
The
printing
press
was
only
the
ultimate
source
of
the
dissemination
of
knowledge
and
culture;
the
process
itself
was
complex
and
indirect,
a
process
of
dilution
and
diffusion
and
distortion,
which
affected
ever
increasing
numbers,
including
the
backward
and
illiterate.
Even
three
and
four
centuries
later,
the
teachings
of
Marx
and
Darwin,
the
discoveries
of
Einstein
and
Freud,
did
not
reach
the
vast
majority
of
people
in
their
original,
printed
text,
but
through
second-
and
third-hand
sources,
through
hearsay
and
echo.
The
revolutions
of
thought
which
shape
the
basic
outlook
of
an
age
are
not
disseminated
through
text-books
–
they
spread
like
epidemics,
through
contamination
by
invisible
agents
and
innocent
germ-carriers,
by
the
most
varied
forms
of
contact,
or
simply
by
breathing
the
common
air.

There
are
slow-spreading
epidemics,
like
polio,
and
others
that
strike
swiftly,
like
the
plague.
The
Darwinian
revolution
struck
like
lightning,
the
Marxian
took
three-quarters
of
a
century
to
hatch.
The
Copernican
revolution,
which
so
decisively
affected
the
fate
of
man,
spread
in
a
slower
and
more
devious
manner
than
all.
Not
because
the
printing
press
was
new,
or
the
subject
obscure:
Luther's
theses
created
an
immediate
all-European
turmoil,
though
they
were
less
easy
to
compress
into
a
single
slogan
than:
"The
Sun
does
not
go
round
the
Earth,
but
the
Earth
goes
round
the
Sun".
The
reason
why
it
took
Rome
three-quarters
of
a
century
to
ban
Canon
Koppernigk's
book,
and
why
the
book
itself
had
almost
no
impact
upon
his
contemporaries,
is
of
a
different
order.

What
we
call
the
Copernican
revolution
was
not
made
by
Canon
Koppernigk.
His
book
was
not
intended
to
cause
a
revolution.
He
knew
that
much
of
it
was
unsound,
contrary
to
evidence,
and
its
basic
assumption
unprovable.
He
only
half
believed
in
it,
in
the
split-minded
manner
of
the
Middle
Ages.
Besides,
he
was
denied
the
essential
qualities
of
the
prophet:
awareness
of
a
mission,
originality
of
vision,
the
courage
of
conviction.