Nicholas Copernicus: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly

Spheres (1543)
Dedication to Pope Paul III
I can easily conceive, most Holy Father, that as soon as some people learn that in this book
which I have written concerning the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, I ascribe certain motions
to the Earth, they will cry out at once that I and my theory should be rejected. I still believe
that one must avoid theories altogether foreign to orthodoxy. Accordingly, when I considered in
my own mind how absurd a performance it must seem to those who know that the judgment of
many centuries has approved the view that the Earth remains fixed as center in the midst of the
heavens, that I should, on the contrary, assert that the Earth moves; I was for a long time at a loss
to know whether I should publish the commentaries which I have written in proof of its
motions.
My friends, however, [inspired me to publish my work]. First among these was
Nicholaus Schonberg, Cardinal of Capua, distinguished in all branches of learning. Next to him
comes my very dear friend, Tidemann Geise, Bishop of Culm.
But perhaps Your Holiness will be curious to hear how it occurred to me to venture,
contrary to the accepted view of mathematicians, and almost contrary to common sense, to form
a conception of any terrestrial motion whatsoever. Therefore I would not have it unknown to
Your Holiness, that the only thing which induced me to look for another way of reckoning the
movements of the heavenly bodies was that I knew that mathematicians by no means agree in
their investigations. In the first place, they are so in doubt concerning the motion of the sun and
the moon that they cannot even demonstrate and prove by observation the constant length of a
complete year; and in the second place, in determining the motions both of these and of the five
other planets they fail to employ consistently one set of first principles and hypotheses. Some
use only concentric circles; others, eccentric circles and epicycles 1 ; and even by these means
they do not completely attain the desired end. For although those who have depended on
concentric circles have shown that certain diverse motions can be deduced from these, yet they
have not succeeded in constructing any sure model corresponding indisputably to the
phenomena. On the other hand, those who have devised systems of eccentric circles, although
they seem in great part to have solved the apparent motions by calculations which by these
eccentrics are made to fit, they have nevertheless introduced many things which seem to
contradict the first principles of uniformity of motion. Nor have they been able to discover or
calculate from these the main point which is the shape of the world and the fixed symmetry of its
parts; but their procedure has been as if someone were to collect hands, feet, a head and other
members from various places, all very fine in themselves, but not proportionate to one body and
no single one corresponding in its turn to the others, so that a monster rather than a man would
be formed from them.
And so, after postulating movements which I ascribe to the Earth, I have found by
many and long observations that if the movements of the other planets are assumed for the

Seediagramsforpicturesofepicyclesandeccentrics.Wewillgoovertheseverybrieflyinclass.

circular motion of the Earth and are substituted for the revolution of each star, not only do their
phenomena follow logically from this, but the relative positions and magnitudes both of the stars
and all their orbits, and of the heavens themselves, become so closely related that in none of its
parts can anything be changed without causing confusion in the other parts and in the whole
universe. I do not doubt that ingenious and learned mathematicians will support me, if they
are willing to recognize and weigh, not superficially, but with all that thoroughness which
Philosophy demands, those matters which have been adduced by me in this work to demonstrate
these theories. In order, however, that both the learned and the unlearned equally may see that I
do not avoid anyones judgment, I have decided to dedicate these studies to Your Holiness [i.e.
Pope Paul III] , because, even in this remote corner of the world where I live, you are considered
to be the most eminent man in dignity of rank and in love of all learning and even of
mathematics, so that by your authority and judgment, you can easily suppress the bites of
slanderers. If perhaps there shall be idle talkers, who, though ignorant of all mathematical
sciences, nevertheless, assume the right to pass judgment on these things, and if they should dare
to criticize and attack this theory because of some passage of Scripture which they have falsely
distorted for their own purpose, I care not at all; I will even despise their judgment as foolish.
Mathematics are written for mathematicians, and if my opinion does not deceive me, our
[mathematical] labors will contribute something to the ecclesiastical state whose chief office
Your Holiness now occupies; for when, not so long ago, Pope Leo X raised the question of
revising the Church calendar, it remained unsettled, simply because the length of the months and
years, and the motions of the sun and moon were thought to have been not yet sufficiently
determined. Since that time I have given my attention to observing these more accurately, urged
on by a very distinguished man, Paul, Bishop of Fossombrone, who at that time was given the
task of solving the [calendar problem]. What I have accomplished here I leave to the judgment
of Your Holiness, in particular, and to that of all other learned mathematicians.
Sketch of Hypotheses from The Commentaries (1512)
Assumptions
1. There is no one center of all the celestial circles or spheres
2. The center of the earth is not the center of the universe, but only of gravity and the sphere
of the moon.
3. All the spheres revolve around the sun as their mid-point and therefore the sun is the
center of the universe.
4. [The fixed stars are really, really far away.]
5. [The motion of the stars] comes not from their own motion, but from the earths motion.
The earth, together with its adjacent elements [i.e. water, air and fire] performs a
complete rotation on its poles in a day, while the fixed stars and highest heaven are
unchanged
6. What appear to us as motions of the sun arise not from its motion but from the motion of
the earth and our sphere, with which we revolve around the sun like any other planet.
The earth then has more than one motion
7. The apparent retrograde and direct motion of the planets arises not from their motion but
form the earths. The motion of the earth alone, therefore, suffices to explain so many
apparent [weirdness] in the heavens.

Notes: What is an epicycle?

What is an eccentric?