HIST108 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Nicolaus Copernicus, Celestial Sphere, Early Modern Europe
Document Summary
New cosmology radical change in the cosmology landscape. Medieval universe: "celestial sphere" considered to me a massive bowl which contains the earth, the moon the sun. Stars "stuck in the interior" of the bowl, or holes in the celestial sphere where light shone through. Proposed the earth is no longer at the centre of the universe, instead it is the sun. Copernicus claims the sun is at the centre of the universe. Copernicus did not publicly disclose his findings as it was dangerous. Medieval and modern early world view profoundly religious. Not constrained by the university way of research. Claimed that this distance was 6x as long as distance between earth and the moon. The heavenly bodies are not perfect or immutable: the attack on aristotelian cosmology. Dialogue concerning the tow chief world systems (1632) A synthesis of mathematical theory and empirical observation. Universal gravitation and the three laws of motion.
