On this day in 1616, Nicolaus Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, that is, being interpreted, “On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres,” was officially banned by the Catholic Church. I’ve treated the significance, complexity, and popular misunderstandings of this saga on prior occasions but I am returning to it on the occasion of the edict indicated above for the reason that this saga is paradigmatic of many tensions around which the mythology of Modernity is constellated.
Thomas Kuhn wrote a book in 1957 in which he considers the book by Copernicus to be the veritable "paradigm shift" in leading forth the so-called, 'Scientific Revolution'. Ref. The Copernican revolution : planetary astronomy in the development of Western thought, 1957, Thomas Kuhn.
And, Copernicus knew it to such an extent that he made sure it didn't get published until after his death in
1543, although it had been fully formulated by 1530. "On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres" is actually a work of inspiration, which was taken up by both Galileo and Kepler, as well as Tycho Brahe, who was compelled to find a synthesis between Ptolemy and Copernicus.
Yes, the banning of Copernicus' book on March 5, 1616, and the inquisition of Galileo by the church. What did he do but merely observe as objectively as possible? He invented the telescope in order to magnify the seeming appearances, while Tycho could only calculate the positions of the various celestial bodies by naked-eye observation and measuring tools. Now, of course, the church embraces the heliocentric model of the solar system, because it finds Christ centered there, but dare not say that Christ is the Sun Spirit. That is the biggest heresy of all to the church!
It is good to review this, and more. Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) was preceded in his thinking by Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), who was a Rhineland Mystic, and received the original inspiration, which told of the necessity of transferring the Ptolemaic model, which is Earth centered, to the Sun. When he died, this inspiration passed over to Copernicus as a heritage for continuation in a more scientific way.
The knowledge of the Cusa/Copernicus relationship is first described in Steiner's course, "The Principle of Spiritual Economy", beginning in January 1909.
"There are other examples from later times, for example Nicholas of Cusa (Cusanus), a curious personality of the fifteenth century. Here we can see the interesting case of how the research of this man, as it were, laid the groundwork for the entire body of the teaching of Copernicus, who lived in the sixteenth century. To be sure, this body of teaching is not yet quite as ripe in Cusa's books as in those written by Copernicus, but they contain all the essential ideas, a fact that confounds most traditional scholars. The fact is that the astral body of Cusa was transferred to Copernicus even though the ego of the latter was different from that of Cusa. This is how Copernicus received the foundation and all the preparations for his own doctrine."
Thomas Kuhn wrote a book in 1957 in which he considers the book by Copernicus to be the veritable "paradigm shift" in leading forth the so-called, 'Scientific Revolution'. Ref. The Copernican revolution : planetary astronomy in the development of Western thought, 1957, Thomas Kuhn.
And, Copernicus knew it to such an extent that he made sure it didn't get published until after his death in
1543, although it had been fully formulated by 1530. "On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres" is actually a work of inspiration, which was taken up by both Galileo and Kepler, as well as Tycho Brahe, who was compelled to find a synthesis between Ptolemy and Copernicus.
Yes, the banning of Copernicus' book on March 5, 1616, and the inquisition of Galileo by the church. What did he do but merely observe as objectively as possible? He invented the telescope in order to magnify the seeming appearances, while Tycho could only calculate the positions of the various celestial bodies by naked-eye observation and measuring tools. Now, of course, the church embraces the heliocentric model of the solar system, because it finds Christ centered there, but dare not say that Christ is the Sun Spirit. That is the biggest heresy of all to the church!
It is good to review this, and more. Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) was preceded in his thinking by Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), who was a Rhineland Mystic, and received the original inspiration, which told of the necessity of transferring the Ptolemaic model, which is Earth centered, to the Sun. When he died, this inspiration passed over to Copernicus as a heritage for continuation in a more scientific way.
thank you for providing the additional context to understand the evolution of these ideas
The knowledge of the Cusa/Copernicus relationship is first described in Steiner's course, "The Principle of Spiritual Economy", beginning in January 1909.
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA109/English/AP1986/PrSpEc_index.html
"There are other examples from later times, for example Nicholas of Cusa (Cusanus), a curious personality of the fifteenth century. Here we can see the interesting case of how the research of this man, as it were, laid the groundwork for the entire body of the teaching of Copernicus, who lived in the sixteenth century. To be sure, this body of teaching is not yet quite as ripe in Cusa's books as in those written by Copernicus, but they contain all the essential ideas, a fact that confounds most traditional scholars. The fact is that the astral body of Cusa was transferred to Copernicus even though the ego of the latter was different from that of Cusa. This is how Copernicus received the foundation and all the preparations for his own doctrine."