7:30pm Thursday, June 3, 2010 at Friends' Hall
THE HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, ART COLLECTIONS, AND BOTANICAL GARDENS
Robert Westman, History, UCSD
Copernicus and the Astrologers of Cracow and Bologna
Nicolas Copernicus's hypothesis that the earth is a planet revolving
together with five other planets around a stationary sun is one of the
best known claims in the history of science. First announced in print in
1543, historians often describe Copernicus's proposal as the beginning of
the Scientific Revolution.
But what was the question to which Copernicus's hypothesis was the answer?
Robert S. Westman, Professor of History, University of California, San
Diego, suggests that crucial clues lie in a late-fifteenth century
controversy about the status of astrology-although not a single word
about astrology exists in any of Copernicus's extant writings.
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