4 Psicoa Puro Miller
4 Psicoa Puro Miller
4 Psicoa Puro Miller
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Copernicus' Relation to
Aristarchus and Pythagoras
By Thomas W. Africa*
FEW would question the existence of the Copernican Revolution for good
or ill, but Copernicus was no revolutionary' and fancied himself the re-
storer of ancient wisdom, rather than the discoverer of a new astronomy. What-
ever his thesis meant to others, he saw it as the foundation of a Pythagorean
Restoration. In this spirit, Kepler alluded to Pythagoras as "the grandfather
of all Copernicans;"2 and Galileo remarked that the Papal Edict of 1616 had
imposed "a seasonable silence upon the Pythagorean opinion of the mobility
of the earth."3
Proud of his humanist training, Copernicus could turn Greek into Latin
verse,4 and even advise on currency reform.5 His hesitation in publishing De
Revolutionibus (orbium coelestium)6 has often been ascribed to fear of eccle-
siastical opposition, but the theme of sacerdotal oppression is difficult to main-
tain in view of demonstrated papal favor. In 1536 Pope Paul III extended
encouragement to Copernicus through Cardinal von Sch6nberg, whose com-
munication was included in the first edition of De Revolutionibus.7 Copernicus'
imperious Letter Against Werner (1524)8 and the early revelation of his un-
orthodox views in the Commentariolus (perhaps before 1514)9 belie any sus-
picion of timidity at the professional opposition of rival astronomers. The
tone of Rheticus' Narratio Prima suggests that Copernicus' attitude toward
other scientists was generally one, not of fear, but contempt.
An undistinguished observer, Copernicus lacked the concern for data and
* Louisiana State University in New Or- Rosen, "The Authentic Title of Copernicus'
leans. Major Work," Journal of the History of
1 Written before the appearance of The Ideas, 1943, 4: 457-474.
Sleepwalkers, this paper is not a rebuttal, but 7 Prowe, I (pt. 2), 273-276. Cf. N. Koper-
its content should cast doubt on Koestler's nikus, Gesamtausgabe, (Munich: Oldenbourg,
view of Copernicus as a timid "moral dwarf." 1949), II (Critical text of De Revolutionibus,
2 . Kepler, letter to Michael Mistlin, 11 ed. Franz and Carl Zeller), 404.
June 1598, Gesammelte Werke, ed. Max Cas- 8 Edward Rosen's critical translation of Co-
par (Munich: Beck'sche, 1955), XIII, 219. pernicus' Commentariolus and Letter Against
3G. Galilei, Dialogue on the Great World Werner and Rheticus' Narratio Prima in Three
Systems, ed. Giorgio de Santillana (Chicago: Copernican Treatises (New York: Columbia
University of Chicago Press, 1953), p. 5. University Press, 1939), is quoted in citations
4 His Latin rendition of Theophylactus Sim- below. Corresponding references are made to
ocatta is reproduced by Leopold Prowe, Nico- Prowe's texts (Vol. II).
laus Coppernicus (Berlin: Weidmannsche, 9 Birkenmajer noted in a 1514 inventory of
1884), II (Urkunden), 45-127. the library of a Cracow doctor the remark:
5 J. Taylor, "Copernicus on the Evils of In-"a pamphlet with the view set forth that the
flation and the Establishment of a Sound Cur- earth moves while the sun stands still." Wil-
liam J. Rose, review of Birkenmajer's Stro-
rency," Journal of the History of Ideas, 1955,
16: 540-547. mata Copernicana, Isis, 1931, 16: 136-138.
6The original title is uncertain. See E.
403
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404 THOMAS W. AFRICA
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COPERNICUS' RELATION TO ARISTARCHUS AND PYTHAGORAS 405
Copernicus was not entirely frank, for his obligation to the ancients includ
more than simple suggestions of the earth's mobility. The nineteenth centu
however, felt Copernicus to be little in "debt to the inert speculators of
classic age,"28 and Dilthey saw Copernicanism as the intellectual extensio
the new horizons revealed by circumnavigation of the globe.29 With gr
discernment, Heath took Copernicus at his word, but added that his deb
chiefly to Aristarchus of Samos, arguing from the suppressed reference in
Revolutionibus (I, xi, finis).30
Copernicus had ready access to Aristarchus' heliocentric views throu
inative value of the Pythagorean mobile earth Infinite Universe, p. 19.
as an insight into the relativity of motion. 27 Copernicus, De Revolutionibus, epistula
22 John H. Randall Jr., "Development of dedicatoria, (Zeller, p. 5).
Scientific Method in the School of Padua," 28 John A. Symonds, Renaissance in Italy
Journal of the History of Ideas, 1940, 1:184. (New York: Modern Library, no date), I,
23 Rheticus, Narratio Prima, (Rosen, p. 111; 339. Cf. Dreyer, History of Astronomy from
Prowe, II, 297; cf. Prowe, I [pt. 1], 213-289, Thales to Kepler, p. 314.
294-330). 29Wilhelm Dilthey, Weltanschauung und
24 Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilisation of the Analyse
Renaissance in Italy (London: Phaidon Press, Reformatio
1944), pp. 310-311. 1914), II, 258.
25 Quoted by John M. Robertson, A Short 30 Sir Tho
History of Free Thought (New York: G. P. the Ancien
Putnam, 1906), I, 360. versity Press, 1913), p. 301.
26 Koyre, From the Closed World to the
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406 THOMAS W. AFRICA
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COPERNICUS' RELATION TO ARISTARCHUS AND PYTHAGORAS 407
Though the courses of the Sun and Moon can surely be demonstrated on
assumption that the earth does not move, it does not work so well with
other planets. Probably for this and other reasons, Philolaus perceived
mobility of the earth, a view also shared by Aristarchus of Samos, so
say, not impressed by that reasoning which Aristotle cites and refutes. (Cred
bile est hisce similibusque causis Philolaum mobilitatem terrae sensisse,
etiam nonnulli Aristarchum Samium ferunt in eadem fuisse sententia, no
ratione moti, quam allegat reprobatque Aristoteles.)
Copernicus associated Aristarchus and Philolaus with a view of the e
motion other than the traditional Pythagorean scheme, ridiculed by Arist
with its central fire and counter-earth.41 He continued:
Yet, since only keen wits and long effort can probe such things, it was then
hidden from most philosophers, and, as Plato said, only a few grasped the real
cause of planetary motion.
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408 THOMAS W. AFRICA
views of Philolaus, which were obviously not the public teachings of the Py-
thagorean Brotherhood, but the imagined secret doctrines of the Master, avail-
able only to the elect. In reviving the heliostatic system of Aristarchus with
improved mathematical embellishments, he felt that he was restoring the Py-
thagorean astronomy in its purity. "My master thought," Rheticus reported,
"that in order to determine the cause of the phenomena, circular motions must
be ascribed to the spherical earth, following Plato and Pythagoras."46 Kepler
reminded Galileo of the injunction of "our genuine masters, Plato and Pythag-
oras," to avoid rash exposure of truth to vulgar scholars.47
Copernicus took solemnly the mandate of the Letter of Lysis to preserve
the secret doctrine in Hermetic isolation from the muddied gaze of the igno-
rant and unpurified. His citation of the Letter was no chance allusion; it was
one of the school texts, from which the humanist Urceo taught him Greek
and the concept of an intellectual elite.48 It was part of the Neoplatonist apoc-
rypha of Iamblichus, whose mystic veneration of the Sun as the visible mani-
festation of the supreme Helios may be reflected in the Copernican encomium:
The Sun sits enthroned in the midst of all. In this surpassingly lovely temple,
could this luminary be placed in any position which would better illuminate
all at once. He is justly called the Lamp, the Mind, the Ruler of the Uni-
verse.49 Hermes Trismegistus named him the Visible God; Sophocles'
Electra called him the All-Seeing. So the Sun sits as upon a royal throne,
ruling the planets, his children, who circle about him.50
The inner secrets, at least for Rheticus, included the questionable insight
46Rheticus, Narratio Prima, (Rosen, pp. vision of the universe." Thomas S. Kuhn, The
147-148; Prowe, II, 329-330). Copernican Revolution (Cambridge, Mass.:
47J. Kepler, letter to Galileo, 13 October Harvard University Press, 1957), p. 130.
1597, Gesammelte Werke, XIII, 145. 51 Hermetic texts were widely circulated and
48 Prowe, I (pt. 1), 260; II, 129. translated by men of the stature of Ficino. See
49Luceram mundi, alii mentem (mundi), Paul Kristeller, The Classics and Renaissance
alii rectorem (mundi) are Latin paraphrases Thought (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Uni-
of expressions of Hermes Trismegistus, avail- versity Press, 1955), p. 21, and pp. 48-69.
able to Copernicus through Stobaeus, (Zeller, Matteo Palmieri linked Hermes with Plato,
p. 442, Notes). the "Attic Moses," as precursors of Christian-
50 Copernicus, De Revolutionibus, I, x, (Zel- ity: Necca A. Robb, Neoplatonism of the Ital-
ler, p. 26). "Neoplatonism is explicit in Coper- ian Renaissance (London: Allen & Unwin,
nicus' attitude toward both the sun and mathe- 1935), p. 52.
matical simplicity. It is an essential element in52Rheticus, Narratio Prima (Rosen, pp.
the intellectual climate that gave birth to his 192-193; Prowe, II, 373).
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COPERNICUS' RELATION TO ARISTARCHUS AND PYTHAGORAS 409
Copernicus hoarded his vision and only reluctantly released it, not
fear of rack or polemic, but because he dreaded that its "Pythagorean"
would be contaminated by contact with lesser vulgar minds. "It is
might pour pure water into a pit of muck: it disturbs the mud, and r
water."
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