Western Civilization

studied mathematics and astronomy first at Krakow in

his native Poland and later at the Italian universities of

Bologna and Padua, published his famous bookOn the

Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. Copernicus was not

an accomplished observational astronomer and relied

for his data on the records of his predecessors. But he

was a mathematician who felt that Ptolemy’s geocentric

system was too complicated and failed to accord with

the observed motions of the heavenly bodies (see the

box on p. 390). Copernicus hoped that hisheliocentric

(sun-centered)conceptionwould offer a more accurate

explanation.

Copernicus argued that the universe consisted of

eight spheres with the sun motionless at the center

and the sphere of the fixed stars at rest in the eighth

sphere. The planets revolved around the sun in the

order of Mercury, Venus, the earth, Mars, Jupiter, and

Saturn. The moon, however, revolved around the earth.

Moreover, according to Copernicus, what appeared to

be the movement of the sun and the fixed stars around

the earth was really explained by the daily rotation of

the earth on its axis and the journey of the earth

around the sun each year.

The heliocentric theory had little immediate

impact; most people were not yet ready to accept

Copernicus’s thinking. But doubts about the Ptole-

maic system were growing. The German scientist

Johannes Kepler took the next step in destroying the

geocentric conception and supporting the Copernican

system.

Kepler

The work of Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) illustrates

the narrow line that often separated magic and science

in the early Scientific Revolution. An avid astrologer,

Kepler possessed a keen interest in Hermetic thought

and mathematical magic. In a book written in 1596, he

elaborated on his theory that the universe was con-

structed on the basis of geometric figures, such as the

pyramid and the cube. Believing that the harmony of

the human soul (a divine attribute) was mirrored in

Medieval Conception of the Universe.

As this sixteenth-century illustration

shows, the medieval cosmological view

placed the earth at the center of the

universe, surrounded by a series of

concentric spheres. The earth was

imperfect and constantly changing,

whereas the heavenly bodies that

surrounded it were perfect and

incorruptible. Beyond the tenth and final

sphere was Heaven, where God and all

the saved souls were located. (The circles

read, from the center outward: 1. Moon,

2. Mercury, 3. Venus, 4. Sun, 5. Mars, 6.
   Jupiter, 7. Saturn, 8. Firmament (of the
   Stars), 9. Crystalline Sphere, 10. Prime
   Mover; and around the outside,
   Empyrean Heaven—Home of God and
   All the Elect, that is, saved souls.)

Image Select/Art Resource, NY

388 Chapter 16 Toward a New Heaven and a New Earth: The Scientific Revolution

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