What I want to know is what did people think about Copernicus' theories. I mean, with all that church stuff and etc, how did Copernicus' work affect people?
2007-04-23 06:17:42 · 2 answers · asked by sugarandsalt 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
You shouldn't overestimate the consequences of Copernicus' theories. He published them in Latin, and only at the end of his life. So only a very limited number of scientists and Church clerics knew about them. Scholars say the book for the most part went unnoticed by other astronomers and leading figures of the day when it was published. The 20th-century writer Arthur Koestler referred to it as the "book nobody read."
Only when 20 years later, Galileo repeats those theories in *his* book, the Pope goes into action and had him dragged before the Inquistion.
"Chasing Copernicus: 'The Book Nobody Read'
Was One of the Greatest Scientific Works Really Ignored?", NPR : http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1746110
"Galileo Galilei", Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo
2007-04-23 06:38:42 · answer #1 · answered by Erik Van Thienen 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The answer is, hardly anyone thought about his theories at all until very much later, and his work didn't affect anyone at the time, except for some Church authorities who were pissed off by it.
Of course, I always thought he just wrote down his theories, I didn't realize he divulgated them. So I could be wrong.
2007-04-27 05:15:08 · answer #2 · answered by Ben 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋