Copernicus, 1543
Nicolaus Copernicus put the sun at the center and published as he was dying.
The book
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), a Polish astronomer and church canon, worked out a system with the sun at the center and the Earth as one planet circling it, spinning on its axis daily. He held back publishing for decades, partly fearing ridicule.
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) was finally printed in 1543. The story goes that the first printed copy was put in his hands on his deathbed, on May 24, 1543.
Why it didn't cause an uproar at first
An unsigned preface, added by the Lutheran minister Andreas Osiander who oversaw the printing, said the system was just a mathematical tool for calculating, not a claim about reality. Copernicus was dead and couldn't object. The book was dense mathematics, read mostly by astronomers. The real fight came about 70 years later. See Bruno and Galileo.
Key facts
- Copernicus 1543: Earth moves around the sun, published as he was dying
- De revolutionibus orbium coelestium; Osiander's preface called it only a calculating tool