Of All Things Visible, The

The Massive Bulk Of The Earth Does Indeed Shrink To Insignificance In Comparison With The Size Of The Heavens.

If There Should Chance To Be Any Mathematicians Who, Ignorant In Mathematics Yet Pretending To Skill In That Science, Should Dare, Upon The Authority Of Some Passage Of Scripture Wrested To Their Purpose, To Condemn And Censure My Hypothesis, I Value Them Not, And Scorn Their Inconsiderate Judgement. De Revolutionibus Coelestibus

Perhaps There Will Be Prattlers Who, Although Completely Ignorant Of Mathematics, Nevertheless Take It Upon Themselves To Pass Judgment On Mathematical Questions, And On Account Of Some Passage In Scripture, Badly Distorted To Their Purpose, Will Dare To Censure And Assail What I Have Presented Here.

The Scorn Which I Had Reason To Fear On Account Of The Novelty And Unconventionality Of My Opinion Almost Induced Me To Abandon Completely The Work Which I Had Undertaken. . . . Astronomy Is Written For Astronomers. To Them My Work Too Will Seem, Unless I Am Mistaken, To Make Some Contribution.

Hence I Feel No Shame In Asserting That This Whole Region Engirdled By The Moon, And The Center Of The Earth, Traverse This Grand Circle Amid The Rest Of The Planets In An Annual Revolution Around The Sun. Near The Sun Is The Center Of The Universe. Moreover, Since The Sun Remains Stationary, Whatever Appears As A Motion Of The Sun Is Really Due Rather To The Motion Of The Earth.