Abstract
THE results of the ‘Copernican Revolution’ have been well described by historians of science. Less has been said about the origins of this revolution; that is, the problems and facts leading Copernicus to a conviction of the physical truth of the Earth's daily rotation and of its annual revolution around the Sun. I have developed a conjecture on this problem which will doubtless prove incorrect when closer study of the relevant sources is made, but which at least directs attention to a natural series of scientific problems, and which is based on Copernicus's own recollections of his early work.
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References
In Rosen, E., Three Copernican Treatises, second ed., 136 (New York: Dover, and London: Constable, 1959).
Quoted from Kuhn, T., The Copernican Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957), p. 138. Prof. Kuhn suggested there a possible connexion between calendar reform and the heliostatic hypothesis (p. 271), and he has given me generous and valuable assistance in connexion with this study.
Rosen, op. cit., 65.
Kennedy, E. S., and Roberts, Victor, Isis, 50, 227 (1953).
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RAVETZ, J. Origins of the Copernican Revolution. Nature 189, 859–860 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/189859a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/189859a0
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