270 HISTORY OF FORMAL ASTRONOMY. 



observations, and for restoring the doctrine of the Motions. But though 



o o 



his geometry is perfect, the good old man appears to have been, at 

 times, careless in his numerical calculations. I have, therefore, recal- 

 culated the whole, from a comparison of his observations with those of 

 Ptolemy and others, following nothing but the general plan of Coper- 

 nicus's demonstrations." These " Prutenic Tables" were republished 

 in 1571 and 1585, and continued in repute for some time; till super- 

 seded by the Rudolphine Tables of Kepler in 1627. The name 

 Prutenic, or Prussian, was employed by the author as a mark of 

 gratitude to his benefactor Albert, Markgrave of Brandenbourg. The 

 discoveries of Copernicus had inspired neighboring nations with the 

 ambition of claiming a place in the literary community of Europe. In 

 something of the same spirit, Rheticus wrote an Encomium Borassice, 

 which, was published along with his Narratio. 



The Tables founded upon the Copernican system were, at first, much 

 more generally adopted than the heliocentric doctrine on which they 

 were founded. Thus Magini published at Venice, in 1587, New 

 Theories of the Celestial Orbits, agreeing luith the Observations of 

 Nicholas Copernicus. But in the preface, after praising Copernicus, 

 he says, " Since, however, he, either for the sake of showing his talents, 

 or induced by his own reasons, has revived the opinion of Nicetas, 

 Aristarchus, aud others, concerning the motion of the earth, and has 

 disturbed the established constitution of the world, which was a reason 

 why many rejected, or received with dislike, his hypothesis, I have 

 thought it worth while, that, rejecting the suppositions of Copernicus, 

 I should accommodate other causes to his observations, and to the 

 Prutenic Tables." 



This doctrine, however, was, as we have shown, received with favor 

 by many persons, even before its general publication. The doctrine of 

 the motion of the earth was first publicly maintained at Rome by Wid- 

 manstadt, 1 who professed to have received it from Copernicus, and 

 explained the System before the Pope and the Cardinals, but did not 

 teach it to the public. 



Leonardo da Vinci, who was an eminent mathematician, as well as 

 painter, about 1510, explained how a body, by describing a kind of 

 spiral, might descend towards a revolving globe, so that its apparent 

 motion relative to a point in the surface of the globe, might be in a 



1 See Venturi, Essai sur les Outrages Physico-Mathematiques de Leonard da Vinci, 

 aiec des Fragmens tires de ses Manuscrits apportes d'ltalie. Paris, 1797 ; and, as 

 there quoted, Marini Arcltiatri Pontifaii, tom.ii. p. 251. 



