608 Galileo, and the Copernican System. [June, 



prejudice.^ and themselves believed that the stars could point out future events, 

 that Pojje Paul III. should have been drawn into the error. 



Under the auspices then of this pontiff, the " Astronomia Instaurata" of 

 Copernicus issued from the press at Marienburg in 1543. He did not live to 

 see what reception it would meet with from the learned, expirinj^ at Frauenberg 

 almost as soon as the first copies were delivered to him, May 22, 1543. Nor 

 was Paul III. able by any act of munificence to show how highly he valued and 

 approved of the work. It is however certain, that it was not then accused of 

 containing any error; not but that even at tliat time there was a suspicion that 

 some persons might be weak enough to charge this system with being contrary 

 to the Catholic religion ; for before the publication of the work itself, that is 

 prior to 1540, John Schoner, the professor of mathematics at Nuremberg, 

 transmitting to a friend of his the letter in which George Joachim Rhelicus 

 had apprised liim of the astronomical observations and system of Copernicus, 

 says, that as the latter did not correspond with what had been hitherto taught 

 in the schools, it might perhaps be imagined that it savoured of heresy. 

 " Licet consuetudo hactenus docendo methodo," he observes of tiie small work 

 of Rheticus, " non respondeat, possitque non unico themate usitatis scholarurn 

 theoricis coutrarius, et, ut monachi dicerenr, hjereticus existimari." 



Notwithstanding this, either no outcry was raised against Copernicus, or it 

 was done without any effect, and his work remained free from all censure in the 

 hands of the learned for nearly eighty years. It was only in the year 1620, 

 when the controversy with Galileo, who had been interdicted since 1616 from 

 advocating tiie system in question, was commenced, that by a decree of the 

 lioman Inquisition, the work of Copernicus was, not proscribed, but it was 

 ordered that, to render the perusal of it lawful, certain passages should be 

 corrected and others expunged. It is needless to demand from what cause this 

 alteration had not been required for so long a time ; all that was now to be 

 shown, and it has been done, is, that the Copernican system, at its rise, or 

 rather when it was renewed, was favoured and protected by the Roman pontiffs. 

 Some additional proofs of the subject shall now be added. The book of Coper- 

 nicus was published only in I54.'J, but rumour had previously spread abroad 

 the astronomical observations he had made, and his theory for explaining the 

 •motions of the heavenly bodies. About the year 1518, the aged Cardinal Hip- 

 polito d'Este travelled into Hungary, and took in his suite the celebrated Celio 

 Calcaguini of Ferrara. B^'om the letters of this last (Ojiera, p. 54,55, t!j-c.), 

 it appears that the Cardinal cultivated the profound sciences and principally 

 astronomy, far more than polite literature. Ariosto, among many others, 

 affords a proof of this when he represents him in the midst of a select and 

 numerous assemblage of learned men, attentively listening to their disputations. 

 {Orlando Furioso, c. xlvi. s. 92.) 



Di filosofi altrove e di poeti 



Si vede in mezzo un' onorata squadra; 

 Quel gli ilipinge il corso de' pianeti 



Quest! la terra quegli il del gli squadra. 



And perhaps to this love for grave and serious pursuits, Ariosto was indebted 

 for the rough compliment, if it were ever paid, which he received from the 

 cardinal, in other respects his kind benefactor and patron, when he came to 

 him with the Orlando Furioso. The latter, as archbishop of Milan, had 

 assigned him an annual pension of one hundred crowns from the chancery of 

 that cathedral ; but when Ariosto presented him with the poem, the cardinal 

 having looked at it fo. a short time, inquired either in joke or earnest where he 

 could have found such trash. " Un tal complimento a un poeta, che di si gran 

 fatica sperava pure qualche non piccola ricompensa, non dovette riuscir troppo 

 dolce." It cannot be ascertained if the cardinal in travelling through Germany 

 saw and conversed with Copernicus ; but it is certain that through the medium of 

 Calcaguini he became acquainted with James Ziegler, at that period a most 

 distinguished astronomer, and that on his own return into Italy, by repeated 

 invitations which were made through Calcaguini, he induced him to visit Ferrara, 



