152 GIORDANO BRUNO PART n 



probable than its contrary, and certainly more suitable 

 and expeditious for calculation." l Copernicus had put 

 forward the theory as a hypothesis merely, and had 

 shown how much more simply the different positions of 

 the sun and planets as seen from the earth could be 

 explained by it, and how much more accurately they 

 could be calculated. In the Epistle prefixed to his 

 work (said by Bruno not to be by Copernicus himself), 

 the reader was warned of the folly of taking this 

 hypothesis as true. To Bruno the contrary of the 

 hypothesis was absurd. Bruno did not appreciate the 

 mathematical proofs of Copernicus, and constantly 

 spoke of him as too much of a mathematician, too 

 little of a physicist : his own mathematical demonstra- 

 tions were, however, much less successful than those of 

 his predecessor. 2 



1 Cena, Lag. 124. 



2 Bruno praises and gives long extracts from Copernicus in the De Immense, 

 bk. iii. ch. 9. 



