THE NEW COSMOLOGY 



As a young man, Copernicus made his way to 

 Vienna to study medicine, and subsequently he 

 journeyed into Italy and remained there many years. 

 About the year 1500 he held the chair of mathematics 

 in a college at Rome. Subsequently he returned to 

 his native land and passed his remaining years there, 

 dying at Domkerr, in Frauenburg, East Prussia, in the 



year 1543. 



It would-appeaf^iat Copernicus conceived the idea 

 of the heliocentric system of the universe while he was 

 a compSratwety young man, since in the introduction to 

 his great work, which he addressed to Pope Paul III., he 

 states that he has pondered his system not merely nine 

 years, in accordance with the maxim of Horace, but 

 well into the fourth period of nine years. Throughout 

 a considerable portion of this period the great work 

 of Copernicus was in manuscript, but it was not pub- 

 lished until the year of his death. The reasons for 

 the delay are not very fully established. Copernicus 

 undoubtedly taught his system throughout the later 

 decades of his life. He himself tells us that he had 

 even questioned whether it were not better for him to 

 confine himself to such verbal teaching, following thus 

 the example of Pythagoras. Just as his life was 

 drawing to a close, he decided to pursue the opposite 

 course, and the first copy of his work is said to have 

 been placed in his hands as he lay on his death- 

 bed. 



The violent opposition which the new system met 

 from ecclesiastical sources led subsequent commenta- 

 tors to suppose that Copernicus had delayed publica- 

 tion of his work through fear of the church authorities. 



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