Това е посланието на английски с което Николай Коперник се обръща към папата Павел 3 с цел да изясни схемата на слънчевата система и да обори езическите философи твърдящи че земята е център на вселената. Обкръжение към папата по онова време е било като начин да се обърне човек с молба към Бога и всички вярващи. Ще спомен най интересните моменти в това обръщение;
1. Коперник като математик само с изчисления достига до извода, че движенията на планетите трябва да са около слънцето, защото така системата би била по проста и надеждна.
2. Коперник не се страхува от критици и дори ги напада прикрито за липсата на познания по математика, доста силен аргумент, така всеки който не е съгласен с него трябва да се върне в училище или да заеме с по полезни занимания. Все пак и неговите сметки не са перфектни, няма дори и помен от гравитационната сила като двигател на небесното движение, което ще бъде открито от sir Isaac Newton. А орбитите са идеални кръгове и то в една равнина въпреки, че визуално се е вижда различни еклиптики на видимите планети. Но дори и аз не съм идеален камо ли Коперник.
3. В книгите си той не ползва Библията като авторитет или източник на откритието си, макар при по внимателно прочитане да се намират теорията му. Не пропуска да обвини противниците си в изопачаване на пасажи против неговите изчисления. Обвинява и болшинството философи от древността до негово време в математическата некомпетентност, но признава писателската им дарба. Подхвърлят се думи като, подмазвачи и клеветници за обкръжението на папата. Все пак края е оптимистичен, папата е призован да остави тези дела в ръцете на математиците, напомня се ползотворното изменение на календара и като цяло ползата от математиката.
По долу е линка, на български така и няма превод на изследвания на Коперник, заинтересованите биха прочели и английската версия.
Освен "революции" в небесните тела това изследване е една от най важните в революции, която може да направи науката и техниката, ако е освободена от робството на философията и политиката, от задушаващата и бавна смърт на човешките страсти върху небесните принципи във всемира. Разбира се както и в наши така и в чужди сайтове се твърди абсурда, че Коперник е оборил Библията, а всъщност той прави точно обратното, доказва я, само с помощта на изчисления. Атеистите не стигат до тук но дори и причиляват Лутер и Калвин към неговите противници на страниците на укипедията. Разбира се подмазвачи и клеветници е имало, има и сега. Днес те не само около папата, но и във всички атеистични сайтове афишират невежество и ентропия.
http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/dedication.html
Copernicus, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies (1543)
On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies was dedicated to Pope Paul III, whom Copernicus asked to protect him from vilification. In the Dedication (excerpts which are included here), Copernicus explains his reason for delaying the publication of his book.
* * *
To His Holiness, Pope Paul III,
Nicholas Copernicus" Preface
to His Books on the Revolutions
I can readily imagine, Holy Father, that as soon as some people hear that in this volume, which I have written about the revolutions of the spheres of the universe, I ascribe certain motions to the terrestrial globe, they will shout that I must be immediately repudiated together with this belief. For I am not so enamored of my own opinions that I disregard what others may think of them. I am aware that a philosopher"s ideas are not subject to the judgment of ordinary person"s, because it is his endeavor to seek the truth in all things, to the extent permitted to human reason by God. Yet I hold that completely erroneous views should be shunned. Those who know that the consensus of many centuries has sanctioned the conception that the earth remains at rest in the middle of the heaven as its center would, I reflected, regard it as an insane pronouncement if I made the opposite assertion that the earth moves. Therefore I debated with myself for a long time whether to publish the volume which I wrote to prove the earth"s motion or rather to follow the example of the Pythagoreans and certain others, who used to transmit philosophy"s secrets only to kinsmen and friends, not in writing but by word of mouth.... And they did so, it seems to me, not, as some suppose, because they were in some way jealous about their teachings, which would be spread around; on the contrary, they wanted the very beautiful thoughts attained by great men of deep devotion not to be ridiculed by those who are reluctant to assert themselves vigorously in any literary pursuit unless it is lucrative; or if they are stimulated to the nonacquisitive study of philosophy by the exhortation and example of others, yet because of their dullness of mind they play the same part among philosophers as drones among bees. When I weighed these considerations, the scorn which I had reason to fear on account of the novelty and unconventionality of my opinion almost induced me to abandon completely the work which I had undertaken.
But while I hesitated for a long time and even resisted, my friends [encouraged me]. . . . Foremost among them was the cardinal of Capua, Nicholas Schцnberg, renowned in every field of learning. Next to him was a man who loves me dearly, Tiedemann Giese, bishop of Chelmno, a close student of sacred letters as well as of all good literature. For he repeatedly encouraged me and, sometimes adding reproaches, urgently requested me to publish this volume and finally permit it to appear after being buried among my papers and lying concealed not merely until the ninth year but by now the fourth period of nine years. The same conduct was recommended to me by not a few other very eminent scholars. They exhorted me to no longer refuse, on account of the fear which I felt, to make my work available for the general use of students of astronomy. The crazier my doctrine of the earth"s motion now appeared to most people, the argument ran, so much the more admiration and thanks would it gain after they saw the publication of my writings dispel the fog of absurdity by most luminous proofs. Influenced therefore by these persuasive men and by this hope, in the end I allowed my friends to bring out an edition of the volume, as they had long besought me to do. . . .
But you are rather waiting to hear from me how it occurred to me to venture to conceive any motion of the earth, against the traditional opinion of astronomers and almost against common sense. . . .
For a long time, then, I reflected on this confusion in the astronomical traditions concerning the derivations of the motions of the universe"s spheres. I began to be annoyed that the movements of the world machine, created for our sake by the best and most systematic Artisan of all, were not understood with greater certainty by the philosophers, who otherwise examined so precisely the most insignificant trifles of this world. For this reason I undertook the task of rereading the works of all the philosophers which I could obtain to learn whether anyone had ever proposed other motions of the universe"s spheres than those expounded by the teachers of astronomy in the schools. And in fact first I found in Cicero that Hicetas supposed the earth to move. Later I also discovered in Plutarch that certain others were of this opinion. . . .
Therefore, having obtained the opportunity from these sources, I too began to consider the mobility of the earth. . . . I thought that I too would be readily permitted to ascertain whether explanations sounder than those of my predecessors could be found for the revolution of the celestial spheres on the assumption of some motion of the earth.
Having thus assumed the motions which I ascribe to the earth later on in the volume, by long and intense study I finally found that if the motions of the other planets are correlated with the orbiting of the earth, and are computed for the revolution of each planet, not only do their phenomena follow therefrom but also the order and size of all the planets and spheres, and heaven itself is so linked together that in no portion of it can anything be shifted without disrupting the remaining parts and the universe as a whole. Accordingly in the arrangement of the volume too I have adopted the following order. In the first book I set forth the entire distribution of the spheres together with the motions which I attribute to the earth, so that this book contains, as it were, the general structure of the universe. Then in the remaining books I correlate the motions of the other planets and of all the spheres with the movement of the earth so that I may thereby determine to what extent the motions and appearances of the other planets and spheres can be saved if they are correlated with the earth"s motions. I have no doubt that acute and learned astronomers will agree with me if, as this discipline especially requires, they are willing to examine and consider, not superficially but thoroughly, what I adduce in this volume in proof of these matters. However, in order that the educated and uneducated alike may see that I do not run away from the judgment of anybody at all, I have preferred dedicating my studies to Your Holiness rather than to anyone else. For even in this very remote corner of the earth where I live you are considered the highest authority by virtue of the loftiness of your office and your love for all literature and astronomy too. Hence by your prestige and judgment you can easily suppress calumnious attacks although, as the proverb has it, there is no remedy for a backbite.
Perhaps there will be babblers who claim to be judges of astronomy although completely ignorant of the subject and, badly distorting some passages of Scripture to their purpose, will dare to find fault with my undertaking and censure it. I disregard them even to the extent of despising their criticism as unfounded. For it is not unknown that Lactantius, otherwise an illustrious writer but hardly an astronomer, speaks quite childishly about the earth"s shape, when he mocks those who declared that the earth has the form of a globe. Hence scholars need not be surprised if any such person will likewise ridicule me. Astronomy is written for astronomers. To them my work too will seem, unless I am mistaken, to make some contribution.
[Source: Nicholas Copernicus, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies, translated by Edward Rosen, (London: Macmillan, 1972), pp. 3-5.]
copyright © 2002 Steven Kreis
Last Revised -- February 28, 2006
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