Harvard Science Historian Publishes Results of Unprecedented 30-Year Census of Copernican Masterpiece

“Catholic church authorities were displeased by passages in Copernicus’ text that seemed to contradict Scriptural teachings. But, the Inquisition decided not to ban De revolutionibus outright because its observations might be needed in the future to adjust the Gregorian calendar. Instead, a Papal decree in 1620 demanded alterations in ten specific places in the text. Those alterations emphasized that the heliocentric theory was hypothetical and not intended to be a real description of the physical world.” —Harvard Science Historian Publishes Results of Unprecedented 30-Year Census of Copernican Masterpiece (SpaceRef.com)

An interesting study of the reaction to Copernicus’ radical teaching that the Sun, not the Earth, was the center of the solar system. Actually, neither Copernicus nor Galileo had quite enough evidence to prove their theories, and both were demonstrably wrong about important details, so it’s not surprising that there were multiple opinions floating around in the 17th century.