Uncentering the Earth: Copernicus and The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (Great Discoveries Series)
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“Highly personal and philosophical . . . the next best thing to reading Copernicus.”—Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly Modern readers are less inclined than earlier ones to sit through Copernicus's juggling of Ptolemy's epicycles to discover how he arrived at his eureka moment that the Earth moves around the Sun. Fortunately, they don't have to, as Vollmann, whose Europe Central won this year's National Book Award for fiction, provides a highly personal and philosophical gloss of all six chapters of Copernicus's De revolutionibus (1543). Vollmann interrupts his exegeses with discussions of the contemporary mindset, the limits of observation at the time (we're told repeatedly how difficult it is to spot Mercury without a good pair of binoculars) and the scientist's quiet, provincial career. What seems most remarkable about Copernicus's book after reading Vollmann's version is how firmly his work is based on Ptolemy's. It's also striking how close he came to modern astronomical values, especially since he thought that arriving within 10 degrees of a true value would be an amazing achievement. Vollmann can't completely avoid technical explanations, but readers who want to understand the significance of Copernicus's book in both his own time and ours will find this the next best thing to reading it. 20 b&w illus. (Feb. 6) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
List of Diagrams 17Notes 19Why the Universe Screams 21Exegesis: Osiander's Preface and I.1-4 25Once upon a time, beneath an unspotted sunProvenance of the prefaceRev. I.1: What ought to be must beSpherical finitudeI.2: The spherical EarthStarry proofsI.3: Proportioning water on the EarthI.4: Eternal circles, circles around circlesThe ecliptic and the ZodiacThe equinoxesEcliptic wrigglesA complaint against contrary movementsI.4 (cont'd): "We must however confess that the movements are circular"On guardWhat We Believed: Cosmology 53Centeredness as inevitabilityTwelve impietiesPtolemy's justificationsPolish courtyardsThe dead handEpicyclesDiagram of a water-millEquantsThe parable of the Alphonsine TablesOne thing with many effects.Exegesis: I.5 79What We Believed: Motion 80Earth's appropriate positionNatural versus compulsory motionWilled perfection"Circular movement belongs to wholes and rectilinear to parts"StillnessExegesis: I.5 (cont'd)-I.9 90I.5: "Does the Earth have a circular movement?"I.6: The geometry of heavenly immensityI.7-9: Copernicus almost defines gravityA digression on Neptune's atmosphereA sub-digression on the Coriolis Effect"Then what should we say about the clouds?"I.9: Centering the sun.The Limits of Observation in 1543 100How easy itused to be to save the appearances!Foucault's pendulum"Bequeathed like a legacy""Binoculars are usually needed"Exegesis: I.10-14 109I.10: Simplifying and rearranging the heavenly spheresI.11: The Earth's three movementsI.12-14: Some theorems of plane and spherical geometryOrbits of Venus 113"In line with the Water-Bearer's testicles"ParallaxAnother perfect circle"Then what will they say is contained in all this space?""An easier and more convenient demonstration""More complicated than the Ptolemaic system""But now the Telescope manifestly shows these horns"Exegesis: Book II 136II.1-2: Uncentering definitionsII.3-14: Tables and transformationsWhat We Believed: Scriptures 142The parable of the lodestoneExempt from re-examinationThe status of the sun when Lot came to Zo'ar"Aided by spiritual insight"Twenty-four centuries since CreationAxioms of Scriptural astronomyThe leaden square"The Sun did run much more than 7,000 miles"Exegesis: Book III 161III.1-3: Spica's variablesIII.3-4: The lost ellipseIII.5-26: Eccentrics, epicycles and an uncentered Earth.Silent to the End 168"A pale, insignificant figure"Postludes to an occupationFish days and meat days in Gynopolis"Nobody shall have any proper pretext to suspect evil of me hereafter"Safe at lastExegesis: Book IV 180IV.2-4: "I say that the lunar appearances agree"IV.4-32: Distances, diameters, volumesThe Pillars of Hercules 185"I doubt not that certain savants have taken great offense"To the Eighth CircleHerschel's looming universeExegesis: Book V 192V.1-5: The Martian circlesV.4-36: Rescuing Mercury from injury and disparagementAssessments 203"Rotting in a coffer"False supposition, true demonstrationExegesis: Book VI 206VI. 1-8: Inclination, obliquation, deviationVI.9: "Except that in the case of Mercury..."Simplicity 212Astrologers' shameful recourseEpilogue to Mercury's obliquationBack to iron-grubbingBut the universe screamedBurnings 221The Medicean planetsResolutely Copernican"How great would have been thy joy""Newly emerging values still seeking intellectual justification""Safely back on a solid Earth"Chronology 235Glossary 239Sources 247Bibliography 287Acknowledgments 295
