Research Catalog

Title

Uncentering the Earth : Copernicus and The revolutions of the heavenly spheres / William T. Vollmann.

Author

Vollmann, William T.

Publication

New York : Norton, c2006.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

295 p. : ill.; 22 cm.

Summary

An analysis of the astronomer's pivotal sixteenth-century work traces how his challenge to beliefs about an Earth-centric solar system had a profound influence on the ways in which humanity understands itself and the universe.

Series Statement

Great discoveries

Uniform Title

Great discoveries.

Subject

• Copernicus, Nicolaus, 1473-1543
• Copernicus, Nicolaus, 1473-1543 > Influence
• Astronomy > Early works to 1800
• Solar system > Early works to 1800

Genre/Form

Early works.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-294).

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

• Why the universe screams -- Exegesis : Osiander's preface and I.1-4 -- Once upon a time, beneath an unspotted sun -- Provenance of the preface -- Rev. I.1 : what ought to be must be -- Spherical finitude -- I.2 : the spherical Earth -- Starry proofs -- I.3 : proportioning water on the Earth -- I.4 : eternal circles, circles around circles -- The ecliptic and the Zodiac -- The equinoxes -- Ecliptic wriggles -- A complaint against contrary movements -- I.4 (cont'd) : "we must however confess that the movements are circular" -- On guard -- What we believed : cosmology -- Centeredness as inevitability -- Twelve impieties -- Ptolemy's justifications -- Polish courtyards -- The dead hand -- Epicycles -- Diagram of a water-mill -- Equants -- The parable of the Alphonsine tables -- One thing with many effects -- Exegesis : I.5 -- What we believed : motion -- Earth's appropriate position -- Natural versus compulsory motion -- Willed perfection --^
• "Circular movement belongs to wholes and rectilinear to parts" -- Stillness -- Exegesis : I.5 (cont'd)-I.9 -- I.5 : "does the Earth have a circular movement?" -- I.6 : the geometry of heavenly immensity -- 1.7-9 : Copernicus almost defines gravity -- A digression on Neptune's atmosphere -- A 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 -- How easy it used to be to save the appearances! -- Foucault's pendulum -- "Bequeathed like a legacy" -- "Binoculars are usually needed" -- Exegesis : I.10-14 -- I.10 : simplifying and rearranging the heavenly spheres -- I.11 : the Earth's three movements -- I.12-14 : some theorems of plane and spherical geometry -- Orbits of Venus -- "In line with the Water-Bearer's testicles" -- Parallax -- Another 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 -- II.1-2 : uncentering definitions -- II.3-14 : tables and transformations -- What we believed : scriptures -- The parable of the lodestone -- Exempt from re-examination -- The status of the sun when Lot came to Zo'ar -- "Aided by spiritual insight" -- Twenty-four centuries since creation -- Axioms of scriptural astronomy -- The leaden square -- "The sun did run much more than 7,000 miles" -- Exegesis : Book III -- III.1-3 : Spica's variables -- III.3-4 : the lost ellipse -- III.5-26 : eccentrics, epicycles and an uncentered Earth -- Silent to the end -- "A pale, insignificant figure" -- Postludes to an occultation -- Fish days and meat days in Gynopolis -- "Nobody shall have any proper pretext to suspect evil of me hereafter" -- Safe at last -- Exegesis : Book IV -- IV.2-4 : "I say that the lunar appearances agree" -- IV.4-32 : distances, diameters, volumes --^
• The Pillars of Hercules -- "I doubt not that certain savants have taken great offense" -- To the Eighth Circle -- Herschel's looming universe -- Exegesis : Book V -- V.1-5 : the Martian circles -- V.4-36 : rescuing Mercury from injury and disparagement -- Assessments -- "Rotting in a coffer" -- False supposition, true demonstration -- Exegesis : Book VI -- VI.1-8 : inclination, obliquation, deviation -- VI.9 : "except that in the case of Mercury ..." -- Simplicity -- Astrologers' shameful recourse -- Epilogue to Mercury's obliquation -- Back to iron-grubbing -- But the universe screamed -- Burnings -- The Medicean planets -- Resolutely Copernican -- "How great would have been thy joy" -- "Newly emerging values still seeking intellectual justification" -- "Safely back on a solid Earth" -- Chronology -- Glossary.

ISBN

0393059693

LCCN

^^2005025864

OCLC

61479556

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library