Author(s): John Freely

Science & Natural History

Nicolaus Copernicus gave the world perhaps the most important scientific insight of modern era: the theory that the earth and the other planets revolve around the sun. He was also the first to proclaim that the earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours. He was a true radical of this time. This biography would be a natural follow-up to John's books on Islamic and Greek science, because Copernicus wove together the two strands that had threaded their way through the ancient Greek and medieval Islamic worlds, combining the heliocentric theory of the Greek astronomer Aristarchus with the mathematical methods developed by Islamic astronomers, opening the way for the new astronomy and science that emerged in western Europe in the seventeenth century. Most of the books written on Copernicus during the last 50 years have concentrated on his theories; John proposes to write about the enigmatic man.