Copernicus Circulates the Commentariolus

1512

A Polish canon and astronomer named Nicolaus Copernicus quietly distributed a handwritten pamphlet among trusted correspondents, suggesting that the Earth moved around the Sun. He would spend the next three decades refining the argument in secret, terrified of mockery and of the Church's theologians. Its seven axioms laid the groundwork for the scientific revolution that would transform European thought over the following two centuries.