Copernicus' secret : how the scientific revolution began
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 197-216) and index.

Nicolaus Copernicus gave the world perhaps the most important scientific insight of the modern age, the theory that the earth and the other planets revolve around the sun, and that the earth rotates on its axis every 24 hours--nearly everyone then believed that a perfectly still earth rested in the middle of the cosmos, where all the heavenly bodies revolved around it. A transcendent genius, Copernicus was also a flawed and conflicted person. During the tumultuous years of the early Reformation, he may have been sympathetic to the teachings of the Lutherans. Supremely confident intellectually, he hesitated to disseminate his work--in fact, he kept it a secret, and the manuscript containing his theory, which he refined for at least twenty years, remained "hidden among my things." It might never have been published if not for the enthusiasm of a young mathematician who journeyed hundreds of miles to meet him.--From publisher description.