Diplomacy,Patronage,and the Preface to De Revolutionibus

Westman Robert S. , “Proof, poetics and patronage: Copernicus' preface to De revolutionibus”, in Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution, ed. by Lindberg David C. Westman Robert S. (Cambridge, 1990), 167–205.

Burtt E. A. , The metaphysical foundations of modern physical science (London, 1932), 49–51; Duhem Pierre , To save the phenomena: An essay on the idea of physical theory from Plato to Galileo , transl. by Doland Edmund Maschler Chaninah (Chicago, 1969), 61–3.

Kuhn Thomas S. , The Copernican Revolution (Cambridge, 1957), 136–44.

Westman , op. cit. (ref. 1), 178.

Westman Robert S. , The Copernican question (Berkeley, 2011), 133.

Granada Miguel A. Tessicini Dario , “Copernicus and Fracastoro: The dedicatory letters to Pope Paul III, the history of astronomy, and the quest for patronage”, Studies in history and philosophy of science, xxxvi (2005), 431–76.

Fracastoro Girolamo , Homocentrica, sive de stellis (Venice, 1538).

Granada Tessicini , op. cit. (ref. 6), 446; Biskup Marian , Regesta Copernicana (Warsaw, 1973), document 167. Rosen Edward , Nicholas Copernicus minor works (Baltimore, 1985), 310, infers that Copernicus and Schönberg did not meet.

Granada Tessicini , op. cit. (ref. 6), 445, suggest that “it can be assumed that Copernicus would have wanted to be protected by Giberti's rival”. However, this will be questioned in a later section of this paper.

Rosen Edward , Copernicus and the Scientific Revolution (Malabar, 1984), 188.

Barker Peter Goldstein Bernard R. , “Patronage and the production of De revolutionibus”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xxxiv (2003), 345–68. Their paper in effect took as a model that by Biagioli Mario , “Galileo's system of patronage”, History of science , xxviii (1990), 1–62. Biagioli's study concentrated on Galileo's copious letters and on viewing his career via the framework of patronage; Barker and Goldstein's principal source was Biskup, op. cit. (ref. 8).

Hall A. R. , The Scientific Revolution 1500–1800 (London, 1954), 55.

Zinner Ernst , Geschichte der Sternkunde (Berlin, 1931), 256–7.

White Andrew Dickson , A history of the warfare of science with theology in Christendom (New York, 1896), 124.

Armitage Angus , Copernicus, the founder of modern astronomy (London, 1938), 94.

Westman Robert S. , “The Melanchthon Circle, Rheticus and the Wittenberg interpretation of the Copernican theory”, Isis, lxvi (1975), 164–93, p. 173.

Gingerich Owen , The eye of heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler (New York, 1993), 298–300.

Wrightsman Bruce , “Andreas Osiander's contribution to the Copernican achievement”, in Westman Robert S. (ed.), The Copernican achievement (Los Angeles, 1975), 213–43, p. 239.

Wrightsman , op. cit. (ref. 18), 240.

Lerner Michel-Pierre Segonds Alain , “Sur l'Ad lectorem du De revolutionibus orbium caelestium”, Galileana, v (2008), 113–48.

Prowe Leopold Friedrich , Nicolaus Coppernicus (Berlin, 1883), i/1, 376; Adamczewski Jan , Nicolaus Copernicus and his epoch (Warsaw, 1972), 109. Gingerich Owen , in “Celebrating a quinquecentennial”, Science, clxxxiv, no. 4137 (1974), 660–3, refers to the Adamczewski work as “unusually informative” despite its not being a scholarly biography. Koyré Alexandre , The astronomical revolution (London 1973), 22, reasonably noted that Copernicus's life as Watzenrode's secretary “bore no resemblance to the popular conception of a canon's life, peaceful and serene…. It was, on the contrary, one of activity…. Warmia … was as much a political as an ecclesiastical institution … he would not have had much time to meditate, study or make calculations”.

Schmauch Hans , “Der Streit um die Wahl des ermländischen Bischofs Lucas Watzenrode”, Altpreussische Forschungen , 1933, 65–101, p. 68. Fryderyk Papée, “Kandydatura Fryderyka Jagiellończyka na Biskupstwo Warmińskie, 1489–92”, in his Studya i szkice z csasów Kazimierza Jagiellończyka (Warsaw, 1907).

von Tüngen Nikolaus , who himself was a native of Prussia, had worked in the Curia and had in 1467 been appointed Bishop contrary to Kazimierz's wishes: Schmauch Hans , “Der kampf zwischen dem Ermländischen Bischof Nikolaus von Tüngen und Polen”, Zeitschrift für die Geschichte und Altertumskunde Ermlands , xxv (1933), 69–136; and Eichhorn Anton , “Geschichte der Ermländischen Bischofswahlen”, Zeitschrift für die Geschichte und Altertumskunde Ermlands , i (1859), 92–191, pp. 149–70. A tradition of appointment of Bishop of Warmia (then known as Ermland) against Kazimierz's wishes had been started by the choice in 1457 of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, who, on becoming Pope Pius II in 1458, had appointed his own choice of successor in Warmia, a Prussian native who had worked in the Curia, Paul von Legendorf. Schmauch Hans , “Die kirchenpolitischen Beziehungen des Fürstbistums Ermland zum Polen”, Zeitschrift für die Geschichte und Altertumskunde Ermlands , xxvi (1937), 271–337, p. 272.

To the Warmian chapter on 18 May 1489 and on 3 June to Kazimierz: Schmauch, op. cit. (ref. 22), 72.

Prowe , op. cit. (ref. 21), i/1, 165–6; Górski Karol , Communitas Princeps Corona Regni (Warsaw, 1976), 93. Kazimierz referred thereafter to the “man Lucas”, an expression involving the contemptuous indication that Lucas was not a member of the nobility: Schmauch, op. cit. (ref. 23), 281. Kazimierz died in 1492.

Górski Karol , “Objêcie kanonii we Fromborku przez Mikołaja Kopernika”, Zapiski Historyczne , xxxviii (1973), 35–45; Biskup , op. cit. (ref. 8), documents 23, 25 and 30; Schmauch Hans , “Zur Koppernikusforschung”, Zeitschrift für die Geschichte und Altertumskunde Ermlands , xxiv (1932), 439–60, pp. 454–9.

On 12 December 1495 the Grand Master sold three years' worth of his share of the Baltic amber collection to a Nuremberg dealer, sending the proceeds to his envoy in Rome. At the end of December 1495 the Papal adjudicator, Antonio de Monte, issued “litterae compulsoriales” for the Grand Master's envoy, Georg Tapiau, who was Dean (Domdecant) of Samland, to force Lucas to produce documents for the hearing of the case. On 12 February 1496 the Grand Master sent two envoys to Lidzbark, requiring him to present his case on the twelfth day following in Königsberg. On 24 February Georg Prange presented at Königsberg an appeal from the defendents; the matter then went back to Rome. See Thiel Agustin , “Das Verhältnis des Bishofs Lukas von Watzelrode zum Deutschen Orden”, Zeitschrift für die Geschichte und Altertumskunde Ermlands , i (1859), 244–68 and 409–59, pp. 258–62, and Górski Karol , łukasz Watzenrode życie i działalność polityczna (1447–1512) (Studia Copernicana, x; Warsaw, 1973), 53–7.

Górski , op. cit. (ref. 27), 56; Biskup , op. cit. (ref. 8), document 25.

Górski , op. cit. (ref. 27), 56, gives details of the appeal. Caro Jacob , Geschichte Polens , part 5 (Gotha, 1886), 715, acidly suggested that “it is enough to say that Alexander VI was then Pope; Prussian gold was going in two streams to Rome, and the legal process was artfully prolonged in order to maintain the stream of gold”.

According to Adamczewski, op. cit. (ref. 21), 90.

Nowakowska Natalia , “Poland and the crusade in the reign of King Jan Olbracht”, in Crusading in the fifteenth century , ed. by Housley Norman (Basingstoke, 2004), 128–47, p. 131, although she suggested that the reason was that the real objective was domestic, the recovery of the Black Sea ports that had been seized by the Ottoman Emperor Bajezid II in 1484.

While very little is definitely known about Copernicus's stay in Rome, it has been reasonably proposed that he and his brother Andreas were in the care of Bernard Sculteti, Dean of Warmia, who had been in Rome since 1490, working in the Curia; he would have been able to facilitate their undertaking legal practice in the Curia. Dobrzycki Jerzy Gingerich Owen (eds), Nicholas Copernicus: Studies on the works of Copernicus and biographical materials (Ann Arbor, 1976), translation of chapters of Ludwik Antoni Birkermajer, Mikołaj Kopernik (Cracow, 1900), 213. On p. 375, Birkenmajer reasonably put Copernicus's arrival in Rome in April 1500.

See Górski , op. cit. (ref. 27), 57, concerning the bribery. The negotiations were held between Lucas and the Knights on 14 November 1496, Thiel, op. cit. (ref. 27), 263–4.

The Cardinal of Sienna, Franciscus Piccolomini, conducted private correspondence with Lucas on behalf of the Knights, but to no avail. Following his abortive intervention, in late 1497 the Order's representatives presented arbitrators with twenty-four new documents.

Schmauch Hans , “Die Rückkehr des Coppernicus aus Italien im Jahre 1503”, Zeitschrift für die Geschichte und Altertumskunde Ermlands , xxv (1933), 229–233; also Schmauch Hans , “Neues zur Coppernicusforschung”, Zeitschrift für die Geschichte und Altertumskunde Ermlands , xxvi (1938), 638–53, p. 647.

Thiel , op. cit. (ref. 27), 432–44.

The Archbishop of Riga was associated with the Teutonic Knights' northern counterparts, the Livonian Knights: Prowe, op. cit. (ref. 21), i/1, 357. Górski , op. cit. (ref. 27), 63 noted that on 28 February 1506 Aleksander asked Lucas to write to the Papacy with the request for an archbishopric to cover Prussia and Warmia. The archdiocese would have incorporated the bishopric of Kulm (Chelmno) in Royal Prussia and the bishoprics of Pomesania and Samland (in the Knights' territory).

Górski , op. cit. (ref. 27), 64, noted that Lucas did achieve the exemption of his diocese from the authority of the Archbishop of Riga in 1512.

Górski Karol , Mikołaj Kopernik: Środowisko społeczne i samotność (Wrocław, 1973), 107; Thimm Werner , “Lebensdaten des Copernicus”, in Kaulbach Friedrich Bargenda Udo Blühdorn Jürgen (eds), Nicolaus Copernicus zum 500 Geburtstag (Cologne, 1973), 260.

Górski , op. cit. (ref. 25), 106, stated that there is no doubt that Lucas, knowing the customs prevailing at that time in Rome, wanted to convey his position to one of his nephews. Lucas had had personal experience of the sums of money needed for such bribes. Górski, ibid., 93, suggested that Lucas used all his money in obtaining the relevant Papal confirmation. Walther Hubatsch, “Das westliche Preussen und das Ermland zur Zeit des Copernicus”, in Kaulbach (eds), op. cit. (ref. 39), 138–154, p. 146, stated that Lucas was subsidised with 5000 gulden by von Tüngen and with 10000 gulden by the chapter.

Górski , op. cit. (ref. 27), 65. For the Poznań conference, see Forstreuter Kurt , Vom Ordensstaat zum Fürstentum (Kitzingen, 1951), 40–5.

Forstreuter , op. cit. (ref. 41), 41. Górski , op. cit. (ref. 27).

Bischoff Albert , attempting to follow the precedent of the appointment of someone working in the Curia on the three previous occasions: Schmauch, op. cit. (ref. 23), 282–4.

Forstreuter K. , “Fabian von Lossainen und der Deutsche Orden”, in Papritz J. Schmauch H. (eds), Kopernicus-Forschungen (Leipzig, 1943), 220–33.

Górski , op. cit. (ref. 25), 131, noted five canons as being in Rome. Schmauch, op. cit. (ref. 23), 285, noted that these included Albert Bischoff, Christoph von Suchten and Bernhard Sculteti.

Schmauch , op. cit. (ref. 35, 1938), 647–9, proposed that the office of chancellor was always held by a resident canon. His date of the end of 1510 for Copernicus's being resident in Frauenburg has been widely followed.

The successful candidate, Fabian von Lossainen, in addition to his Curia contact, had also been on excellent terms with the Order's recent chancellor, Hans von Schönberg (brother of Nicolaus): Forstreuter, op. cit. (ref. 44). Fabian was on his father's side a member of the Warmian nobility and on his mother's side a member of the influential Koşcielecki family, several of whom held important posts in Poland (Schmauch, op. cit. (ref. 23), 281 and 290), and one of whom had just married Zygmunt's former Prussian mistress so that Zygmunt could marry: Ezechiel Zivier, Neuere geschichte Polens: Die zwei letzten Jagiellonen (Gotha, 1915), 79. Fabian also rapidly came to terms with the influential Bürgermeister of Danzig (Gdansk), Eberhard Ferber. It is noteworthy that of the next three appointments as canon of Warmia, two were younger Ferbers: cf. Sikorski Jerzy , Mikołaj Kopernik na Warmii: Chronologia życia i działalnosci (Olsztyn, 1968), 144. However, Copernicus had much greater relevant experience and was thus a potential rival, and it has been proposed that Copernicus had a three-year spell free from official duties, 1514–16, as ‘goodwill’ from Fabian: Prowe, op. cit. (ref. 21), i/2, 34 and 45; Forstreuter, op. cit. (this ref.), 220.

See Biskup Marian , Nicolaus Copernicus im Ōffentlichen Leben Polens (Torun, 1972), 149. Kolberg Joseph , “Ermland im Kriege des Jahres 1520”, Zeitschrift für die Geschichte und Altertumskunde Ermlands , xv (1905), 210–390 and 481–578, p. 290, stated that three or four of the canons were already in Rome, and several moved to Danzig and Elbing at the beginning of the war. Three canons moved to Allenstein with Copernicus, but the town was threatened by the Knights in November 1520. Johann Krapitz resigned as administrator and went elsewhere, after which Copernicus took over as administrator. It appears that Copernicus was the only canon present in Allenstein during the danger period of early 1521, cf. Biskup , op. cit. (ref. 8), document 223.

Forstreuter Kurt , “Dietrich von Reden und Nikolaus von Schönberg”, in Kaulbach Bargenda Blühdorn (eds), op. cit. (ref. 39), 235–58, pp. 244–5. Dietrich von Reden appears in Sikorski, op. cit. (ref. 47), 144, as Teodoryk z Radzyna. He was appointed as canon in 1532, and was for a reasonably long time in Warmia during 1534 in order to take up his canonry formally. He had worked as an emissary for both Nikolaus von Schönberg and Albrecht von Hohenzollern, and contact was maintained by his journeys involving Rome and Warmia, and by letters, during the next decade.

Biskup , op. cit. (ref. 8), document 387. This was in favour of a friend, Thimm, op. cit. (ref. 39), 263.

Significant dates in the process of conversion of states to Protestantism were: 1525 for Prussia under Albrecht, 1527 for Sweden under Gustavus Vasa, 1534 for England under Henry VIII, 1537 for Denmark under Christian, 1560 for Scotland.

Gingerich Owen , The book nobody read (London, 2004), 15, noted that it required a printer with an international outreach to make publication financially viable. Denis Danielson, The first Copernican (New York, 2006), 34, described Petreius as a printer/publisher and indicated that his partnership with Schöner had made him the premier printer of scientific titles in all of Europe. These seem far more plausible views than that Petreius could not function as a patron, but that some Protestant patron (not identified) gave financial assistance, despite the work's dedication to the Pope, as suggested by Barker and Goldstein, op. cit. (ref. 11).

Rosen Edward , Copernicus and his successors (London, 1995), 183.

Westman , op. cit. (ref. 1).

Swerdlow Noel M. , review of Georg Joachim Rheticus, Narratio prima , transl. by Hugonnard-Roche Henri Verdet Jean-Pierre , Isis , lxxv (1984), 736–7.

Westman , op. cit. (ref. 5), 122.

Which in his case included being able to abandon the crusading function of the Teutonic Knights and thus avoid the danger of being used as front-line defence against the Turks; to change the state of the Knights into a Duchy under Polish suzerainty and thus avoid further conflict with Poland; to marry and create another branch of the Hohenzollern dynasty; and to secularise former church property thus facilitating the payment of debts from the war of 1520–1.

As stated by Kepler in his “Apologia pro Tychone contra Ursum”, transl. in Jardine Nicholas , The birth of history and philosophy of science (Cambridge, 1984), 152.

Wrightsman , op. cit. (ref. 18), 220, noted that at these colloquies Osiander's divergence from the Wittenberg position and that of the Nuremberg authorities was so infuriating that he was sent home and thereafter excluded from deliberations. His letters to Copernicus and Rheticus were dated 20 April 1541, as stated by Kepler, in Jardine, op. cit. (ref. 58), 152–3; also see Biskup, op. cit. (ref. 8), documents 453–4.

The work was titled Letter on the motion of the Earth by the original publisher; transl. with commentary by Hooykaas Reijer , G. J. Rheticus' Treatise on holy scripture and the motion of the Earth (Amsterdam, 1984). The short title of Opusculum follows Westman's usage, op. cit. (ref. 5), 131. Rheticus states that he will not set out the details of the astronomical system, since he has already done so in a previous work.

Hooykaas Reijer , “Rheticus's lost treatise on Holy Scripture and the motion of the Earth”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xv (1984), 77–80, p. 78.

Hooykaas , op. cit. (ref. 61), 78; also see Howell Kenneth , God's two books (Notre Dame, 2002), 59ff. Cf. Westman Robert , “The Copernicans and the Churches”, in God and nature: Historical essays on the encounter between Christianity and science , ed. by Lindberg David C. Numbers Ronald L. (Berkeley, 1986), 76–113, pp. 90–1.

Westman , op. cit. (ref. 62), 87.

Hooykaas , op. cit. (ref. 61), 80.

Westman , op. cit. (ref. 5), 131.

Lerner Michel-Pierre , “Aux origins de la polémique anticopernicienne (II): Martin Luther, Andreas Osiander et Philipp Melanchthon”, Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques , xc (2006), 409–52, p. 425, put forward the alternative potential explanations that Rheticus did not want to compromise the publication of De revolutionibus, or that Osiander was opposed to publication.

An example of such speed is that after Nikolaus von Schönberg died on 8 September 1537, Dietrich von Reden wrote of this on 23 September 1537 to Alexander Sculteti in Warmia, the letter reaching him in about the beginning of November: Forstreuter, op. cit. (ref. 49), 251–2.

Rosen , op. cit. (ref. 53), 152.

Westman , op. cit. (ref. 62), 79–80.

Kepler Johannes , Mysterium cosmographicum, transl. by Alain Segonds as Le secret du monde (Paris, 1984), 57.

Foscarini Paolo Antonio , “Lettera sopra l'opinione de' Pittagorici e del Copernico”, English translation given in Richard Blackwell, Galileo, Bellarmine and the Bible (Notre Dame, 1991), 217–51.

Barberiniano Codex XXXIX.55, English translation given in Gingerich, op. cit. (ref. 17), 275–81.

Lerner Michel-Pierre , “Copernic suspendu et corrigé: Sur deux décrets de la Congrégation Romaine de l'Index (1616–1620)”, Galilaeana, i (2004), 21–89, pp. 30–1.

Gingerich , op. cit. (ref. 17), 276.

Lerner , op. cit. (ref. 73), 32.

Swerdlow Noel Neugebauer Otto , Mathematical astronomy in Copernicus' ‘De revolutionibus’ (New York, 1984), 64–70.

Lerner , op. cit. (ref. 73), 33.

To Foscarini, English translation given in Blackwell, op. cit. (ref. 71), 265.

Gingerich , op. cit. (ref. 17), 277.

Cf. Lerner , op. cit. (ref. 73), 40.

Given in Finocchiaro Maurice , The Galileo affair: A documentary history (Berkeley, 1989), 154–97.

Gingerich , op. cit. (ref. 17), 282–3.

Gingerich , op. cit. (ref. 17), 284.

Rosen , op. cit. (ref. 53), 158–9, noted that Spina, who had been ‘master of the sacred and apostolic palace’ since 1542, was one of the few people trusted by Paul III to judge matters raised with regard to and at the Council of Trent.

Tolosani Giovanmaria , Opusculum quartum: De coelo supremo immobili et terra infima stabili, ceterisque coelis et elementis intermediis mobilibus, reproduced and translated in Michel-Pierre Lerner, “Aux origines de la polémique anticopernicienne (I)”, Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques , lxxxvi (2002), 681–721. Cf. Rosen, op. cit. (ref. 53), 155.

Lerner , op. cit. (ref. 66), 437.

Westman , op. cit. (ref. 16), 167.

Norlind Wilhelm , “Copernicus and Luther: A critical study”, Isis , xliv (1953), 274–6, p. 275, made the point that “Rheticus started on his journey in the spring of 1539. Surely it was no mere coincidence that Copernicus' world system was being discussed at about the same time in Luther's house”. Burmeister Karl-Heinz , Georg Joachim Rhetikus, 1514–1574: Eine Bio-Bibliographie (3 vols, Wiesbaden, 1967), i, 42–3 made the point that for the journey to Warmia, Rheticus collected a new famulus who had relatively recently arrived in Wittenberg, and that he could not have undertaken the journey without permission from Wittenberg, which may have been given by his friend Kaspar Cruciger, then rector of the University. Burmeister, 67, also made the highly reasonable inference that Melanchthon's noteworthy letter to Mithobius, including a denunciation of the heliocentric theory, followed a discussion with Rheticus after his return, not later than 16 October 1541, for the winter semester beginning 18 October 1541.

Rosen , op. cit. (ref. 53), 227–30.

Westman , op. cit. (ref. 5), 138.

Wrightsman , op. cit. (ref. 17), 243.