Western Civilization I / Unit 17 WC1 1623 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Copernicus, 1543: The Sun at the Center
Captions available
The idea
Nicolaus Copernicus, fourteen seventy-three to fifteen forty-three, a Polish canon, argued in a book published at his death that the system worked with the sun at the center: heliocentrism. He kept the spheres and Ptolemy's calculations, and most astronomers were dismayed.
In practice
A Renaissance man: doctor, painter, Greek scholar, the anchor says.
Where people slip
The anchor calls him a priest. A canon, not certainly ordained.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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