Commentariolus
Work by Copernicus / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Commentariolus (Little Commentary) is Nicolaus Copernicus's brief outline of an early version of his revolutionary heliocentric theory of the universe.[1] After further long development of his theory, Copernicus published the mature version in 1543 in his landmark work, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres).
Author | Nicolaus Copernicus |
---|---|
Language | Latin |
Subject | Astronomy |
Publication date | 1514 |
Copernicus wrote the Commentariolus in Latin by 1514 and circulated copies to his friends and colleagues.[lower-alpha 1] It thus became known among Copernicus's contemporaries, though it was never printed during his lifetime. In 1533, Johann Albrecht Widmannstetter delivered a series of lectures in Rome outlining Copernicus' theory. Pope Clement VII and several Catholic cardinals heard the lectures and were interested in the theory. On 1 November 1536, Nikolaus von Schönberg, Archbishop of Capua and since the preceding year a cardinal, wrote to Copernicus from Rome and asked him for a copy of his writings "at the earliest possible moment".[4]
Although copies of the Commentariolus circulated for a time after Copernicus's death,[lower-alpha 2] it subsequently lapsed into obscurity, and its previous existence remained known only indirectly, until a surviving manuscript copy was discovered and published in the second half of the nineteenth century.[lower-alpha 3]