The Sleepwalkers (103 page)

Read The Sleepwalkers Online

Authors: Arthur Koestler

BOOK: The Sleepwalkers
3.24Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

None
of
these
questions
is
posed
in
the
Book
of
Revolutions
.
All
of
them
are
implicit
in
it.
All
of
them,
inescapably,
were
asked
sooner
or
later
by
the
Copernicans.

From
all
pre-Copernican
diagrams
of
the
Universe
there
emerges,
with
minor
variations,
always
the
same
reassuring,
familiar
picture:
the
earth
at
the
centre,
surrounded
by
the
concentric
shells
of
the
hierarchy
of
spheres
in
space,
and
the
hierarchy
of
values
associated
with
it
on
the
great
Scale
of
Being.
Here
be
tygers
and
here
be
seraphim:
every
item
had
its
assigned
place
in
the
cosmic
inventory.
But
in
an
unbounded
universe
without
centre
or
circumference,
no
region
or
sphere
ranked
"higher"
or
"lower"
than
another,
either
in
space
or
on
the
scale
of
values.
That
scale
was
no
longer.
The
Golden
Chain
was
torn,
its
links
scattered
throughout
the
world;
homogenous
space
implied
a
cosmic
democracy.

The
notion
of
limitlessness
or
infinity,
which
the
Copernican
system
implied,
was
bound
to
devour
the
space
reserved
for
God
on
the
medieval
astronomer's
charts.
They
had
taken
it
for
granted
that
the
realms
of
astronomy
and
theology
were
contiguous,
separated
only
by
the
thickness
of
the
ninth
crystal
sphere.
Henceforth,
the
space-and-spirit
continuum
would
be
replaced
by
a
space-time
continuum.
This
meant,
among
other
things,
the
end
of
intimacy
between
man
and
God.
Homo
sapiens
had
dwelt
in
a
universe
enveloped
by
divinity
as
by
a
womb;
now
he
was
being
expelled
from
the
womb.
Hence
Pascal's
cry
of
horror.

But
that
cry
was
uttered
a
hundred
years
later.
Canon
Koppernigk
in
his
tower
in
Frauenburg
would
never
have
understood
why
the
Reverend
John
Donne
made
him
a
pretender
to
the
seat
next
to
Lucifer's
throne.
With
his
blessed
lack
of
humour
he
foresaw
none
of
these
consequences
when
he
published
his
book
with
the
motto:
"For
Mathematicians
Only".
Nor
did
his
contemporaries.
During
the
remainder
of
the
sixteenth
century,
the
new
system
of
the
universe
went,
like
an
infectious
disease,
through
a
period
of
incubation.
Only
at
the
beginning
of
the
seventeenth
did
it
burst
into
the
open
and
cause
the
greatest
revolution
in
human
thought
since
the
heroic
age
of
Greece.

A.D.
1600
is
probably
the
most
important
turning
point
in
human
destiny
after
600
B.C.
Astride
that
milestone,
born
almost
exactly
a
hundred
years
after
Copernicus,
with
one
foot
in
the
sixteenth,
the
other
in
the
seventeenth
century,
stands
the
founder
of
modern
astronomy,
a
tortured
genius
in
whom
all
the
contradictions
of
his
age
seem
to
have
become
incarnate:
Johannes
Kepler.

CHRONOLOGICAL
TABLE
TO
PART
THREE

A.D. 1473

19
February.
Nicolas
Koppernigk
born
at
Torun,
Royal
Prussia

1483

Death of
father. Family adopted by Lucas Waczelrode.

1491-94

Studies
at Cracow University.

1496

Made a
Canon of the Ermland Chapter.

c
.
1560

Studies
at Bologna and Padua.

1503

Promoted
Doctor of Canon Law at University of Ferrara.

1506-12

Secretary
to Bishop Lucas at Heilsberg castle.

1509

Publishes
translation of Teophylactus Simocatta.

c
.
1510

(1514
at
the
latest)
Commentariolus
circulated
in
manuscript.

1512

Joins
Chapter of Frauenburg Cathedral.

1517

Beginning
of Lutheran Reformation.

1522

Letter
against
Werner
.

1533

Widmanstad's
Lecture in the Vatican Gardens.

1536

Letter
from Cardinal Schoenberg.

1537

Dantiscus
elected Bishop of Ermland.

1539

Summer.
Rheticus arrives in Frauenburg.

September.
Narratio
prima
completed.

1540

February.
Narratio
prima
published
in
Danzig.
Rheticus
returns
to
Wittenberg.

1 July.
Copernicus writes to Osiander.

1541

20 April.
Osiander's letters to Copernicus and Rheticus.

1540-41

Summer
1540
-
September
1541.
Rheticus'
second
sojourn
in
Frauenberg;
manuscript
of
Revolutions
copied
out.

1542

May.
Rheticus arrives in Nuremberg. Printing starts.

June.
Printing if first two sheets completed.

June.
Copernicus
writes
Dedication
to
Paul
III
,
sends
it
to
Rheticus.

November.
Rheticus leaves Nuremberg. Osiander takes over.

1543

24
May.
Arrival
of
first
printed
copy
of
Revolutions
.
Death
of
Copernicus.

1576

Death of
Rheticus.

Other books

The Spymistress by Jennifer Chiaverini
Envy by K.T. Fisher
The Hollow-Eyed Angel by Janwillem Van De Wetering
A Million Miles Away by Avery,Lara
Renewal by Jf Perkins
Facing the Music by Jennifer Knapp