The Sleepwalkers (69 page)

Rome,
November
1,
1536."
³⁸

It
should
be
noted
that
this
"most
emphatic"
(
atque
etiam
oro
vehementer
)
request
that
Copernicus
should
publish
his
theory
is
expressed
independently
from
the
Cardinal's
demand
for
a
fair
copy
–
there
is
no
question
of
any
preliminary
vetting
or
censorship.

Moreover,
it
seems
unlikely
that
the
Cardinal
would
have
gone
as
far
as
he
did
in
urging
publication
of
the
book
entirely
on
his
own
initiative;
and
there
is
further
evidence
of
early
benevolent
interest
in
the
Copernican
theory
shown
by
the
Vatican.
This
has
come
to
light
through
one
of
the
bizarre
hazards
of
history.
There
exists,
at
the
Royal
Library
in
Munich,
a
Greek
manuscript
–
a
treatise
by
one
Alexander
Aphrodisius
On
the
Senses
and
Sensibilities
which
is
of
no
interest
to
anyone
whatsoever,
except
that
the
title
page
contains
the
following
inscription:

"Clement
VII,
High
Pontiff,
made
me
a
present
of
this
manuscript,
A.D.
1533,
in
Rome,
after
I
had,
in
the
presence
of
Fra
Urbino,
Cardinal
Joh.
Salviato,
Joh.
Petro,
Bishop
of
Iturbo,
and
Mattias
Curtio,
Physician,
explained
to
him,
in
the
Vatican
gardens,
Copernicus'
teaching
about
the
movement
of
the
Earth.
Joh.
Albertus
Widmanstadius.

Cognominatus Lucretius.

Private
and
Personal
Secretary
to
our
serene
Lord."
³⁹

In
other
words,
Clement
VII,
who
had
followed
Leo
X's
example
in
his
liberal
patronage
of
the
Arts,
gave
the
Greek
manuscript
to
his
learned
Secretary
as
a
reward
for
his
lecture
on
the
Copernican
system.
It
seems
fairly
plausible
to
assume
that
his
successor,
Paul
III,
heard
about
Copernicus
through
Schoenberg
or
Widmanstad,
and,
his
curiosity
awakened,
encouraged
the
Cardinal
to
write
to
the
astronomer.
At
any
rate,
Copernicus
himself
perfectly
understood
the
importance
of
the
letter,
otherwise
he
would
not
have
printed
it
in
the
Book
of
Revolutions
.

In
spite
of
this
semi-official
encouragement
which
ought
to
have
given
him
complete
reassurance,
Copernicus,
as
we
saw,
hesitated
for
another
six
years
before
he
published
his
book.
The
whole
evidence
indicates
that
it
was
not
martyrdom
he
feared
but
ridicule
–
because
he
was
torn
by
doubt
regarding
his
system,
and
knew
that
he
could
neither
prove
it
to
the
ignorant,
nor
defend
it
against
criticism
by
the
experts.
Hence
the
flight
into
Pythagorean
secretiveness,
and
the
reluctant,
piecemeal
yielding
of
his
system
to
the
public.

Yet,
in
spite
of
all
his
caution,
the
slowly
spreading
ripples
did
stir
up
some
of
the
mud
which
Canon
Koppernigk
held
in
such
dread.
Not
much,
merely
a
few
splashes
–
more
exactly,
three
splashes,
held
carefully
in
evidence
by
his
biographers.
There
is,
firstly,
Luther's
coarse
but
harmless
after-dinner
joke
about
"that
new
astrologer
who
wants
to
prove
that
the
Earth
goes
round",
⁴⁰
made
about
ten
years
before
the
publication
of
the
Revolutions;
secondly,
a
single
remark
in
a
similar
vein
contained
in
a
private
letter
by
Melanchton,
⁴¹
dated
1541;
lastly,
in
1531
or
thereabouts,
a
carnival
farce
was
enacted
in
the
Prussian
city
of
Elbing,
in
which
the
star-gazing
Canon
was
included
in
a
grotesque
procession,
ridiculing
monks,
prelates
and
dignitaries,
according
to
the
custom
of
the
time.
This
is
all
the
persecution
which
Canon
Koppernigk
had
to
endure
in
his
lifetime
–
an
after-dinner
remark,
a
passage
in
a
private
letter,
and
a
carnival
joke.
Yet
even
these
harmless
squirts
from
the
dreaded
bottom
of
the
well
were
sufficient,
notwithstanding
all
private
and
official
encouragement,
to
keep
his
lips
sealed.
Until
the
one
great
dramatic
turn
in
his
life
–
the
bursting
onto
the
scene
of
Georg
Joachim
Rheticus.

9.
The Arrival of Rheticus

Rheticus,
like
Giordano
Bruno
or
Theophrastus
Bombastus
Paracelsus,
was
one
of
the
knight
errants
of
the
Renaissance
whose
enthusiasm
fanned
borrowed
sparks
into
flame;
carrying
their
torches
from
one
country
to
another,
they
acted
as
welcome
incendiaries
to
the
Republic
of
Letters.
He
was
twenty-five
when
he
arrived
in
Frauenburg
"at
the
extreme
outskirts
of
the
Earth",
with
a
determined
purpose
to
get
the
Copernican
Revolution
going
which
Copernicus
tried
to
suppress;
an
enfant
terrible
and
inspired
fool,
a
condottiere
of
science,
an
adoring
disciple
and,
fortunately,
either
homo-
or
bi-sexual,
after
the
fashion
of
the
time.
I
say
"fortunately"
because
the
so
afflicted
have
always
proved
to
be
the
most
devoted
teachers
and
disciples,
from
Socrates
to
this
day,
and
History
owes
them
a
debt.
He
was
also
a
Protestant,
a
protegé
of
Melanchton,
the
Preceptor
Germaniae
,
and
held
the
most
adventurous
job
a
man
could
hold
in
the
sixteenth
century:
that
of
a
Professor
of
Mathematics
and
Astronomy.