The Sleepwalkers (97 page)

By
denying
that
the
universe
has
either
a
centre
or
a
periphery,
Cusa
also
denied
its
hierarchic
structure,
denied
the
lowliness
of
the
earth's
position
in
the
Chain
of
Being,
denied
that
mutability
is
an
evil
confined
to
the
sub-lunary
sphere.
"The
earth
is
a
noble
star,"
he
proclaimed
triumphantly,
"it
is
not
possible
for
human
knowledge
to
determine
whether
the
region
of
the
earth
is
in
a
degree
of
greater
perfection
or
baseness
in
relation
to
the
regions
of
the
other
stars..."
³²

Lastly,
Cusa
was
convinced
that
the
stars
were
made
of
the
same
stuff
as
the
earth,
and
that
they
were
inhabited
by
beings
neither
better
nor
worse
than
man,
but
simply
different
:

"It
cannot
be
said
that
this
place
of
the
world
[is
less
perfect
because
it
is]
the
dwelling
place
of
men,
and
animals,
and
vegetables
that
are
less
perfect
than
the
inhabitants
of
the
region
of
the
sun
and
of
the
other
stars...
It
does
not
seem
that,
according
to
the
order
of
nature,
there
could
be
a
more
noble
or
more
perfect
nature
than
the
intellectual
nature
which
dwells
here
on
this
earth
as
in
its
region,
even
if
there
are
in
the
other
stars
inhabitants
belonging
to
another
genus:
man
indeed
does
not
desire
another
nature,
but
only
the
perfection
of
his
own."
³³

Cusa
was
no
practising
astronomer,
and
he
built
no
system;
but
his
teaching
shows
that
long
before
Copernicus
not
only
the
Franciscans
at
Oxford
and
the
Ockhamists
in
Paris
had
broken
loose
from
Aristotle
and
the
walled-in
universe,
but
that
in
Germany
too
there
were
men
with
a
far
more
modern
outlook
than
the
Canon
of
Frauenburg.
Cusanus
died
seven
years
before
Copernicus
was
born;
they
had
both
been
members
of
the
German
natio
in
Bologna,
and
Copernicus
was
acquainted
with
Cusa's
teaching.

He
was
equally
familiar
with
the
work
of
his
immediate
predecessors:
the
German
astronomer
Peurbach
and
his
pupil
Regiomontanus,
who,
between
them,
had
brought
about
the
revival
of
astronomy
as
an
exact
science
in
Europe,
after
a
millennium
of
stagnation.
George
Peurbach
(1423-61)
came
from
a
small
town
on
the
Bavarian
border,
studied
in
Austria
and
Italy,
where
he
knew
Nicolas
of
Cusa,
and
became
subsequently
a
professor
at
Vienna
University,
and
Court
Astronomer
to
the
King
of
Bohemia.
He
wrote
an
excellent
textbook
on
the
Ptolemaic
system,
which
had
fifty-six
later
editions,
and
was
translated
into
Italian,
Spanish,
French
and
Hebrew.
³⁴
During
his
professorship
at
Vienna,
he
presided
over
a
public
discussion
for
and
against
the
motion
of
the
earth;
³⁵
and
though
Peurbach,
in
his
textbook,
took
a
conservative
attitude,
he
underlined
the
fact
that
the
motions
of
all
the
planets
were
governed
by
the
sun.
He
also
mentioned
that
the
planet
Mercury
rides
on
an
epicycle
whose
centre
moves
not
on
a
circular,
but
an
egg-shaped
or
oval
orbit.
A
number
of
other
astronomers
from
Cusanus
down
to
Copernicus'
first
teacher,
Brudzewski,
had
also
spoken
tentatively
of
oval
orbits.
³⁶

Peurbach's
work
was
continued
by
Johann
Mueller
from
Koenigsberg,
called
Regiomontanus
(1436-76),
a
Renaissance
genius
and
infant
prodigy,
who,
at
the
age
of
twelve,
published
the
best
astronomical
yearbook
for
1448,
and
at
fifteen
was
asked
by
the
Emperor
Frederick
III
to
cast
a
horoscope
for
the
Imperial
bride.
He
went
to
the
University
of
Leipzig
when
he
was
eleven,
and
at
sixteen
became
the
pupil
and
associate
of
Peurbach
in
Vienna.
Later
he
travelled
with
Cardinal
Bessarion
to
Italy,
to
learn
Greek
and
study
Ptolemy
in
the
original.
After
Peurbach's
death,
he
edited
the
former's
book
on
the
planetary
motions,
then
published
his
own
treatise
on
spherical
trigonometry,
from
which
Copernicus
is
supposed
to
have
heavily
borrowed,
without
acknowledgement,
in
his
own
chapters
on
trigonometry.
^36a

Regiomontanus'
later
years
reflect
a
growing
discontent
with
traditional
astronomy.
A
letter,
written
in
1464,
contains
this
typical
outburst: