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For anyone interested in the topic of Copernicus' heliocentrism, I can recommend Arthur Koestler's 'The Sleepwalkers': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sleepwa

For anyone interested in the topic of Copernicus' heliocentrism, I can recommend Arthur Koestler's 'The Sleepwalkers': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sleepwalkers:_A_History_of_Man%27s_Changing_Vision_of_the_Universe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sleepwalkers:_A_History_of.... While it does contain some speculation that is, in my opinion, poorly grounded, overall it is very informative and does a good job of dispelling some of the oversimplified narratives that are told about e.g. Galileo's persecution by the Church. (Of course since this is HN I can't wait to hear somebody tell me about some oversimplified narratives due to Koestler!) It's also just very written and full of amazing anecdotes - e.g. about how Kepler's mother was accused of witchcraft(!)

awanderingmind 2y ago
update: I consulted my copy of 'The Sleepwalkers' again, and I see that Martianus Capella is listed twice in the index. Koestler claims that Martianus Capella's system, wherein Venus and Mercury orbit around the Sun, while the rest of the planets orbit around the Earth, is originally due to Herakleides (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclides_Ponticus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclides_Ponticus, not to be confused with Heraclitus), a 4th century BC Greek philosopher. But I see that wikipedia links to an article [1] by Eastwood from 1992 that claims this to be a complete misattribution lacking any evidence. Link for the interested: https://adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1992JHA....23..233E https://adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1992JHA....23..233E. [1] Eastwood, B.S., 1992. Heraclides and heliocentrism: Texts, diagrams, and interpretations. Journal for the History of Astronomy, 23(4), pp.233-260.