AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

...stupidity of intellect among philosophers, like drones moving among bees. When, therefore, I weighed these things in my mind, the contempt which I had to fear because of the novelty and absurdity of my opinion had almost driven me to abandon the work I had begun entirely.

But my friends drew me back, though I was long hesitating and even reluctant. Among them, the first was Nicolaus Schönberg A German cardinal and diplomat who was a patron of the sciences., Cardinal of Capua, renowned in every kind of learning. Next to him was a man who loves me dearly, Tiedemann Giese, Bishop of Kulm A lifelong friend of Copernicus and a supporter of his heliocentric theory., a most diligent student of sacred and all good letters. For he frequently exhorted me, and sometimes with added reproaches demanded that I publish this book and finally allow it to come to light—a book which had remained hidden away, suppressed by me, not only for nine years A reference to the Roman poet Horace’s advice in Ars Poetica to keep a manuscript for nine years before publishing., but now into a fourth period of nine years original: "quartum nouennium"; Copernicus implies he has held onto the work for thirty-six years.. Not a few other most eminent and learned men did the same with me, urging that I should no longer refuse to contribute my labor for the common benefit of students of mathematics because of the fear I had conceived. They suggested that the more absurd my doctrine about the motion of the earth might seem to most people now, the more admiration and favor it would earn after they saw, through the publication of my commentaries, the fog of absurdity lifted by the clearest demonstrations. Influenced by these persuaders and by that hope, I finally permitted my friends to undertake the publication of the work, which they had long requested of me.

d| But perhaps Your Holiness will not wonder so much that I dared to bring these nighttime labors original: "lucubrationes"; refers to work done by candlelight, implying deep and late-night study. of mine to light, after I took so much trouble in working them out that I did not hesitate to commit my thoughts about the motion of the earth even to writing; rather, you expect to hear from me how it came into my mind that I dared to imagine some motion of the earth, contrary to the received opinion of mathematicians and almost contrary to common sense. Therefore, I do not want it to be hidden from Your Holiness that nothing else moved me to think of another way of calculating the motions of the spheres of the world than the fact that I understood that mathematicians are not consistent with themselves in investigating them. For first, they are so uncertain about the motion of the Sun and Moon that they cannot even [determine the length] of the revolving year...