TO THE MOST HOLY LORD, PAUL III, SUPREME PONTIFF,

Preface by Nicolaus Copernicus to the Books of the Revolutions.

Decorative historiated woodcut initial 'S' depicting a scholar or clerk seated at a desk with an open book, with a second figure standing behind him in a study setting.

I can well enough estimate, Most Holy Father, that as soon as some people learn that in these books of mine, which I have written regarding the revolutions of the spheres of the world, I attribute certain motions to the terrestrial globe, they will immediately shout that I and such an opinion ought to be hissed off the stage original: "explodendum"; a theatrical term meaning to be booed or driven off by clapping and hissing.. For my own works do not please me so much that I do not weigh what others will judge of them. And although I know that the thoughts of a philosopher are far removed from the judgment of the common people—because his study is to seek the truth in all things, insofar as God has permitted this to human reason—nevertheless, I think that opinions utterly foreign to what is right must be avoided. Therefore, when I considered with myself how absurd a recital original: "ἀκρόαμα" (akroama); a Greek term for a lecture, performance, or something heard. it would be considered by those who know that the judgment of many centuries has confirmed the opinion that the Earth is placed motionless in the middle of the heavens as their center, if I, to the contrary, asserted that the Earth moves; I hesitated with myself for a long time as to whether I should bring my commentaries, written to demonstrate its motion, into the light of day, or whether it would be better to follow the example of the Pythagoreans Followers of Pythagoras, known for keeping their mathematical and philosophical discoveries secret within their own community. and certain others, who were accustomed to hand down the mysteries of philosophy not through writings, but by hand Meaning orally or through personal instruction., and only to relatives and friends. This is testified by the letter of Lysis to Hipparchus Lysis and Hipparchus were Pythagoreans; Lysis's letter famously scolded Hipparchus for sharing secret teachings with the uninitiated.. And indeed, they seem to me to have done this not, as some think, out of a certain jealousy of sharing their doctrines, but so that things of such great beauty, investigated with much effort by great men, should not be held in contempt by those who are either too lazy to spend any honest effort on literature (unless it is profitable), or who, even if they are stirred to the liberal study of philosophy by the exhortations and example of others, are nevertheless, on account of