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WORLD ART

GREECE

God of the

Cyclades

Dating from between2400 and 2200 B.C., thishead of a god, found onthe Greek island of

Amorgos in the Cycladesarchipelago, is remark¬able for the simple aus¬terity of its style. Thisphoto is taken from alavishly illustrated book,L'Art Grec, published in1972 by Editions Maze-nod, Paris, with an in¬

troduction by the emi¬nent Greek art specialistKostas Papaioannou. AnEnglish edition is nowbeing prepared for pub¬lication in the U.S.A.

Photo ( Jean Mazenod. from" L'Art Grec", Editions Maze-nod, Paris, 1972

CourierPage

APRIL 1973

26TH YEAR

PUBLISHED IN 14 LANGUAGES

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IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF COPERNICUS

By Jerzy Bukowski

THE FOUNDATION OF MODERN SCIENCE

By Owen Gingerich

THE MAKING OF A NEW UNIVERSE

By Olaf Pedersen

COPERNICUS AS TOLD TO CHILDREN

Special 16-page supplement

By Jean-Claude Pecker

THE GREAT CULTURAL REVOLUTIONOF THE RENAISSANCE

By Paolo Rossi

INSTRUMENTS FOR STARGAZERS

Photo report

COPERNICUS, GALILEOAND GIORDANO BRUNO

Three thinkers who challenged the forces of tradition

By Vincenzo Cappelletti

FURTHER READING ON COPERNICUSAND ASTRONOMY

A NEW VISION OF THE UNIVERSE

By René Maheu

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

UNESCO NEWSROOM

TREASURES OF WORLD ART

God of the Cyclades (Greece)

Photos © Hallwag. Bern, Switzerland

Photo Paul Almasy - "Unesco Courier"

COPERNICUS, A NEW VISION OF THE UNIVERSE

"This man has his place among the stars", it was said of Copernicus, andhere against a fitting backdrop of a chart of the heavens we show a paintingof the great astronomer by an unknown 16th century artist. Based on aself portrait, which has disappeared, it hangs in the town hall of Torun,Copernicus' birthplace. The stellar map in colour is novel in that it showsthe position of the stars for the year 2000. Adapted by Werner Merkli andpublished by Hallwag (Bern, Switzerland) it measures 1.30 m X 1 m. Backcover reproduces part of a map of the solar system by the same publisher.The complete map carries reproductions of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, andshows the size of all the planets in comparison to the Sun. The back ofthe map ha*TdaJtailed explanations of the solar system.

THE MANY FACES OF GENIUS. Copernicusas seen by seven young Polish artists whoseentries for a sculpture exhibition await the judges'verdict in a storeroom in Torun, the great astro¬nomer's birthplace. (See also page 27.)

Photo Paul Almasy - " Unesco Courier "

"History affords few examples of scientific discoveries that have hadsuch profound repercussions on the spiritual development of mankindas that of the great Polish astronomer Nicholas Copernicus." It waswith these words that Unesco's Director-General, René Maheu, openeda ceremony held in Paris on February 19th in honour of the 500th anni¬versary of the birth of the man who set the earth a-spinning roundthe sun and sparked off an unparalleled revolution in scientific method¬ology and thought. In this issue the Unesco Courier examines Coper¬nicus' contributions to the progress of science and, exceptionally,publishes a 16-page supplement for children on the great astronomer.Unesco Courier photographer Paul Almasy made a special trip to Polandand elsewhere to follow in the footsteps of Copernicus and broughtback a pictorial record of the life and times of one of the great figuresof science whose guiding principle in life was " to seek the truth inall things ".

IN THE FOOTSTEPS

OF COPERNICUS

by Jerzy Bukowski

NIICHOLAS COPERNICUS,

the first of the great scientific thinkersof modern times, was born in thenorthern Polish town of Torun on

February 19, 1473. His horoscope,which still exists, even gives the exactmoment of his birth: 4.48 a.m., thoughthis detail could be pure imaginationon someone's part.

Copernicus, famous as the originatorof the heliocentric theory of theuniverse, Is less well known for hisachievements as a humanist andclassical scholar. With his vast

erudition and profound interest in awide range of problems, his Insight asan investigator and his bold creativethinking and critical judgement, he was,in the words of one of his first

biographers, "fired by an ardentpassion for truth". His 'extraordinaryintellect places him among the world'sgreatest men of genius, but he wasalso a citizen deeply concerned withhis country's problems.

JERZY BUKOWSKI, professor and formerrector of the Warsaw Polytechnical Institute,Is president of the Nicholas Copernicus Com¬mittee of the International Union of theHistory and Philosophy of Science. A formerpresident of the Committee of the Historyof Sciences and Technology of the PolishAcademy of Sciences, he Is currently vice-president of the Polish Peace Committee.

No documented historical evidence

exists to tell us about the greatastronomer's childhood and earlyyouth. His father, also named Nicho¬las, was a Cracow merchant belongingto a family of Silesian origin,whose multiple interests had builtup close links with the towns ofPomerania.

Nicholas Copernicus the elder be¬came a burgher of Torun in 1458, andwithin a short time occupied a placeof considerable social standing. Afterhis death in 1483 his children, of whomthe youngest, Nicholas, was ten yearsold, were placed under the guardian¬ship of their maternal uncle, LucasWatzenrode, future Bishop of Warmia,who was at the time a high-rankingdignitary of the Church and adistinguished statesman attached tothe Polish royal court in Cracow.

Cracow was at that period thecapital of Poland, which was then atthe height of its power, and of whichone of the great Italian humanists ofthe early 16th century was to say,"of all the lands beyond the Alps noneequals Poland in its love of learning."

Torun was a flourishing town withprosperous trade and industries. Asan intermediate point for merchandiserouted through the ports of Gdansk

and Elblag, it held a key position inoverseas trade which assured it a

place of considerable importance inthe Polish economic system.

The two towns, which even todayretain their medieval character, aresituated upon the upper and lowerVistula respectively. Not far fromElblag, in the eastern part of the valleyof the Vistula, stood the town ofFrombork, where Copernicus was tospend the latter part of his life andwhere he died in 1543.

In the mid-fifteenth century, thepolitical situation of the towns of theBaltic coastal province was extremelycomplicated. With Gdansk, Elblagand Torun foremost among them, theywere engaged in a stubborn struggleto rid themselves once and for all of

the hegemony of the Teutonic Order,which had settled in the region as farback as the 13th century. The Treatyof Torun, signed in 1466, restoredPolish royal sovereignty over theBaltic coastal region, together with the-delta of the Vistula, and including themajor towns and the episcopal duchyof the Diocese of WarmTa.

Both Nicholas Copernicus the elderand the Watzenrode family played anactive role in achieving this agreement.To the end of his days, Lucas Watzen¬rode was to exert a vital influence

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

5

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF COPERNICUS (Continued)

6

upon the life of young NicholasCopernicus, guiding his studies andsetting the course of his futureecclesiastical and political career.

A second date confirmed by docu¬ments relating to Copernicus' youthis that of his registration at Cracow'sJagiellonian University in the autumnof 1491.

The Jagiellonian University was thenat the height of its expansion; it wasthe only university in Europe to havetwo chairs of astronomy, and wasrenowned for the exceptionally highlevel of its teaching of the mathe¬matical sciences. Studies there cover¬

ed not only the treatises of the ancientGreeks, but even those of the scholarsof Islam.

It was at Cracow that the youngNicholas Copernicus acquired his firstnotions of astronomy, and traditionhas it that the famous astronomer and

mathematician Wojciecj Brudzewskiwas among his teachers. During hisstudies at the Jagiellonian University,Copernicus obtained a thorough know¬ledge of Aristotelian and Ptolemaicastronomy and Euclidian geometry.

Judging from the books he bought atthis period, which are fortunately stillin existence, his main interest lay inspherical geometry and trigonometry,and in theoretical astronomy.

.LTHOUGH they differedon points of detail, Aristotelian andPtolemaic theories, which had pre¬vailed for over a thousand years, con¬curred upon two major fundamentalpostulates: firstly, the position assign¬ed to the Earth as the immobile

centre of the universe, and secondly,the attribution of a uniform circular

motion to all the heavenly bodiesfixed stars as well as planets, andincluding the Sun and the Moon. Thelatter principle, a Platonic axiom, wasto have a weighty influence upon theform first given by Copernicus to hisheliocentric system of the universe.

Aristotle and those who professedand perpetuated his philosophy, aswell as the astronomers and, in par¬ticular, Claudius Ptolemy, in his treatiseknown as the Almagest, give a trulyremarkable description of the move¬ments of the heavenly bodies, basedon the two principles mentioned above,although a number of contradictionsand anomalies were inevitably em¬bodied in their theories.

Copernicus became aware of thediscrepancies contained in the systemsgenerally accepted and taught, andthrough mathematical analysis andgeometrical synthesis, followed byminutely detailed observation of thesky, he gradually developed theidea of a heliocentric system of theuniverse.

Nicholas Copernicus probably spentfour years in Cracow, and in the

autumn of 1495 he was once again atthe court of his uncle Lucas Watzen¬

rode, who made unfruitful efforts tohave his nephew appointed canon ofthe Chapter of Warmia in Frombork.

His failure to do so may have beenthe decisive factor in the destiny ofyoung Nicholas. His uncle sent himto continue his studies at the Uni¬

versity of Bologna, where he himselfhad studied as a youth, stronglyrecommending him to obtain thedegree of doctor of canon law, witha view to pursuing an ecclesiasticalcareer.

Copernicus left for Italy in the au¬tumn of 1496, and remained in Bolognauntil the spring of the jubilee year1500, although Bishop Watzenrode hadin the meantime managed to have acanonry of the Chapter of Warmiaconferred upon his nephew by 1497.The presence of famous scholars atthe University of Bologna enabledCopernicus to perfect his knowledgeof astronomy while at the same timepursuing his canonical studies.

Copernicus' first recorded observa¬tion dates from this period: that of theeclipse of the bright star Aldebaran inthe constellation Taurus by the Moon,on March 9, 1497. The observationcarried out in Bologna contradicted thePtolemaic theory of lunar motion, andalthough it did not attack the funda¬mentals of geocentric astronomy, itnevertheless demonstrates Coperni¬cus' critical approach to traditionallyaccepted theories.

According to Ptolemaic theory, theMoon should be much nearer the Earth

at the quadratures and during the fulland new Moon, but the careful obser¬vations made by Copernicus in Bolo¬gna showed that the Moon's parallaxat quadrature was virtually identical tothe parallax of the full Moon. In otherwords, the distance between the Moon

and the Earth remained unchanged ineither of these positions.

Criticism and denial of the old sys¬tems gave way to positive research,which led to the construction, upon theshattered remains of outdated theories,of a new system much closer to theactual truth. This is clearly demons¬trated by the persevering studies car¬ried out by Copernicus. He was inRome during the great Jubilee year of1500, worked for some time in the

Vatican Chancery and, according totradition, gave public lectures inastronomy.

In the spring of 1501, the youngscholar returned to Poland to take upofficially his post in the Chapter ofWarmia: the Chapter gave him permis¬sion to go back to Italy, with injunc¬tions to study medicine at the Univer¬sity of Padua. Copernicus Jived inPadua for two years until 1503, apartfrom a few weeks spent in Ferrara,where on May 31, 1503 he obtainedthe degree of doctor of canon law.

The extent and depth of Copernicus'studies in Padua and his later interest

CONTINUED PAGE 8

14th-century

'pearl of learning'

Above, the courtyard of the Collegium Malus at the Jagiellonian University,Cracow. The University's foundation charter, dating from 1364, described it as"a pearl of learning". During Copernicus' four years as a student there(1491-1495) the University was ravaged by fire and the original Collegium Maiuswas destroyed, to be replaced in 1494 by the present magnificent building.Left, the Jaque Fountain near the church of St Mary, Cracow, surmountedby the figure of a student in the scholastic dress of Copernicus' day.Below, a present-day student makes notes from a book on astronomydating back to Copernicus' day.

8Photo Paul Almasy - "Unesco Courier"

The statue of Copernicus In the Old Town Square at Torun and thehouse in which he spent his boyhood from the age of seven. Theoriginal house was demolished in 1906 to make way for a departmentstore, but the two upper storeys were rebuilt In the style of the period.

IN THE FOOTSTEPS

OF COPERNICUS (Continued)

in this field are indicated by the hea¬vily annotated works on medicine andnatural sciences found in his personallibrary fifteen or so of these booksare still preserved in Uppsala Univer¬sity Library (Sweden).

At the end of 1503, Copernicus onceagain returned to Warmia, where hejoined his influential uncle Lucas Wat¬zenrode in his residence at the epis¬copal palace of Lidzbark. As theBishop's doctor and secretary, he ac¬companied him on his frequent travels,and historical evidence shows that his

office gave him ample opportunity topractise his medical skills.

Copernicus was consulted by agreat number of important people, andhe treated a wide variety of ailments,and of particular interest are his lateractivities as a specialist in publichealth and epidemiology, which hecarried out alongside his administrativeduties in the Chapter of Warmia.

During the ten years he spent withBishop Watzenrode, Copernicus wasinevitably drawn into political life. Itis certain that his sense of responsi¬bility in public affairs, of which hegave abundant proof during the fol¬lowing years, derives from this period.It is most probably from this time toothat he became increasingly interestedin the economic problems with whichhe was already familiar through hisobservation of the expansion of tradeand industry in the Italian towns hevisited during his years of study.

One thing which should be under¬lined is that Copernicus' stay in Lidz¬bark in no way diverted his attentionfrom his main subject of interest,astronomy. It was in fact during thisperiod that he finally and irrevocablyformulated his brilliant thesis deposingthe earth from its central position, anddecided to put into writing the funda¬mental postulates of the new astro¬nomy.

This he did, in a treatise which wasnot put into print, but was distributedonly in a very limited number of hand¬written copies under the title NicolaiCopernici de hypothesibus motuumcoelestium a se constitutis commen-

tariolus. (Nicholas Copernicus' Com¬mentary on the Hypotheses of tneMovement of the Celestial Orbs.)

The exact date of the Commentario-

lus is unknown, but it was probablywritten shortly before 1509, duringwhich year a further aspect of Coper¬nicus as a classical scholar was re¬

vealed In 1509 the letters of the

6th century Byzantine writer Theophy-lact Simoccata appeared in Cracow ina translation by Copernicus fromGreek into Latin.

Two dates mark the beginning of anew phase in the life of Copernicus:1510, the year of his installation atFrombork and 1512, with the death ofBishop Lucas Watzenrode. As heapproached his fortieth year, Coper-

CONTINUED PAGE 19

The castle at Olsztyn, Poland, where Copernicus lived for several years. From 1516 to 1519 it was his residence as adminis¬trator of the properties of the Chapter of Warmia. He returned to Olsztyn in 1520 on the outbreak of hostilities betweenPoland and the Teutonic Knights to organize the defence of the fortress against a threatened siege. Despite his manytasks, Copernicus continued his astronomical studies, using the big, first floor room whose windows are seen in this photo.Left of photo, the statue of an ancient divinity of the region which already stood in the castle courtyard in Copernicus' day.

L :; râ> -'

Photo Paul Almasy, "Unesco Courier", Paris

Copernicus noted down his first astronomical

observation while studying at the University

of Bologna (Italy) between 1496 and 1500. On the roof

of the university observatory (right) he used his

astronomical quadrant, here silhouetted against the

evening sky, to observe an eclipse of the moon

on March 9, 1497. Alongside the quadrant are the

Alfonsine planetary tables, compiled for Alfonso X

of Castile by Arabic, Jewish and Christian scholars

between 1248 and 1252. Lying beside the

tables is an early printed edition of the Almagest,

the astronomical and mathematical encyclopaedia

written in the 2nd century A.D. by Claudius

Ptolemy, of Alexandria.

The foundation

of modern scienceFrom his 'remote corner of the world'

Copernicus set in motion

not only the Earth,

but the entire spirit of research

by Owen Gingerich

10

OWEN J. GINGERICH, a leading Americanastrophysicist, Is professor of Astronomy andthe History of Science at Harvard University,and has taken part In Harvard astronomicalresearch expeditions to several countries,Including Sri Lanka and Lebanon. He Is alsoan astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astro-physical Observatory, In Cambridge, Massa¬chusetts. His publications include manystudies on the history of astronomy and theapplications of computers to this subject

O a modern scientist,science of the 15th century has astrange and unfamiliar quality. WhenCopernicus was born, men believedthat a weightless, crystalline sunwhirled daily around the earth.Celestial motions were explained interms of strivings inherent in matteritself. Professors of physics said thata stone thrown from the hand flew

straight until it ran out of "impetus"and then fell directly down to theground.

In 1543 Copernicus' masterpiece,De revolutionibus ("Concerning theRevolutions"), was published, andin the century that followed, thecurious, time-honoured scientific expla¬nations of antiquity and the MiddleAges gave way to the ideas that formthe foundations of today's science.

A great change indeed a revolution

took place in that age, with Coper¬nicus at its forefront. Far more than

political struggles, with their attendantfleeting changes, the work of Coper¬nicus and his Intellectual successors

has shaped our contemporary world.

If indeed Copernicus' contributionstriggered off the entire sequence ofideas that have become modern

science, we may well ask why this isa phenomenon only 500 years old.What prevented the appearance of aCopernicus a century or two before?Was an earlier great unfolding ofscience prevented by bonds of dogmaand ignorance?

Or, in a contrary view, 'should weconsider creative science a delicate

and fragile plant that blossoms forthonly in particularly germinal conditions?Perhaps it was not mere coincidencethat the great astronomer lived as a

Photo Erich Lessing O Magnum, Paris

contemporary of Columbus, Dürer,Leonardo, Erasmus, and Luther. Inthat case we can make a fascinatinginquiry: what factors contributed to theremarkable flowering of science typi¬fied by Copernicus?

The geocentric astronomy of Coper¬nicus' day had served well for overa thousand years; it meshed perfectlywith man's view of himself and with

the primitive physics of Aristotle. Tobe sure, learned prelates recognizedthat Easter was coming too early inthe calendar year, and a few astrolo¬gers knew that the planets were some¬times found several degrees frompositions predicted by tables based onthe venerable Ptolemaic theory. Butif there were a crisis in astronomy,Astronomía had just as much of aproblem on her hands after Coper¬nicus as before, for the calendar

remained the same and planetary pre¬dictions were improved only a little.

No one knows precisely how orwhen the Polish astronomer first seized

upon the idea of a sun-centred system;in any event, by 1515 he was hard atwork on his manuscript of De revolu-tionibus, a book that encompassedboth his new cosmology and a care¬ful re-examination of old and new

planetary observations.

Nor do scholars know why headopted a heliocentric view of thecosmos, for the observations of his daycould neither prove nor disprove hisidea. Nevertheless, there is a clue inhis own writings.

A euphoric sense of beauty pervadesthe entire composition of the book:For in this most beautiful temple, whowould place this lamp in another or

better position than that from which itcan light up the whole thing at thesame time?... We thus discover a

marvellous symmetry of the universeand a fixed harmonious linkage as canbe found in no other way... So vastis this divine handiwork of the most

excellent Almighty. Surely anaesthetic vision gripped Copernicusand guided his analysis of the heavens.

Yet it is a curious and nearlyforgotten fact that the CopernicanRevolution was nearly stillborn. Twodecades after he had begun his book,Copernicus had run out of steam. Bythen in his sixties, he had written themost profound astronomical treatise ina millenium, but the small technicaldetails lacked a final polish and innerconsistency. His manuscript was awork of beauty, with exquisitely draftedfigures and two-colour tables, but

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

11

THE BOOK

THAT MOVED

THE WORLD

The original manuscript ofCopernicus' "On the Revo¬lutions of the HeavenlySpheres" is both a majorscientific treatise and a work

of art. Written in cursive and

formal styles of the 16thcentury, the text is illustratedwith many astronomical dia¬grams, inset in certain passa¬ges or placed in the margins.As an anniversary tribute toCopernicus a full colourfascimile of the manuscript(now in the JagiellonianUniversity Library, in Cracow)is being published in severalcountries. Right, the famousdiagram from the manuscriptin which Copernicus summa¬rises his conception of theUniverse with the earth plac¬ed in an orbit around the sun

exactly similar to those of theother planets. Left, a laterillustration of the Copernicansystem published in Amster¬dam, in 1661, in Harmonía

macrocosmica (or New Uni¬versal Atlas) by AndreasCellarius. Though it appearedover a century after Coper¬nicus' death, this work carried

only one illustration of histheory of the universe.

THE FOUNDATION OF MODERN SCIENCE (Continued)

12

these paper folios had apparently beendesigned as the end-product itself.

His post as canon of the Fromborkcathedral in Poland had given himfinancial security and time forcontemplation, but it deprived himof stimulating intellectual companion¬ship. In short, there was no one totalk to about his remarkable book,

that had been so long in the making.

Although Copernicus had foundprinted works essential in his ownstudies, printing was still a comparativ¬ely new invention, one that had begunto flourish only during his own lifetime.There was as yet no printer in From¬bork, and the aging astronomerapparently had no intention of publish¬ing his work elsewhere.

De revolutlonibus seemed destined

to gather dust in the cathedral library,to be forgotten and ignored. Such afate seems incredible to us today yetit must have overtaken scores of

astronomical achievements of the

Middle Ages.But in 1539, in Copernicus' last

years, a young mathematician fromGermany appeared in Frombork, eagerto learn the details of the astronomer's

ideas. George Joachim Rheticus,already a professor at Wittenbergthough just in his mid-twenties, hadheard rumours of the innovative

Copernican astronomy.Although the young Rheticus came

from the hot-bed of Lutheranism, theCatholic Copernicus received him with

courage and cordiality. Caught up bythe enthusiasm of his young disciple,Copernicus made last-minute revisionsto his opus and then entrusted amanuscript copy to Rheticus for publi¬cation.

Rheticus took the manuscript to aprinter in Nuremberg, who finished theproduction of several hundred copiesin 1543. These were sold to scholars

and libraries throughout all of Europe.And thus it came about that the new

technology of printing was able toplay an absolutely essential role inpreserving and disseminating the newastronomy.

The readers of Copernicus' treatisegladly accepted his new planetaryobservations and his careful attention

to the details of planetary orbits, butthe heliocentric world view itself found

little support. In our own age ofspace exploration, when men havelooked back upon the spinning earthsuspended in the skies, the Copernicansystem seems natural, almost obvious.But to most astronomers of the late

1500s, imbued with the physics ofAristotle, a moving earth had littleappeal. Instead, they chose a primi¬tive form of relativity.

Keeping the earth as their fixedreference framework, they viewed theCopernican system as a clever mathe¬matical model, somewhat more com¬

plicated than the old Ptolemaic system,but not a true description ' of thephysical world. There was certainly

nothing obvious about a moving earthand a fixed, central sun; Galileo laterremarked that he could not admire

enough those who had accepted theCopernican system in spite of theevidence of their senses.

NI EVERTHELESS, Coperni¬cus' De revolutionibus acted like a

delayed action bomb. Around 1600two great scientists, each in his ownindividual way, grasped a truth in theheliocentric system that went beyondgeometrical model-building. JohannesKepler saw in the sun-centred spacingof the planets a harmonious, aestheticrelation that could be expressed inmathematical relations. He envisioned

a force emanating from the sun, andbuilt a "new astronomy or celestialphysics based on causes."

In Italy, Galileo Galilei turned thenewly invented telescope to theheavens where he found one astonish¬ing suprise after another. The moon,filled with mountains and plains,traversed the skies as another earth¬

like planet. And Jupiter, with its ownretinue of moons, became a miniatureCopernican system. To Galileo theuniverse was comprehensible as aunity only if the earth was a planetrevolving about the distant, fixed sun.

Both Kepler and Galileo differedstrongly from an anonymous introduc-

jv «^ ^ .*_. r:Xi w** **a^

tion that had been added to De

revolutionibus when it was printed.In that introduction the Lutheran

theologian Andreas Ossiander stateda widely-held philosophical opinion:astronomical theories were mathe¬

matical models intended for predictionsof astronomical phenomena, andwhether they were ultimately true orfalse was irrelevant.

Such a view is logical and self-consistent, but Kepler and Galileowere convinced that their astronomygave a true picture of the universe.This claim, plus their opinion that inmatters of science the Bible simplyspoke in the plain terms of commonman so as to be understood, broughtthem into conflict with the Catholic

Church, and consequently several oftheir works were placed on the Indexof Prohibited Books.

To a 20th century scientist, familiarwith the concept of relativity, it mayseem ultimately irrelevant whether theearth or sun is the chosen fixed ref¬

erence point. But the 17th centurycollision between religious dogma andan innovative world view has had a

profound impact on mankind's viewsconcerning the source and nature oftruth about our physical world. Andin the 17th century it did make adifference whether the universe was

conceived in geocentric or heliocentricterms, because only a heliocentricsolar system leads onward to New¬tonian physics.

In turn, Newton's laws of motion andhis law of Universal Gravitation

describe the orbits of satellites and

space probes. Thus there is a directline from Copernicus through Kepler,Galileo and Newton to the marvels

of our own space age.

No doubt Copernicus would havebeen astonished to learn that the world

would link his birthday to a celebrationof modern science. An unwitting re¬volutionary, his goal was to returnscience to a purer state, conceived interms of the perfect circles of theancient Greeks. He sought a view"pleasing to the mind," and he gaveto the mind's eye a fruitful new wayof looking at the cosmos.

Still, our earlier question comes backto haunt us. Why did this new viewwait until the early 1500s? Theanswer lies not so much in the science

as in the society and in new¬found patterns of communication. Theinvention of printing and the rise ofuniversities encouraged the flow ofinformation and new ideas. The

discovery of America, while Copernicuswas a student at Cracow, helpeddemonstrate the inadequacy of tradi¬tional knowledge. A seething intellec¬tual milieu, absent a century or twoearlier, characterized the age.

Furthermore, Copernicus had apatron the Frombork cathedral chap¬ter that enabled him to travel to Italyfor graduate study, and which freedhim from financial worries. More im

portantly, he had the time and freedomto contemplate and choose innovativeviews.

In that age of change, a new mobilityof ideas brought Copernicus freshknowledge that he required for buildinghis system, and at the end of his lifethis same combination of travel,freedom, and printing saved his workfrom oblivion.

The new-found freedom of inquiry,combined with the requisite intellectualresources and the discipline to workout the consequences and to test thedata this is without doubt more

important for the rise of modernscience than the specific idea of a sun-centered cosmology.

We learn more for our own age fromCopernicus' persistence, his eagernessto seek learning beyond his ownprovincial boundaries, his willingnessto share with those outside his own

religion and nation, than we learn fromhis formidable astronomical tome or

from his paeans to the heliocentriccosmology.

From his "remote corner of the

world" Nicholas Copernicus set intomotion not only the earth, but theentire spirit of inquiry that has sorichly increased our understanding ofthe universe. But the ultimate reason

for the anniversary celebration andindeed its challenge is a re-dedica¬tion to preserve the fragile freedom ofinquiry and the resources that makeinquiry possible.

13

The makingof a new universeWhy Copernicus was dissatisfied

with the astronomy of his time

by Olaf Pedersen

The Dragon (Draco)

WeHEN Alexander Pope wrotehis famous couplet:

Neture and Nature's Laws lay hid in[night;

God said, Let Newton be! and all

was light

he gave vent to a common feelingtowards prominent figures in thehistory of science.

Posterity has always been inclinedto regard men like Newton, or Einstein,or Darwin, as radical innovators who,

all of a sudden and without previous

warning, changed the general courseof science and as a consequence

perturbed the whole attitude of mantowards the universe.

Certainly this has been the fate ofCopernicus who more than any otherscientist has been hailed as the first

harbinger of modern astronomy afterthe long scientific somnolence of theMiddle Ages.

That such a view could emerge wasconnected with the fact that the basic

14

OLAF PEDERSEN, internationally-known au¬thority on the history of astronomy, Is pro¬fessor of the history of science at the Uni¬versity of Aarhus (Denmark), where he isalso director of the Institute for the Historyof Exact Sciences. He is a member of the

International Astronomical Union and of the

International Union of the History and Phi¬losophy of Science. Prof. Pedersen haswritten many studies on medieval astronomyand is currently working on two books: acommentary to Ptolemy's "Almagest", and aHistorical Introduction to Classical Physics.

principles of Copernican cosmologywere simple enough to be accessibleto a large public.

First, the Earth was set spinningaround its own axis. In Copernicus'

own words: Together with its surround¬ing elements the Earth during a diurnalmotion performs a complete revolution

round its fixed poles, while the fir¬mament and the highest heavensremain motionless.

It is true that this idea was neither

new nor unknown to the late Middle

Ages, but it was so contrary toingrained conceptions that very fewhad been able to believe in it or

assert it as true.

Next the Earth was removed from

its traditional position: The centre ofthe Earth is not the centre of the Uni¬

verse ... All spheres rotate about the

Sun as their central point and thereforethe Sun is the centre of the Universe,

that is, of the planetary system andthe distant sphere of the fixed stars

which still was the outer boundary ofa world that even to Copernicusremained spherical and of a finite size.

Finally, the Earth was deprived ofits unique character and reduced to a

mere planet among others: That whichto us appears as a movement of the

Sun is not due to any motion of thelatter, but to a motion of the Earth . . .

during which we rotate about the Sunlike any other planet.

Such assertions were clearly incom¬patible not only with time-honoured

CONTINUED PAGE 16

The Virgin (Virgo)

In De revolutionibus, Coper¬nicus refers to observations

made by early Islamic astrono¬mers, and one work he maywell have known about was

the famous "Treatise on the

Fixed Stars", written in Arabic

by the 10th century Persianastronomer Abd ar-Rahman

As-Sufi. Early in the 15th cen¬tury, Ulugh-Beg, grandson ofTamerlane and ruler of the

Timurid empire which spreadover vast areas of Central

Asia, ordered ca/ligraphers tomake a copy of the "Treatise".The richly illuminated workwas completed in time for aconference of astronomers

summoned by Ulugh-Beg toSamarkand in about 1435. The

illustrations, unique in Islamicart, were the work of a Persian

artist living in Samarkand andshow evidence of Chinese in¬

fluence. The paintings are matcolour- washes, scarcely colour¬ed at the edges, typical ofthe Chinese technique of theperiod. The figures are depictedin Mongol dress which was thefashion in the Timurid empire.The captions, in literary Arabic,give the names of each constel¬lation and indicate the cardinal

points and angles from whichthe constellations are seen.

^M

The Strong Man (Orion)

Pegasus (Caption reads "Perhaps the moonhas descended into the village of the fox")

,l-M¿j) . V::.:.\r.-Î rüLM

"^

k&y*- rt&/r

^é-N ^&P

I Ä# i

/C¿0$L j«.«'

py v>-

J*

Two positions of The Cup (Crater) in the southern hemisphere

NEW UNIVERSE (Continued)

Aristarchus of Samos:

the man forgotten by Antiquity

conceptions of the universe but alsowith the belief in man's favoured abode

near the very centre of all creation.This explains why the inevitableclash between the rival cosmologieshad to spread far beyond scientificcircles, arousing an ideological combaton a scale and of a ruthlessness which

the world was not to see again untilthe coming of evolutionism challengeda different, but equally cherished setof ideas about the uniqueness of man.

Thus the Copernican revolutionbecame a paramount factor in theintellectual development of mankind,and we have sufficient reasons for

honouring the memory of the man whofirst inaugurated it.

But along with general or populardiscussions went the more careful

deliberations of professional astro¬nomers on the more technical implica¬tions of the new theory. Copernicushad himself clad it in the well-known

mathematical language of traditionalastronomy.

Consequently his great work, Derevolutionibus orbium coelestium (Con¬cerning the Revolutions of the Celes¬

tial Spheres), was intelligible to any¬body who knew and understood Ptol¬emy's Almagest upon which it wasmodelled. This meant that all com

petent scholars were soon forced to

admit that Copernican astronomy wasacceptable as a possible and consis¬tent mathematical hypothesis.

But this was not the crux of the

matter. Any careful reader of Derevolutionibus would realize that Coper¬nicus went much further, claiming histheory to be true in the sense that it

gave a correct picture of the physicalstructure of the universe. This claim

was the starting point of the extra¬ordinary scientific development fol¬lowing in the wake of Copernicanastronomy.

On the one hand it gave rise to theattempts at verifying the new theoryby means of observations, first andforemost through a search for theannual parallactic motion of the fixed

stars implied by the movement of theEarth around the Sun. This work

occupied successive generations ofpractical astronomers from TychoBrahe onwards until in 1838 it was

finally crowned by success whenBessel succeeded in determining theparallax of the star 61 Cygni.

On the other hand the claim that

the Copernican system was true in aphysical sense guided Galileo andmany other physicists in their attemptsto create a theory of mechanics compa-

Below, books from Copernicus' own library, now. preserved at Uppsala,Sweden. The volume adorned with spheres is the great Roman calendarof 1518, drawn up by the German astronomer Johann Stoff1er, who died In 1531.Right foreground, the first printed edition (1515) of the "Almagest" by Ptolemy,the renowned Greek astronomer whose geocentric theories held swayuntil overthrown by Copernicus.

16

The first European treatise on astro¬nomy, "Sphaera mundi", was written Inabout 1230 by an English cleric Johnof Hollywood, or Johannis de Sacro-bosco as he signed his name in Latin.His work was based on an elementaryArab version of Ptolemy's "Almagest".In it the earth is seen as motionless

at the centre of the universe. Widelydistributed throughout Europe, Sacro-bosco's work was spreading the doc¬trine of geocentrism long after thepublication of Copernicus' studies, aswitness these engravings (above) froman edition published in 1567, with anno¬tations by a Florentine theologian. Fromtop to bottom: 1. Position of the moonon a line from the earth to the sun. 2.

Eclipses of the moon. 3. Solar eclipses.

Photos Bibliothèque de l'Observatoire© Claude Michaelides, Paris

tibie with the new astronomy and ableto remove the obstacles raised by thetraditional, Aristotelian physics, in par¬ticular the doctrine of natural motion

and natural place, and the conceptionof gravity as a force directed towardsthe centre of the universe. The maj¬estic structure of classical, Newtonianmechanics was the final outcome of

this struggle.

These few remarks will suffice to

justify the opinion that Copernicus isone of the founders of the modern

world, both in the ideological andscientific sense. It is no wonder that

both the history of ideas and the his¬tory of science have found a wealthof material in the Copernican heritageand that they are still far from havingexhausted it.

On the other hand we must admit

that Copernicus presents also other

problems of a more intriguing nature.Certainly, to prove his importance itis enough to point to the consequen¬ces of his achievement; but to eval¬

uate his greatness it is also neces¬sary to examine the background ofhis work.

No single event in the intellectualhistory of mankind exists in isolation.It has its antecedents, and althoughindividual scientists occasionally suc¬

ceed in presenting the world with anew idea, there will always be certain

conditioning influences for which thehistorian has to search not in order

to deprive the real innovator of hiscreative genius, but to put it into abroader perspective and underline thefundamental continuity of the historicalprocess.

1 OPERNICUS had his scien¬

tific initiation at the University ofCracow which was deeply imbuedwith the spirit of the Viennese astro¬nomers Peurbach and Regiomontanus.As good Humanists they had tried toreform astronomy through a consciousreturn to its classical sources, for

instance by undertaking a new and im¬proved translation of Ptolemy's Alma¬gest.

In the preface to De revolutionibus,Copernicus admits to a similarHumanist approach; in fact, his search

through classical authors had led himto two Pythagorean astronomers, Hice-tas and Ecphantos, who assumed a

moving earth. However, this is practi¬cally everything we know about them,and one hesitates to regard sucha slender tradition as the source of

one of the major cosmological revolu¬tions of all times.

And Copernicus' more aesthetic

reflections on the most suitable posi¬tion of such an august body as the

sun may be regarded as a mere after¬thought without real importance to theestablishing of his cosmology.

A much more plausible inspirationwould have been the famous Aris-

tarchus of Samos who in the third

century B.C. devised an heliocentriccosmology very similar to the Coper¬nican system. In fact, the originalmanuscript of De revolutionibus dev¬

otes a long passage to Aristarchuswho accordingly was well known toCopernicus who, nevertheless, deleted

this very passage from the printedversion of his book.

This remarkable omission is, indeed,

hard to explain; perhaps Copernicuswas afraid that the memory of howthe heliocentric system was rejectedin Antiquity might prejudice the accep¬tance of his own theory.

The surmise that Copernicus found

in Aristarchus a point of departurefor his own thought does not answerthe fundamental question why he was

so dissatisfied with the prevailingastronomical ideas that he had to

seek an alternative description ofcelestial phenomena. This is a moreintricate problem which cannot be

illustrated by mere cosmological con¬siderations without reference to theo¬

retical astronomy and planetary theory.

Here it is evident that Copernicus

was not concerned with renewing themathematical tools of traditional astro¬

nomy. Like Hipparchus and Ptolemyhe described the movements of the

planets by constructing geometrico-kinematical models simulating theobservable phenomena as closely aspossible.

Ultimately everything had to be re¬duced to an interplay of circular mo¬tions which must be uniform about

their respective centres, a fundamental

assumption to which Copernicusadhered even more strictly than Ptol¬emy. In this respect Copernicus ap¬pears in a most traditional light andit was left to Kepler to introducefundamentally new conceptions in theform of elliptical orbits.

Such geometrical models had to beprovided with numerical parametersderived from observations. Here, too,

Copernicus proceeded exactly in thesame way as many Arabic or Latinastronomers, relying upon data record¬ed by Ptolemy or other ancient obser¬

vers, and supplementing them by afew observations of his own.

Because a long span of time hadelapsed since Antiquity this shouldlead to improved values of the variousmean motions; but it is important toremember that such improvements areindependent of cosmological consid¬erations. A simple transformation of

co-ordinates from a geocentric to aheliocentric frame of reference is

unable to increase the accuracy ofastronomical theories.

Accordingly we must conclude thatthe desire for more accurate theories

was no argument for the Copernicansystem. On the other hand the newsystem could not be proved or dis¬

proved until observational astronomywas accurate enough to decide whe¬ther the fixed stars have a parallax,that is, a small, apparent displacementdue to the annual motion of the

Earth. This moved Tycho Brahe andlater astronomers to improve obser¬vational techniques until finally in 1838the effect was discovered by Bessel.

new and unexpected lightwas shed upon some of the moretechnical details of the work of Coper¬nicus when in 1957 V. Roberts show¬

ed that the beautiful theory of themoon's motion contained in. De revo¬

lutionibus was in every respect iden¬tical with the Lunar theory of the 14thcentury Damascene astronomer Ibnash-Shatir.

Further research by V. Roberts,E.S. Kennedy, and F. Abbud provedalso that the geometrical structureof the theory of Mercury was the samein the two authors. In particular theyboth make use of a special kinematicaldevice for producing rectilinearmotion by combining two circularmotions. This device was invented

by the 13th century Maragha scien¬tist Nasir al-Din al-Tusi. W. Hartner

has argued in a very convincing waythat this remarkable agreement provesthat Copernicus was influenced byMoslem astronomy through chan¬nels which remain to be identified.

These discoveries do not detract

from the originality of Copernicus.There is not the slightest trace ofheliocentric ideas in any of the Orientalastronomers mentioned above, and the

credit for the most important break¬

through in the history of astronomy stillgoes undiminished to the author ofDe revolutionibus orbium coelestium.

Everything considered it seems thatthe most plausible motivation for thenew system was Copernicus' earnestdesire for a cosmology which wouldgive more simplicity and uniformity totheoretical astronomy than the old,geocentric view of the universe.

In particular he seems to have

been worried by two obvious short¬comings of Ptolemaic astronomy. First, .although Ptolemy had to use a variety 1 7of geometrical models for the motionsof the different planets, he also had toprovide each model with a component,

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

NEW UNIVERSE (Continued)

18

circular motion with a period of revolu¬tion of precisely one year.

Second, Ptolemy was unable todetermine both the absolute as well as

the relative distances of the planetsfrom the Earth, so that their commonlyaccepted order was no more than anarbitrary convention.

Both these facts had been known

since Antiquity, but no astronomerseems to have been seriously troubledby them until Copernicus showed howthey could be overcome by a singleremedy. Here we must admit that theheliocentric theory was a real strokeof genius.

Thus the annual period found in allplanetary motions ceased to be amysterious coincidence and became asimple consequence of the annualmotion of the Earth around the Sun.

One of the most enigmatic features ofthe motions of the planets had thusfound a rational explanation.

A further consequence was thatCopernicus could dispense with thefive circles usually called epicycleswhich in Ptolemaic astronomy hadbeen responsible for the annual periodin the motions of the five ordinaryplanets. As a result the geometry ofthe whole planetary system becamesomewhat simplified, the role of thefive epicycles being taken over bythe one orbit of the Earth.

The final triumph of the Copernicansystem followed directly from this lattercircumstance. Already Ptolemy hadbeen able to determine (from observa¬tions) the ratio of the radius of each

epicycle to the mean distance of thecorresponding planet. The Copernicantheory reduced, as it were, all theepicycles to the same size (viz. thatof the orbit of the Earth). Conse¬quently the mean distances of all theplanets can be expressed in units ofthe radius of the orbit of the Earth.

To the greater clarity and simplicityof his system' Copernicus was thusable to add the correct order, and

exact distances of the planets fromthe Sun. For the first time in the

history of astronomy the solar systembecame an ordered whole instead of

an arbitrary structure.

The Copernican system had a pre¬history comprising many separateelements cosmological speculationsof ancient astronomers, mathematical

tools borrowed from Ptolemy and theArabs, and a series of observations

ranging from classical times to Coper¬nicus himself.

The proper genius of Copernicuslay in the fact that he was the first towonder at mysterious coincidences andarbitrary conventions with which lesserspirits had long ago come to terms. M

At Torun, birthplace of Nicholas Copernicus, the secondaryschool is named in honour of the town's most famous citizen.

Here, children proudly lift a bust of Copernicus to place it on apedestal at the school.

Special children's supplementWe are pleased to publish on the following pages Copernicus as told tochildren, a 16-page supplement written specially for the " Unesco Courier "by Jean-Claude Pecker, professor at the Collège de France and director ofthe Institute of Astrophysics at the French National Centre of Scientific

Research, in Paris. Secretary-General from 1964 to 1967 of the InternationalAstronomical Union, Prof. Pecker is a member of the French National Commi¬

ssion for Unesco. Besides his many scientific studies, he has written several

books for lay and young audiences. He is the author of a popular children'sbook in French, Papa dis-moi, l'astronomie qu'est-ce que c'est ? (Daddy, tellme, what is Astronomy?) published by Editions Ophrys, Paris, 1971.

Th

UNESCO

APRIL 197

Courier

^

The man who set

the world a-spinningor

COPERNICUS

as toldto children

m

Text and drawings

by Jean-Claude PeckerProfessor of Astrophysics

at the Collège de France

4 A*A^

© 1973 "Unesco Courier"

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¿¿¿ çysnaai-^"'

So astunotnois bad avfy f/$U eyesib scom, tie. sties !)

... 4& ÀÙmIs i<futitu>

? ?ûuetfms

a/utffí'&HS ?U>HC

? ? quesiïoAAS \

Tf Mrs e/eau, -tiad'tñ, wrdtd had f**4~ butt (Ataied u, ^ dxm .. .eud -HjûT thu att&uitwai *whjl **- Ass sgu^toÁ'e. ... So wtu sf»L tíou. ?AttkC ?OAf*t> tune. jtHOMJl OAAtAtut' G-hJttk OUud tre/tCUS- WOM.USCsujJs'

Wtht. beainnUHji h be, 'hautsßojed íidfbiíduA ¡) ouud -Mesz. hooks, wíajlb*>ùufy Rea//.. . rue. &cuuí.c tv Icùauf urfxJ" -fa/xl- ouud ^tuHsk%cÂoÙ)A*> kadi Wiitk«. Ut -/&. Aûth Oua4 Mit ctuTU/uis . . ,

QjUXXjuMAuti 01 heoÂî ktACuu.tàÎIuaA a// tie, amIaï ^'Ua^Ùaa Lussesto ito¿ tostítM H¿i,$ ^rtüoJt kc4 tuM.WÏîtfau cjouíd oe Kvad íu uHJMjfí\e . . . Aud

the a\UAM.¿tA, of boons wiitku- was

ajfleadü ¿ tü luí, uL.~fi*s waxu

koAPt, teUK "Me. /kvuofr ù*i^^u*f -fduuAt*4A hadiUued ¿u &oLíaaju<ms turn ¡Kwou/tulat wai *-o Éoaml,

LOCKeO U?] C«, \jVoA >XVul /toOMUSOUpk} but UM% totur vj¡t*¿\ tie, ijuaditd AU THOSe u/lo ujeAjL Lu,Ujud t© íuaA tie. «¿JW" to ncad

-tftose. Ui(Á book*

ColVtMltJu%¡ UA. fUt 4ovtÀ./ A*jA. ajêve* lu.% told It'thá. tswv^besicle. lit. BaM'c. <uad ***d i*od ouud v*d . AofinufÁ he u/as uat H*W*#"" oMaiujt -tie.'teadtùAp «f-W*- CÍmacÁ, he. *e»ed¿t6.ís oíoájuI4d 4¿h lUtnSeíf cejJuÀM, efutrfiàyç, .. . edtroud tie, ftexui-eus . . .

- W*M oltcU ¥" It. ¿toit M. M*. CU**UMAS ¡m AitairuvutMu hooks f m, d¿d*.'t /chewe qami ?

-Of c^oue. Ae. <Jkd...

VII

... àad- ht, Wat* 'f gtafl satisfied wïH wioJthe, wad. EutluUd*'*rittWm was dlffeA.tiwt' ooud We* aJU Sôt»ied h CONTRAùICT tac/ ¡rf/oL.

Ml tic the. oi lie. Audtwt friuAs. A^staAcÁus of Samas Saud

tiat Ut Eoxti cdud iie. k&MeÁ itaotued OJiauud 4ie Suuj bid Agiota.OmA rtaíeauu W exacnu...-Me. opposite ¡ Í*4.$UN fuaues ojj>umÀ

4it EARTHf omA So do tie, fslaM.ets . . . tie, GARTH: IS THE CENTREOr THE UNIVERSE.

do yjbu, kuouy wfuci. U fujld~r

\

\

itaxs

\$*hu\M. i

a^d A*¿ Uctuhjt.of tie, uWi/euc

- T/xats a ojood OjuestuvHj but it's (*dt~ eaiSM io outswe^ .Hid" WadzÂ.ttiu "Cvvs sulLose, we/^t, dwuCAMA a. u/*6h.Hte*. I't*. dauù>\é

OüükUM.d y*o QAJud ad tit, Sa#*\e.~u*ne UHu'l*. dcuKtuM<s otAJbUMd <*«Tvr atit/L. wovfs wcWe,

OoTh OtcO(tù\& ...

£o/...

VIII

m

.. . ifJ iaÂe, ox. ¿alt Cuud lw-¿ua it ad hie. eud of*. dtÀ^a tie, ¿<*M.iWiMs oJuouMjd witj wot one aaa^wd tie. -tail! tit t*H ¿t tiHie. *WI ojm 4dâ aud as Umu set. 7 koxdtu t+tout, ¿*t "uêatCov\ is "fit,fU&i, of hie o*o»h .

ArW^^uÄ tocucoHa« have. titu.dÇÂt'iiat'tie Sum, wots i*L a. áétíi ¿aJt . buftMtie. "tUu of (ooLouÙCms. ojudi &e&\.c tieu.

u\ ifct-tÙM* of iie. foteAs i tÀeu &*ttu)-

feMth*. AstuyuooKCAs had cjoácIaMu.

tie avu>04AA*e*¿fc alt&e. kea#en&

éùnUa L*,t£uL à/oà LIouajJäj ta*.Mooai. tic Sum. aud tkt ¿fou.

fouftheu -flMiOjJ' /rwueJL Wuttt.

tAchu^itLcut.Jiie. Au.cie*ds

koud U4.eauiuMd_ tJU U\t.

Ïtht. EcuOéL . ~tAe Use

"t*e Sow*, auud. tit.itauu. frtfajj-eeM. tAXtAM..

6ut "Holt's OAAjotilA, TT6\u .

Tn-eu A<htur tkcuf-t&e Sua*, it

*nu.eJi biáaiK.tÂOM.

I

Tki% was a vow unko^tcuj' oiUtmi^A .IX

ñuoftxtfi. tûùua tieu Anew was -that aoJbùM tía^tts sucA ots

MthjauJuA ouud VtMutj wie«, viewed Âjsm^iÂe Eajdi. ¡ineveA, setmtd tö sÍxom\jvua -Iok Aa**. tie Sum- . ~Tieu did wot'fotfäuh a. îtautaAj cùauJoa, JtàtA.aji&uAtd Tfie EoxtfLj OAjdd. so it wots luaAz. i^adü\a£ ho 4m4 mltLt&eouM..

OÍ eouAse tHo&amm's iu$të*u w*s*!t as U**f>â. as I've dîawn ut.\kliat he said was, that tie kiou^eb awoved ¿u ciuifes ouud hioJbtt*.cjadbvL. of tajJL duviibtd a. wuí£\m*~ dÀ.tuêoju OKOueM^ut- oAdtuu/ the.

EaxH. Iu faxt tt waioxvehM c^fÁ'tohd jyafo*.- but ut eU auouuirfa-tfc aiLctxeut *u*x> ofaJtf tie llaMtb . Awoi it was shlucÁ,forte eA.&audï t&au. ~tht. uajou, loba-hd fo^ua-ovud, Bu A'UstoA.cJLis

3f ¿OjhxjOs ud*jt:£*«£tL +e w*iJU§A^ heirtA, jLeMedL out o\u+eJU^ed Ait icUau/ %o tiat it Was S***- foifohtêu, .

%tbweuK, tit, t*«* of Ho^aMjj ojud 6ole¿u¿cut wuomsà UdJukeU

LonoleMd tiese auts^ns ...Memjé Limomi h<dt Ta tit tiidclü. Mesos oc UùmL od frtxlroJÙUrY* . W tin '*« uAo^j Su Act it W*Slust -rie, aUoSik. '¿Ml tu 6tf&. au c&oJLtA. Uet>M* t*u,e*$td ofiie,

yuyteMis of 4¿e UuiveMt, . butiiesc ¿utLotiCaut ad uouuees vuncùowd

kidoltu, auHxu ua tie Iruonasteùes .CojjtAMxtM.%. wat CAttoU^&j UxjlueMttd¿u "6ft Wlomu wâ\4s he, had aud ¿y fus âw*. w*vt'ofc»i -fiatttc luufr.¡Hut. - aud uJttoüL ¿Ufa siouid eoa.ico.tiL U. ottlie ctuÂa. oftie wo\td. ëe wtut é>aJ? iotie ideas ofAAjiitaÀ,eJLti/tieiotôtk,êLluu'tA ouuA ¿ô^loUbu.. but ie. dùd Wlo^jl tifiju, Lustthdr. H-e, -H.ouJht

tUu. tUtof A^staJeiuSl ht S^jjL Uou, Holny fi wÂel deOJjtyOLte.ou*ded foi. oMtie aUaxêut wjowa*aJs of rie, Áeoj/tu.^ ¿odies.

lt<s Wa% tie.

CûperKN «LAN SYSTEM

\tiate

]

I

COPER UtOUS outxji Wis SYSTEM

. . . The x&ug tfcot fycu>e. added wtiaÂt'fotie Gofie/iuicouu, suLite^, (<yut skeaAs of tie.

M CtfyexMicuM^ ^tAJotdC^"as true, docs of iit^euel Ru\ot4i«i")Wat that ¿u, /us tZwef asi *itAi£u>nr\ed ea>Jà*.} o-ltAAfo's ùoUasaud wùtÙAp ivcAc ejuù.Aêy tuxA^sùded cuuj ^ted auuj dMùkkclcrvei. eMjDfUMMjts aUstauvts . ite CoLthJudeauu* Revolution .tieiefolt,buns, ta. UvAt. elelt tb tie.t\cu<s&te^x ou«/ lichte oJ~mose oiays .

Coj-e^uitAxs wats OL ano*, wlo would* ft huwe . faWas %t> tOKt^Jt uof to Ao<A [*/& -tfj. Í*. Uid ul 41ju,Ui'c4Lrir\f oj. lit famous íook U^4¿f lsii%/ tit. ftcJu he,cued

ßefwti*L iie. oíau of tut liidi aud tie Ueaju o/ /di o/eaK. . .

XI

. . wfat exiaonau'h\OAu cJkoMAes hie woi/d had seix !

Tie HotcsÚzut ReJo^UMûtùjYi oj ridiez aud CoMuÍm Uoudioùu.td a, Áomoéd ¡m, EUxole. Ciu'stofi/tA. ¿oh?* ¿us had oùicouaud

Comtek had cavuiutAxd titxiu>rouud Maatl£ayu,heudscuÁdOAOUud He WOW . EtbOSinuS had WKitftM. kis PAjOÀse ozfbÔh ctAAsd

RoJkiaù had wïïtttM. foudaM¿**k . M¡tJLeta*uçelo h*4 d&otààdiie Sistùne CÂafuêaatd'deojioÀelo ala, faux had funded tie h1o*a+"¿Cscl. l&s was tie UhLod of tic ReMcdssoMca. iu wiXclitr\ou*lt m/i'Ä it tie a\judt ffowehÀMM od axf Ouud ltaJuuJi'w&

¿ cm'uosify ouud Lou of <iu¿%á . Si^ce ¿tetyfc ouUdKoomOM. Autujuiiu 'tTuA0j>¿ ïtoui \*t ¡Chow*. ZucÁ a. i&ùms <ekoei.

Alwd yetj Co/éiwious had toad ^ccuSau to tt. coXe£*J¿!fp*. ¡t is uAAfou, Ua. the &itrie,:

T.i. Ik -tit, ¿xjiMMÙud Cod CAJtattd He. ktairtM*> cuud He. eLH. *

iC; ¿W Mtuiehwo gieat &'d/di.j/!e.piafo*, litft he áoiKJU^He oXom. . .

[vw.«j ris <L»aat EouML fa4hf soutint o-uj.Xufiu^i odd. ouudt ktat/ 2a»t9x6L cuud w'udu.,doM old ""ifht skoit ttose. ** ¿mHi. ,

Hot* iX.-/3.- A*4 Ht «W dbodtiW. cuui -M*I bathtd...TU Sum. ítW *ft# Ú, tit. ^tddiuof-fajAyotAJMe&uu/ih sdh«* firvdlorXOsh ox \aiKcIl. oCclM.

ftou" caJd Joshua, siofi iie Sum. iJit Was He Eojjtt Hot w«sIuouUaj ? Awd if iie Sum. was Ottaded alfa, He Eoxtit ojudifiiedeati Of He EoxHL iueaut He deati of vsthyhiuurA tie**. He Sum,mud bt Itss irnLotfoud- thouo^ tie Ebadi.

XII

îutd&U tie WjovKevt tiese koùds we\e. hjoKtij Poized. Ih was

Relieved' tiaf He ^oU^jujitaju, SysltM^ was utihAtK, w**t taut, wo\,WcAe. false iiau, Tfoébwu 'i system . CoLtuUtus was mtAxlu detcùAùfHe oxflaMut arKOXhtAMtAjds of iie ¿éoM+rt . . .

But/CeJi&i, ovud lottK, irajb&Oj wio uumc ox/ieA, GoltAAM.tu.SjAlt tied tiu axtur- SySTEfl was jurt*. Ttu« ti&u. iie. old *r\e.

liwas ùjdetd ttut. tÂatHe SUN was 6/6- , MASSIVE omd'skiMtkO^j¡i was iudee.dt**f*- HatHe LlaM.ee wehe S4*oM ouud wiH*ut HeU,

own. souáxjl ofty¿/-/rotid*'iHty u<e\t£y ttf&ttife tyitfamiieAACudtSuM, ?)} ut was wtdetd tuet, H^atHe^êoMtè hxdcdtd ahMuudlit Sum. Aud fiytojjbj it was iudetd tw*. Hattie Eoxti was a.PLANST- ko d/Áie*d f****- "Ht oHou f.foMtts / o*d wo tycfeA.aujd wo h^6\jL i^iutA<îed un it rvu>ue*M The stouis 6>\ Hte.oHet kouuud OKe Jojl. Íok, aunxy . . . omxI act as d<xed tufa.\eu.ee.{oiuts . Tie oL^kaKßAjJ- a^aueM^eut o/ The Sum, (m kdoK^ 4*-tie srfztAs it Singly exk ecuMed ¿y tie, Ewdi's tMsOue<M,e«toXoum^I tie Sum. . Audi dsxjj Joliour% iMytt Su* ce tie EovMi.Surfaits ad&ut ihs axis.

All tiis iethiS Simla. 6M,oua£. doesn't it ?

frut lu tie tUue of Co^eAAMlouS it wasn't at aM easy tofMufletshuu/. -0*0 ta aecefdr the. idea., tiat ImjOmji of tie. ioueiuvioles f+uM_d Ui tie 2a.cAjtd looks of aM uh'tLt'tts we\eu 'b

UmjjJL hef^ ¡m *.sfaou&7*(jj urf, was it easy to adoKtit-tiat iie, di'stauus to tie. ¿teas weA*. e«.oAA*H(.s. omxI -fiat tieSu** itself was Ju%h toe staA. om*.caq komm aHeu,t a\. tiot

tit 3um, wat heatiby uawJL IdfötX tla*. iAe EojML !

So tie, ChuxjJL ai Rtmt WJt ColeAAMleM.% loo%

fn^ He Iudex .

XIII

TvtíS aneaut Hut im orne u/as k¿A*uitfcd is AâocI ohmcÂ. lets acctjt

as jad:t wiot Co^vumIcms kad wùMt^.Awd *. so.eu.tit¿.At,&at&o -lattK. was Joteed to detßajüt. ku.Hiclu Hattie Ebvdi. wasWjdjuofittss aud thott^e Sum. >wtàded MJ»u*a-*/ w*** ti#MtA_At bcLiued tie okkosite

erdcxM fauceo s Soamoux Wko/4>|

* Yes, ¿t atoes <*u>ve, ! " (he was talAù*airowt He EojJÂ) aud toehjyiiùiè associatedWïti t SeannS JoJuJoä, ouihcuj ladend'.

/W yet \i»u. Amohj Hese oaa. ^KoIIhhs \jtu, \udL tuait ioHum{o stAdou.%^ oMit. Saeuce stiti WÂuud'tie ouuswtAsiziHofuj átiestuns aud HeAe au. hlomm leûeuAs wfuitk, PnoUefue/taa/e.as saeuJifiÀ, Jad oint tie oAX^íu. c/l/e ta «.tutt+i o>.êu one.

fout fríe olau ztieuee. wiîl ctme u^ witi ~tàt ***it OJuîwtAAJust as Co^.CAJuitu.% t keglet, (raJutioo ojud Meu/fh\ cUd . Aud titM,We'll haut to- ad<nit Hat tie bid üyeuds

we\e êovtL sdvùes aud keiia^s u/diiù^ M<..

- &u,i Vajduf w.ay(eiie cAumI was *tyt ail . Wiot ditfeh&u*tdots UiMOtAe wittier its He W Hot amoves t^He Eowti.}) TuJhit He Relative wstievi Hot teolL cawwh ? RtM^tMj^wfitItM.

y*, talked to me oJêut\e%tùdS^ "tit *Mm. day F... î ¿du 'trUA^JtAjtaud evVuftliMá uhl, ZoJUt&u. l«tI tAùylc f Jicwt auledfeA* fcctuAJL Uow*... Moult. Ptoôvny'soiestAÍjJx^i of oMaAeiJ^iuAtuv was+'t as s*W¿ as Co^maUcmz 'was...

xrv

... but it was Justas aW. 3o witu y*u. said thdc ov\t, system.Was JlMiA. twom. iit otie^jdusn't U*u, Hu^it ufa Utu- wio ZuzaIrt w\aJt\& ?

T'w aAau/ uhju kojjtM_'h betM. ¿c'siWxa UoLeA.L. iftit,SoêoA. SüsteuA. cWfcuW oxêuHe EojJH aud He Su*, tie«. T

o^te*. thatHe two desvù^turns. of Hein. Wuot/tAj^tJt uh'M tie $<*u.tuluiMa oAsumxI He Eaxfi aud tie BcuJti fcWu* oÄJKJud tie Sou*.Unut, ix> He Scumjl tiuMjL . . .

fUt tint. oAt alio tie yloMth . Tktu tujou aXowud tit Sum.ujrr oJuHLud tit Eajjti .siuu^-L frttOM.Se.

tit Sou*.

*2*AM\ ¿t lmMtl keaoieJL ^m *<»*i-fia«, tie Eoati.

Awd Hat

tie ^lûJuet tlosett to

i&e Sua*, itlelf.

Aud HtM, tie**. oAjl, 4ie siaM . lie EoaH. troues ¿a leiati'n,fe The staAs .T&s i*\*bu\ com, be se*+i eaeAu Utah.. EVeAu ktodtu

sfaJu looks as if it ù foHaudMá a set ^aH th. tuüutoAM. Tt¿stie hioirtM^eut oftit Eoadi oájoumoI tU SuM.~Hat aveatts tiisa^oAjeut ÍM^eeta\y .Ik ffolemu 4 system ¿è (SauMjtt be ejtßuktdat all . Tfe Wt*irt4M.eut ù t/ew ¿ft» omJ wasn't oisovued um±¿(ttt -44%. caJmáu fa* OM, ait**********, WOM\ed Bess el. 6oLoum]oms

kkt«s- uoiiud^ oMutïtj lutit defcwiteli Cihfkfhtarf 6oteAMÍcus'ideas . The Sum. U u*rte &\. lets Wjrtix»M,(íts Cu MlÍoJa^ fe -Ht stahÀwtùtt He hioAes a. csmfrleit h>ufr ahtuud tie, -W <rvicca, Utah, .. .

xv

- Daddy . did Co^tuubus evee, ad He Nobel &>u*e ?

~Notl'\AK.afuaid not .flhst of all HtAt, was ** Nrtef r\cjt uthit dau, aud stund, wo MoliJL &uAt ItA, asbuyupmu t\. âto**eày e*asheat*, -hdjaq . ^oUaam.cu,s wasn't a. liysk'ud". the tauii DESCRIBE "aieWJOUeAMJtM/: of He ^laxtt.. , butke did¿t Á*u>w wAat CAUSED Ht*,(ùt was ki^ltA, ojud esUùùxilu Ñtud>A wio wodttd tiat tut)... hutHeujiMit, at Co^eAAJuiojt.% wie/ &'ae fwurtA, because evtA. suite, hiç ¿ooAafteoAtd we 4au>wiÂat THB EARTH IS NOT THE CCNTRE OFThE UNiyense,(¿id because tAù fuMjfaoneufol otesctueAy helped us ÍB $et W of Heidea, tiat MANf too/ was He. ceutte tf He wuiueue,. .

tie EaAjtA, tetrolues aA*UMjd~He Sum*, tie Sum, is luat au. o^dÀwoJu

ztak, OAvLfndstiie bi6Lt>u of state tiat HuoAe u£ tuA, Galaxy- OMjoiiitM.äst. Iriltichs of (¡ataxics tcAt HtAs in He UhiutAse. Hau. ù a, "¿fityda/e&ktd auA/r^af lut Lu, tie U/uivtese ticAjc 4nrUA.it tijjamta be oHeu.

CíHm, wit\jL hiAi&y dwtiaUÁ .Th, omjj cast mom, ¿s oSb'wy uiltajfcáiut~ alom, ¿u ii^uficaut A toMit. . . Thiua s Wave, \jetuKietd tôHei*, ^KoloS, /.face . . .Ei/tu, iJ km. f/uidt Suf/aa ¿ecaust ofítwt wucstJatttitJaA'+iatweOAjl O-, Woh¿ lltcÁ

ùu Ht ¿*K4K*uVt TU ....

eof tuA, faJaxy. r\

to heAtfixM* of go/. I

ICéUt «tote ZW Ht iedita. dHL toja**.- ù I

-Hie SJL... . A \\ IOMÀ ktA*. *«íUi*%%j UeU'mt of ¿lit-m«äAj oj^Jm -oxe &lL'm of MtA,

i

AU -rJU\t wt bu>e êvu^etu do ZNtCHOLAS COPtzRN/CUS \

We, Hot ¿¿n Rot hwwuilitu I

THE END

5

a2

3

2o

xvi

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF COPERNICUS

(Continued from page 8)

nicus was faced with an enormous

scientific task: to define and expoundthe heliocentric order of the universe

in a work as wide-ranging and exhaus¬tive as Ptolemy's Amalgest. Coper¬nicus was to devote the rest of his

life to this undertaking.

Without going into detail upon Ni¬cholas Copernicus' duties as a mem¬ber of the Chapter of Warmia, weshould however note the fact that when

the opening chapters of the greatastronomer's memorable treatise were

written, he was also exercising and

highly efficiently numerous time-absorbing administrative, economicand political functions.

U ROM 1516 to 1519, Coper-

pernicus lived In Olsztyn, where hemanaged the property of the Chapter.In spite of these activities he in noway neglected his astronomy, and theingenious observation apparatus builtby Copernicus himself can still beseen at Olsztyn castle, which is nowa museum.

After the death of Lucas Watzenrode,

Warmia went through extremely diffi¬cult times, during which the TeutonicKnights waged undeclared war uponthe region, plaguing the diocesan landswith their armed incursions.

Olsztyn was in close proximity tothe frontier of the monastic State, and

when in 1520 war again broke outbetween Poland and the Teutonic

Order, Copernicus returned there toorganize the defence of the fortressagainst the impending siege. Whenthe subsequent peace treaty was con¬cluded in 1521, he was able to goback to Frombork.

There he continued his oppositionto the Teutonic Knights on a differentlevel: the battle-ground of economics.The fact was that the Teutonic Order

was striking false coins, and thuscausing the disruption of the Pom¬eranian currency market. After a num¬ber of interventions on this matter,

Copernicus published in 1526 his Trea¬tise on Currency, In which he explainedthe mechanism according to which"bad money drives out good".

The formulation of this principle,known as the Gresham-CopernicusLaw, (it was also expounded by a 16th-century English merchant, Sir ThomasGresham) is by no means the greatastronomer's sole claim to fame in the

field of political economy. To Coper¬nicus, "good" money, or currencywhich consistently maintains its full

value, is as much the result as thecondition of "enrichment", or In other

words, of a healthy economy basedupon the work of "excellent workers"and a well-organized system of ex¬change.

Copernicus gives us a highly accu¬rate definition of the true stimulants

to economic activity a definitionwhich has little to do with the moral

imperatives of plain hard work expoun¬ded by the scholastic philosophers.

During the years following his returnfrom Olsztyn to Frombork, Copernicuscrystallized the formulation of the planfor his major work, later known underthe title De revolutionibus orbium coe-

lestium, and written in six sections or

books, which was to be the greatPolish astronomer's immortal contribu¬

tion to world scientific literature.

The revolutionary element of Coper¬nicus' work lies in his elaboration of

entirely new cosmological principles,by which he stripped the earth of itsrole as the Centre of the Universe,

discovered its daily and annual move¬ments, and redetermined the planetarysystem with the predominant positionnow attributed to the sun. The treatise

was put into its final form in the early1530s, but another ten years were togo by before it was actually printed.

The publication of the printed editionof the De revolutionibus has a historyof its own. In 1539, Georg JoachimRheticus, a young professor of astro¬nomy from Wittenburg, arrived in War¬mia, drawn by the rumours in Europeabout the astounding work being doneby the solitary Frombork astronomer.

It was thanks to Rheticus and

Tiedman Giese, Bishop of Chelmno,humanist and faithful friend of the

astronomer, that Copernicus eventuallyallowed himself to be persuaded topublish his work, and finally prepareda copy of the treatise for printing.

Rheticus himself published a volumeentitled De Libris Revolutionum D.

Doctoris Nicolai Copernici NarratioPrima (Gdansk, 1540), which heraldedthe appearance of the great work itself.Two years later, Rheticus published alengthy extract from Copernicus' trea¬tise, dealing with spherical trigono¬metry.

Science historians will long be fasci¬nated by all the events surroundingthe printing of De revolutionibus inNuremberg, and the part played bythe astronomer Johannes Schöner and,especially, the theologian AndreasOssiander, who both verified the text.

The prudent anonymous foreword

inserted by the publishers when print¬ing was already under way, whichputs Copernicus' theory forward as apurely formal hypothesis, contrastssharply with the magnificent letter ofdedication addressed by Copernicus toPope Paul III, which is an admirableeulogy upon astronomy and its cogni¬tive values.

Tradition has it that the first copy ofthe work, printed in Nuremberg,reached Copernicus only on May 24,1543, the very day of his death atthe end of a long illness.

More than eighteen centuries lie bet¬ween Copernicus and Aristotle, the"Prince of Philosophers" of ancienttimes, and for 13 centuries, Ptolemy'sAlmagest had invariably been acceptedas the perfect representation of thesystem of the Universe. The merefour hundred years or so since thebeginning of the revolution in modernthinking set in motion by Copernicushas to be compared with a period ofalmost two thousand years of intellec¬tual stagnation.

'URING the first centuryfollowing the death of Copernicus thenames of the illustrious pioneers ofour own knowledge of the universewere recorded in the annals of

science. Galileo and Kepler both drewtheir inspiration from the work ofCopernicus, and it culminated in theappearance of Newton's Principles.

In the dedication of De revolutioni¬

bus Copernicus wrote: "If, however,

there be guileful men who, althoughthey know nothing of mathematics,nonetheless allow themselves to passjudgement upon such matters, and

who, on the basis of a cunningly dis¬torted interpretation of a passage ofthe Scriptures, dare to attack and

condemn my work, I dismiss them so

entirely as to despise their judgementas blindly presumptuous."

Copernicus had the courage to ex¬pound his innovative ideas in a scien¬

tific work of profound maturity and tocontradict the traditional authority ofthe Ancients. This is why today theworld is celebrating the quincentenaryof his birth.

The object of our admiration is notonly the creator of the heliocentric

system: to an even greater extent,Copernicus should be remembered as

the scholar who opened the way for -i nthe long procession of the creators | qof modern science.

Jerzy Bukowski

20

The greatcultural revolution

of the Renaissance

From Poland across Europe to Italy

a whole world in intellectual ferment

by Paolo Rossi

'OPERNICUS was nineteenyear old when Christopher Columbusset foot on the American continent in

1492. His life covers the centralperiod of the Renaissance and theProtestant Reformation, an era markedby the wonder of Renaissance art andby the division of Europe into tworeligious camps.

It was a period that witnessed thewars between France and the Holy

PAOLO ROSSI, professor of the History ofPhilosophy at the University of Florence, Isa noted authority on the history of sciencein the 16th century. He has written manybooks on this period, including Aspettl dellaRlvoluzlone Sclentifica (Aspects of the Scien¬tific Revolution) and a biography of FrancisBacon, also published in English editions(Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, andUniversity of Chicago Press, 1968). Authorof I Filosofl e le Macchine (Philosophers andMachines) also published in English (Harperand Row, N.Y., 1969), he contributed to thepreparation of Italian editions of works byBacon, Vico and Diderot.

Roman Empire and a series of econo¬mic and social revolutions that followed

geographical discoveries and epicvoyages of exploration. It saw thestart of the break up of the Europeanfeudal system and the consolidation ofthe great European States.

Copernicus was a contemporary ofthe humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam

and the reformer Luther, of King HenryVIII of England, under whom the EnglishChurch gained its independence fromRome, of Emperor Charles V, ofMichelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci,of the Swiss astrologer and doctorParacelcus and of Machiavelli thegreat Italian theoretician of politicalscience.

The cultural world around Coper¬nicus was in ferment and thirsting fornew things. The Protestant Reforma¬tion claimed the right to interpret thescriptures freely and was a determi¬nant factor in the breakaway from therigid intellectual discipline that was afeature of medieval civilization. The

Astronomy class for Leonardo,

Michelangelo and the Pope

After completing his studies at the University of Bologna (Italy)Copernicus went to Rome where, in the year 1500, he gave acourse of lectures on mathematics and astronomy, in whichhe is said to have drawn attention to the faults in Ptolemy'sconception of the universe. In this 19th century painting,Wojciech Gerson, a Polish artist, shows Copernicus lecturingin the presence of Pope Alexander VI. The scene is imaginary,but all the persons depicted are known to have been at thePapal court of that time. In addition to Pope Alexander (1),the distinguished audience includes Leonardo da Vinci (2),Michelangelo (3), Caesar Borgia (4), the painter Pietro Peru-gino (5), the architect Donato Bramante (6) and BaldassareCastiglione, diplomat and author (7).

artists and scientists of his time were

also fired with the desire for completerenewal and an open-minded approachto nature.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) pro¬claimed the need for an honest studyof the reality of nature enabling phe¬nomena to be accurately described andmeasured. Research into nature, hedeclared, should use the tools of

mathematics and the analytical capaci¬ty of human vision and should, aboveall, put an end to the simple repetitionof already prevalent ideas.

Those who base their assertions on

quotations from the authorities of thepast and on what is written in theold books, wrote Leonardo, "are notusing their imagination but theirmemory."

No credence should be given tothose philosophers "whose argumentsare not confirmed by experiment."Leonardo invoked "experiment" and"reason" at one and the same time;he preached the need to weld to¬gether experimental contact with theworld and abstract or mathematical

theories opening the door to the inner¬most secrets of the universe.

Contesting the culture of universityprofessors and "men of letters", Leo¬nardo described himself as an "un¬

lettered man". Typical of his thoughtand the thought of his time was

an insatiable curiosity with regard tonature. Why were shells found onmountains? How was it that birds

could fly? What caused the wind?What were the mechanics of walkingin men and in animals?

These were the origins, apart fromhis activity as an artist, of Leonardo'sinnumerable plans for machines, hisanatomical research, and his pages ofreflections on science and on whatscience should be about.

Violent disagreement with thefollowers of Aristotle, a burning pas¬sion for knowledge of the "mysteriesof the sky and the secrets of nature",and an encyclopaedic mentality thirst¬ing for information about all branchesof knowledge, also marked some ofthe most famous practitioners of theso-called "natural magic" of the Re¬naissance: the Italian Girolamo Car-

dano (1501-1576), the Swiss Paracelcus(1493-1541), the German Heinrich Cor¬nelius Agrippa (1486-1534) and theItalian Gian Battista della Porta (1535-1615).

The "revival of magic", with whichthese doctors and astrologers wereconcerned, was above all a study ofnatural effects. They felt that it wouldgive man dominion of the world, andthat man could only achieve this resultby becoming the "minister" or servantof nature.

The miracles of magic, wrote Cor¬nelius Agrippa in his work De vanitatescientiarum. (On the Vanity of Science)are very different from those describedby religions. In the latter there isviolation of the laws of nature whereas

the miracles of magic are the result of

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

21

CULTURAL REVOLUTION (Continued)

Medieval beliefs and the new thinking

For a long period of his lifeCopernicus was more highlyesteemed as a doctor than as an

astronomer. From 1501 to 1503

he studied medicine at the Universityof Padua, the foremost centre ofmedical learning of the day. Newapproaches were being made tothe study of anatomy but researchon human cadavers had onlyrecently been authorized andCopernicus' medical studies werequite conventional. The anatomyamphitheatre at Padua, shownin the engraving above, was noterected until 1594, more than50 years after the deathof Copernicus.

Photo © from "Inventeurs et DécouvertesEditions Hachette, Paris

22

operations carried out by man onnature.

These miracles (in the etymologicalsense of the Latin word miracula) areno more than "things which ought toarouse wonder", and primarily consistin the ability to speed up the processesof nature: by shortening the time thatnature needs to ripen fruit on the trees,for example, or to modify the rhythmof the seasons by farming techniques.

Before going further it might be use¬ful to explain some of the fundamen¬tal aspects of the age in which Coper¬nicus lived.

The distinction between magic andscience, so obvious today, was not byany means evident in the first half ofthe sixteenth century. The thirst forexperiment, the study of nature andthe observation of phenomena wereexalted and proclaimed at that timeas part of a vision of the world whichis very different from that held in thenext century by Francis Bacon, RenéDescartes and Galileo.

The founders of modern science (andof modern philosophy) waged a bitterbattle (as did Bacon) against the"magic" mentality of the precedingcentury or regarded that mentality (asdid Descartes and Galileo) as an out¬dated way of thinking with which a na¬tural philosopher or a scientist shouldnot concern himself. Copernicus liv¬ed in an age in which the distinctionbetween magic and science was notas clearcut as it came to be later.

The rebellion against traditionalthinking and above all against Aristote¬lian philosophy was a key theme of theRenaissance. The French philosopherand grammarian, Pierre de La Ramée(Petrus Ramus) claimed to be able todemonstrate the falsity of all Aristotle'sdoctrines.

This rejection of tradition and thisgeneral desire for innovation also im¬plied a breakaway by the new culturefrom the world of the universities in

which Aristotelian philosophy was stilldominant. A majority of scientists inthe 16th century studied in the uni¬versities and in many cases taught inthem but there is no doubt that the

liveliest discussion that concerningscientific and cultural innovation no

longer took place within the walls ofthe universities as had happened inthe Middle Ages.

The universities, in the second halfof the 16th century and during thenext century, lacked the ability for thenew thinking necessary in times ofrapid intellectual development. Thenew Copernican astronomy was to bevery slow in conquering the academicworld. The old Ptolemaic astronomycontinued to be taught for more thana century after the publication of Derevolutionibus, and Galileo himself

gave courses in Ptolemaic astronomy.

During the years in which a newmethod was evolved based on the

recently-discovered texts of Archime¬des, Euclid was still read in the uni¬versities. Mondino's work on anatomy(which was typically medieval in itsapproach) long continued to be themedical students' textbook even after

the appearance of the first modernbook on anatomy, published by AndreaVesalius in 1543.

From this situation stemmed the

need for the renovation of institutions,

closely tied up with the need for newmethods of acquiring and transmittinglearning. The groups of student follow¬ers of a single master, the aca¬demies, and the scientific societiesthat came into being in Europe in the16th and 17th centuries tended to meet

these new requirements.

Copernicus' great work triggeredoff the scientific revolution which

came to full flower in the writings ofNewton and from which many funda¬mental aspects of the modern worldare derived. From this revolution were

born new forms of physics, astronomyand medicine, totally different fromthose of the ancient Greeks andRomans.

The contribution made by Copernicusto the scientific revolution concerns

astronomy, but we should not regardCopernicus as an astronomer in thetechnical and modern sense of the

word. Copernicus was a man imbuedwith the culture of his time and his

training was that of a humanist (inthe meaning this term had in his day).

He was learned in law, medicine,economics, and administration. In theuniversities of Cracow, Bologna, Paduaand Ferrara, he studied in turn mathe¬matics, astronomy, law, medicine andphilosophy. In Italy he learned Greekand read Plato. One of his teachers,the astronomer Domenico Maria da

Novara, was a follower of the Platonic

and Pythagorean philosophy that domi¬nated Italian Renaissance culture.

As with many humanists, Copernicuspresented his astronomical discoveriesand his new world system, not in theform of a reasoned refutation of tra¬

ditional theories, but as a revival of

Pythagorean theories. He presentedhis theory to the reader as being inti¬mately bound up with a contemplationof the world looked upon as a revela¬tion or manifestation of God.

He set out his discoveries in a reli¬

gious context. The sun, lord and kingof the visible world was a symbol ofGod.

This glorification of the sun and therepeated references to Pythagorasfound in De revolutionibus link the

thinking of Copernicus with one of themain currents of Renaissance philoso¬phy.

In 1462 the Italian Marsilio Ficino

had begun his translation of Plato's

Dating back to the 10th century B.C., this Egyptianpapyrus painting (above) shows the speckledbody of the sky goddess Nut pushed upwardsby Shu, the god of air, to form the vault of theheavens, the speckles of her body becomingthe stars. Nut was married to her brother, theearth god Geb, but the match was opposed bythe great god Re, ruler of the world, who orderedtheir father Shu to raise Nut away from Geb, thusseparating the heavens from the earth.

Photo Cairo Museum © Hassla. Pans

According to a learned paper published in 1726by an eminent French scholar of Greekliterature, Jean Boivin, the Greek poet Homerimagined that Mount Olympus, the home ofthe gods, was a mountain which restedon the sky and whose summit pointed downtowards earth. In a passage from the "Iliad",illustrated by the engraving, left, Zeus speaksof suspending the earth in the air froma golden chain attached to thehighest point of Mount Olympus.

Photo © Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

Dialogues. Even before working onPlato he had translated into Latin the

much famed Corpus hermeticuma collection of the writings of Greekauthors living between the third andfirst centuries before Christ.

These writings, a mixture of Platonicand Stoic themes and showing theinfluence of Hebrew and Persian phi¬losophy, were attributed by Ficino toa mythical Egyptian being the godThoth identified by the Greeks astheir god Hermes and sometimesknown as Trismegistos (thrice great).

In Platonic philosophy Marsilio Ficinosaw a doctrine of the eternal religiousrevelation, made manifest in every ageand finding its highest form of ex¬pression in Hebraism and Christianity.

This religious philosophy, statedFicino, "was born with Zoroasteramong the Persians and with Hermesamong the Egyptians, nurtured withOrpheus among the Thracians, dev¬eloped with Pythagoras among theGreeks and the Italiotes and reachedits zenith in Athens with Plato". To

Ficino and to the Italian Renaissance

Platonists, philosophy and religion

were not two separate things: greatphilosophical thought and the sacredwritings of the various religions allconverged towards the same result.

In a passage from De revolutionibusconcerning the central position of thesun, Copernicus refers explicitly to thename of Hermes Trismegistos. His newastronomic doctrine first saw the lightof day in a philosophic and religiouscontext that was clearly neo-Platonicin inspiration, and he used a quotationfrom a famous work in which Hermes

had described the sun cult of the

ancient Egyptians.

For us Copernicus' book has becomea point of departure, and almost thesymbol of the intellectual revolutionfrom which modern science has sprung.As we have seen, this book waswritten in an age which hungered fornew things, which was prepared toquestion traditional beliefs, and whichstruggled in the difficulties arising fromthe gap between scientific and schol¬astic institutions and the real progressof science.

It was not by chance that all thishappened, and in this sense the book

of Copernicus is one of the charac¬teristic expressions of the dawn ofmodern culture. And yet Copernicus,deeply imbued with neo-Platonic phi¬losophy, preferred to present his newpicture of the world as a revival ofold doctrines rather than as a revolu¬

tionary innovation.

He was a timid and cautious man.

Perhaps his interest in the sunwhich was one of the main topics ofneo-Platonic philosophy of the 16thcentury spurred him to his astro¬nomic research aimed at proving thesun to be the centre of the universe.

Perhaps also he was endeavouring tomake what was new in his astronomyacceptable to his contemporaries bysetting it in a philosophical contextfamiliar to the intellectuals of his time.

At all events, it is clear that Coper¬nicus used to the full two great lessonsof 16th century thought: that the dis¬covery of geometrical and arithmeticalregularity in nature is essential for theunderstanding of the world; and thatthe truths handed down from antiquityshould be examined critically and, ifnecessary, revised.

23

Instruments

for

stargazers

On these pages we show a numberof astronomical instruments used in

Copernicus' day. The design of suchdevices had remained basically un¬changed since ancient times and astro¬nomers often made observations withInstruments constructed centuries

earlier. The Arab astrolabe in copper(above), dating from 1054 was beingused at the Jagiellonian University(Poland) when Copernicus was a stu¬dent there. The astrolabe, used fortaking altitudes and observing the sunand the stars, is said to have beeninvented by the Greek astronomerHipparchus in the 2nd century A.D.Right, a 15th century armillary sphere,also probably used by Copernicus atthe Jagiellonian University. Armillaryspheres were astronomical models ofthe heavens, usually with nine ringsrepresenting the equator, horizon, meri¬dian, tropics, polar circles, zodiac andan ecliptic hoop (compare with Pto¬lemy's less elaborate armillary sphereon page 28). Above right, a minia¬ture from a 13th century psalterbelonging to Blanche of Castile,mother of St Louis, king of France.Seated between two assistants, anastronomer takes sights on a starwith an astrolabe. Above left, thefamous, gilt-bronze "JagiellonianGlobe", dating from 1510, on whichare engraved the outlines of Europe,Africa and South America; beside thelatter is the inscription "Terra de Bra¬zil, Mondus Novus, Terra SanctaeCrucis". North America Is shown as

a series of islands. Left, a 16thcentury, gilt-bronze theodolite, a sur¬veying instrument sometimes used byastronomers for calculating latitudes.A compass can be seen in the cen¬tre of the base of the instrument

Photo © 1. Jaroslnska - "Poland", Warsaw

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Photo © Nina Smolarz, "Poland" Warsaw

Copernicus, Galileoand Giordano BrunoThree thinkers who dared to challenge

the powerful forces of tradition

by Vincenzo Cappelletti

I N his famous treatise

Metaphysics, Aristotle says that,among the mathematical sciences,astronomy is closest to philosophysince it deals with the nature of the

stars, and these are eternal eventhough perceptible to our senses. Inthe order of things, as seen by Aris¬totle, God was thought of thoughtand Prime Mover of the eternal heav¬

ens.

The old, pre-Christian world shrankfrom pursuing this line of philosoph¬ical thought to its ultimate conclusionwhich would have led to the separa¬tion of God from nature. In some

way nature had to be cloaked indivinity so that metaphysics and reli¬gion could be reconciled with theevidence of the senses.

VINCENZO CAPPELLETTI is professor of theHistory of Science at the University of Rome.Director-General of the "Enciclopedia Ita¬liana", and director of the review "II Veltro",he is author of many books on the historyof biology, physics and psychology. Hispublications on these subjects Include 'Ente-lechla" (1965), "Helmholtz" (1967), "S. Weil- Su//a Scienza' (1971) and "Metapsicologiadi Freud" (1972).

Before Copernicus, metaphysics andthe phenomena experienced by thesenses were in agreement on onepoint the earth was fixed in the cos¬mos and it was the stars that moved.

They moved in a circular path, thatis to say with a movement in whichbeginning and end were ever joined,thus reproducing eternity in time.

The important thing for the Ancients,in the platonists' famous phrase, was"to preserve the phenomena" (to fitobserved facts into theory), and thisseemed a better way of "preserving"them than any other.

On this point, in Galileo's Dialogueof the Two Chief World Systems,Simplicio makes an enlightening com¬ment: "The Copernican doctrine meansdenying the senses and above all thesensations. This must be the case if,though we are aware of the gentlestbreeze, we cannot feel the blast ofa perpetual wind reaching us at aspeed of over 2,559 miles an hour,for this is the distance that the cen¬tre of the earth covers in one hour

along the circumference of the greatorb, according to Copernicus' meticu¬lous calculations."

To commemorate the

achievement of Copernicus,the authorities of Torun, birth¬place of the great astronomer,organized a nationwide designcontest for a monument to be

raised in the town (see alsopage 4). Here are two of the30 or so projects expressing theCopernican conception of thesolar system submitted by Polishsculptors. Far left, "Dawn" byBronislaw Chromy; left,"Nicholas Copernicus" byGustaw Zemla.

Many things seemed, and wouldseem, more simple if the immobilityof the heavenly body on which manlives were to be accepted. It wasnot until Galileo and his intuition of-

the notion of mass that this assertion

could be disproved.

Aristotelian thinking had succeededin separating the destructible, imper¬fect earth, from the indestructiblepurity of the heavens in which it setGod the Mover of the world.

In spite of St. Paul and St. Augus¬tine, early Christian thinkers foundthemselves in the blind alley of natu¬ralistic theology. The fathers of theSyriac church formulated a literalinterpretation of Genesis (the crea¬tion of the world in seven days) whichwas in many respects at variancewith the Greek scientific tradition;Cosmas Indicopleustes (a little-knownGreek thinker who visited India)attempted to replace pagan topogra¬phy and cosmology by "a Christian n-mtopography of the Universe". For Cos- //mas, the earth was not in the centreof the universe but at the lowest

point of the solar system; a rectan-

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

COPERNICUS, GALILEO, BRUNO (Continued)

The sphere, the most perfect shape of all.

28

guiar plane covered by the vault ofthe firmament.

The real interest in all this, how¬ever, lies not in the mistake itself (amistake which was to cause Coper¬nicus serious difficulties and bringGalileo before his judges), but thevcriterion on which it was based that

science was subservient to religionand metaphysics.

Copernicus himself believed in anorder, a perfection of the world whichhad to be preserved. And it is inthis respect, in spite of the majesticgrandeur of his work which is dueto the unswerving rationality of hissystem, that Copernicus still seemsto us to belong to antiquity. In thededication of De revolutionibus (Onthe Revolutions) to Pope Paul III, hemaintains that in accepting the theoryof eccentrics and epicycles the cham¬pions of geocentrism have compro¬mised "the shape of the world andthe undoubted symmetry of its parts".

The first chapter of De revolutioni¬bus opens with a further professionof faith in the perfect structure ofnature: "We must first observe that

the world is spherical both becausethis shape is the most perfect of all,forming an unbroken totality, andbecause this shape has the greatestcapacity and therefore is the mostsuitable for that which is requiredto embrace and conserve all things".

The central position of the earthwas finally accepted by the Chris¬tians of the Middle Ages as it hadbeen by pagan antiquity. Aristotleand the Bible, the Ptolemaic universeand the universe revealed by theBible could both agree with ThomasAquinas that reason and revelationwere not self-contradictory.

Whether as God's pedestal, accord¬ing to Cosmas Indicopleustes, thepart of the world opposite to the fir¬mament-paradise, according to Hono-rius d'Autun, or the seat of hell, asDante saw it, the earth was givena precise position in the cosmos bya Christianity as yet not fully awareof the spiritual revolution broughtabout by the Gospels.

In fact, naturalistic metaphysics haddeformed the facts of experience, orrather it had glossed over the contra¬dictory aspects of observation. Inits endeavour to reconcile the worldand God it had omitted to reconcile

the world with the mind, with humanthought. In a marvellous passage, inDe revolutionibus, Copernicus speaksof "thought blown hither and thither".

The original purity of the systemof spheres all with the same centre,conceived by the Greek mathemati¬cian Eudoxus of Cnidus early in the4th century B.C., had undergone gra¬dual decay, interrupted by momentsof true inventive genius, to culminatein the tardy synthesis of Claudius

Ptolemy's Almagest in the 2nd cen¬tury A.D. Although the evidence ofthe senses appeared to support thecause of geocentric astronomy, italso contained elements which provid¬ed a basis for the formulation ofvarious other theories.

In Galileo's Dialogue, Simplicioasks Salviati: "But from what do youargue that it is not the earth butthe sun which is the centre of the

movements of the planets?" AndSalviati replies: "This is a matter ofobservations which are wholly obviousand therefore necessarily conclusive;and of these observations, the mosttelling, which allows us to removethe earth from the centre and putthe sun in its place, is the fact thatall these planets are sometimes close

to the earth and sometimes farther

away. And these variations in dis¬tance are so great that Venus, forexample, is six times farther awayfrom us when at her farthest pointthan at her closest point, and thatMars is eight times farther away. Youcan clearly see that Aristotle wassomewhat mistaken in thinking thatthese planets were always at thesame distance from the earth."

As well as the geocentric princi¬ple, the ancient world had known theheliocentric principle devised in thefirst half of the 3rd century B.C. byAristarchus of Samos. Archimedes,

through whom we know of Aristachus'heliocentric theory, put forward someobjections but was not unduly shock¬ed by it.

Photo © Erich Müller, Kassel - from "City of the Stargazers"by Kenneth Heuer, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York

Copernicus makes many referen¬ces to the heliocentrism of the

ancients as if needing the hallowedauthority of the classical era as sup¬port to his own revolutionary proposi¬tions. In De revolutionibus he

demands the same "freedom to ima¬

gine" that Aristarchus and others hadallowed themselves in their explana¬tions of astronomical phenomena.

And Copernicus allowed himself tobe carried away by the potency of thesolar symbol, stating that the sunveritable light of the world was moreworthy than the earth to occupy thecentre of the universe. Thus he too

ended by referring to a divinifiedconcept of nature such as that whichhad led the astronomy of antiquityinto a blind alley.

Yet Copernicus invoked the lawsof reason and not those of a divini¬

fied nature when building his magni¬ficent theoretical construction, based

in part on original observation, butmainly on already available data. InCopernicus, faith in reason takes onalmost mystic overtones. He evengoes so far as to imagine a non¬existent letter from a Pythagorean inwhich truth is regarded as a religioussecret to be communicated only to theprivileged few.

Giordano Bruno in his writings,forty years after De revolutionibus,showed the fullest understanding ofthe Copernican revolution. Coperni¬cus had restored the dominion of

reason over the senses and openedthe path to the affirmation of the infi¬nite and the freedom of thought ofmodern man. In Aristotelian and

Ptolemaic astronomy Bruno saw acodification of the universe based on

partial data supplied by that limitedtool of knowledge, the evidence ofthe senses.

Reality grasped by thought and the

understanding is an infinite reality,whereas that grasped by the sensesis always limited. Bruno brought outthe rationalist and platonist aspectsof Copernicus, the Copernicus whocould not accept thinking that was"blown hither and thither", but whobased everything on reason, becausefor him reason was the divine, theabsolute, the infinite. So bold wasthis way of thinking that it had over¬thrown a thousand-year-old scientifictradition.

Thus Copernicus, the last fineflower of the ancient era, was soonto trigger off a new and historic phaseof human culture. Towards the end

of the 16th century the perennial dia¬lectic of the finite and the infinite

saw the intuition of the infinite re-

emerge and win the day, thanks toan astronomy which itself had notyet dared to postulate the infinityof the universe.

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

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PTOLEMY SCANS THE CIRCLING STARS. "I know that I am mortal and ephemeral, but when I scan the circlingspirals of the stars, no longer do I touch earth with my feet, but sit with Zeus himself..." wrote Claudius Ptolemy,the 2nd century Graeco-Egyptian astronomer and mathematician. Left, a wooden figure of Ptolemy In Ulm Cathedral(Fed. Rep. of Germany) carved by Jörg Syrlin, a famous 15th century German craftsman. Ptolemy holds an armillarysphere (see pages 24-25). Above, the Letronne Papyrus, the oldest known illustrated Greek papyrus, inscribed withtexts on astronomy. Dating from the 2nd century B.C., it contains instructions about the celestial spheres basedon propositions by Eudoxus, a 4th century B.C. Greek scholar. Crudely drawn diagrams of the constellationsand the zodiac are interspersed with the text

29

COPERNICUS, GALILEO, BRUNO (Continued)

The Copernican world, it should bestressed, was a finite world; the

world was finite, but not reality, sincereality was thought and thought wentbeyond all boundaries, all specificideas or systems. One of the heret¬ical propositions that sent Bruno tothe stake on February 17, 1600, con¬cerned the plurality of worlds. Domany worlds exist? Or are there manynotions of worlds which might exist?

Perhaps Copernicus had little inkl¬ing of the dramatic developments thatwould result from the repudiation ofthe long-established compromise bet¬ween the senses and reason embodi¬

ed in the Ptolemaic scheme of the uni¬

verse. At the time there were no

immediate repercussions. But later,in an Italy disturbed and stripped ofits preconceived ideas by the Renais¬sance, the argument about the infiniteexploded, involving not only the macro¬cosm but also the human microcosm.

Bruno read Copernicus in literaland metaphorical terms, just as others,in the past had read Aristotle andGenesis. Some interpretations wereerroneous. A theory of the dissolv¬ing of the solid heavenly sphereswas attributed to Copernicus whichappears, to say the least, doubtfulto anyone reading De revolutionibuswith care. But what was authentic

was the re-affirmation of the infinite

in man's reason and the intuition of

a new path towards the absolute andtowards necessity.

When he died for refusing to recant,Bruno bore witness to the anguishthat the problem of reality createsin the minds of men, to the enduringvalue of the Socratic plea to questionall things, and to human civilization'sneed for the toleration denied it byCalvin's Geneva and the Rome of

the Inquisition.

Bruno had come to understand that

finite and infinite could become merg¬ed in the individual. The individual

is finite and limited because he is

not other individuals; but he is infi¬nite and unlimited because he is

unconditionally himself. The wonder¬ful precision and clarity of the Coper¬nican scheme of things were givennew depth and transmuted into thisnew dimension of human conscious¬

ness individuality.

Galileo was destined to become

the finest example of this individu¬ality. What shines out from each ofhis pages is the workings of a mindwhose thoughts become precise enun¬ciations of things, postulates, theo¬rems, problems. Each time, the limi¬tations of "the experiences of thesenses" is transcended by the infin¬ity of reason and converted into theindividuality of affirmation. And thisis why Galileo has for us the intensefascination of the completely modernman, the man for all seasons and ofall places.

The Copernicus brought back tolife by Galileo in his Dialogue is thedefender of logical evidence againstauthoritarianism, verbalism, and thesurrender of human responsibility.He is a figure of not only intellectualbut also moral virtue, with a clarity ofmind which is also a kind of courage,the courage which enabled the newscience to develop its own fertility inface of "the over-cautious and jea¬lous protagonists of the immutabilityof the heavens."

In short, as seen by Galileo, Coper¬nicus the rationalist appears as thefather and guarantor of Copernicusthe cosmologist. The astounding,sensational astronomical revelation

had been preceded by a subjective,internal revelation. Emerging from

EUREKA ( It Is through the famous 3rd century B.C. mathematician andinventor, Archimedes of Syracuse, that we have learned about the helio¬centric theory of the universe advanced at that time by Aristarchus ofSamos. In his book, "Arenarius", Archimedes describes some of the ideasheld by Aristarchus. Below, this 16th century engraving illustrates Archi¬medes' famous bath-night discovery of the principle of the displacementof water. Overjoyed by his discovery, Archimedes is said to have leapedfrom the bath shouting "Eurekal" ("I have found it"). Near the bath aregold and silver vessels and a crown used by Archimedes for his experiment

the mind of the canon of Frombork

(Copernicus), it was transmitted to theDominican of Ñola (Bruno) to appearagain refined and intensified in thethinking of the mathematician of theMedici court (Galileo).

Whilst the ancient world had trans¬

cended its metaphysical naturalismwith the creation by its greatestthinkers of a theory of knowledge, themodern era saw Copernicus, Brunoand Galileo united in an effort to

establish a concept of existence thatwould be open to the requirement ofinfinity.

Individuality and the individual weretheir goal individuality as the reco¬gnizable origin of everything. Coper¬nicus' recurrent fears about the conse¬

quences of his own theories, thestake at which Bruno died, and thetrial of Galileo bear witness to the

liberating power of this revolutionborn of man, projected into the hea¬vens and then embodied in the theoryof existence itself.

Sterile scientific tradition, false

philosophical reasoning, and religiousidolatry may succeed in imposingthemselves by force, but they willalways be condemned by the judgmentof history and the example given by"the innovators" to succeedinggenerations.

TRUTH ON TRIAL. "Noble Copernicus, from my earliest youth your works captured my imagination", wrote theItalian Renaissance scholar Giordano Bruno (left, in a 19th century drawing). Born in Nola (Italy) in 1548, Bruno studied,taught and travelled In Italy, France, England and Germany. Challenging the conception of a finite universe, he postulatedits infinity, picturing it as a multitude of worlds (celestial bodies substantially similar to the Earth). Denounced to the Inqui¬sition for heresy, he was condemned and burned at the stake in Rome, in 1600. No less imprudent for that time were theideas defended by the Italian astronomer and mathematician, Galileo (1564-1642). Upholding the Copernican system of theuniverse, Galileo made observations with his famous telescope that proved the validity of Copernicus' theories. Buthis assertions brought him Into conflict with the beliefs of the Church (still based on the views of Aristotle and Ptolemy).He was brought before the Inquisition and at the end of a trial lasting 20 days he was forced to abjure his ideas. Below,Galileo before his judges, a scene depicted by Robert-Fleury, a 19th century French painter.

Further reading on Copernicus and astronomyNicholas Copernicus: Complete Works. I : The Manuscriptof Nicholas Copernicus - On the Revolutions. Facsimile.London, Warsaw. Cracow. Macmillan and Polish Scientific

Publishers. 1972. Edition sponsored by the Committee andthe Institute for the History of Science and Technology of thePolish Academy of Science. Volume I edited by Pawel Czarto-ryski. Introduction by Jerzy Zathey. Translated by ZygmuntNierada and Erna Hilfstein. Supervised by Edward Rosen.

Reproduction technique by Jan Dorocinski.Angus Armitage: Sun. Stand Thou still: The Ufe and Workof Copernicus, the Astronomer. New York. 1 947. London, 1 948.Marian Biskup and Jerzy Dobrzycki: Copernicus. Scholarand Citizen. Interpress Publishers. Warsaw, 1972.

I. Bernard Cohen : The Birth of a New Physics : From Coper¬nicus to Newton. Doubleday, Garden City. 1960.

J.L.E. Dreyer: A History of Astronomy, from Thaïes to Kepler.New York. 1953.

Galileo Galilei : Discoveries and opinions of Galileo. Trans¬lated by Stillman Drake. Doubleday, Garden City. N. Y., 1957.Sidney Greenberg. The Infinite in Giordano Bruno, with atranslation of his dialogue: "Concerning the cause, principleand unity." King's Crown Press, N. Y.. 1950.Kenneth Heuer: City of the Stargazers. the rise and fall ofancient Alexandria. Charles Scribner's Sons. New York, 1972.

Robert Jastrow : Red Giants and White Dwarfs. A Signetscience book (papeiback), The New American Library Inc..New York. 1969.

Arthur Koest|er: The Sleepwalkers: a History of Man'sChanging Vision of the Universe. Macmillan. New York.Hutchinson. London. 1959

Thomas Kuhn: The Copernican Revolution. Vintage Books.New York. 1959.

Erich Lessing : Discoverers of Space, with introduction bySir Bernard Lovell. Burns and Oates. London. 1969.

Stefan Mekarski: Nicholas Copernicus. The Polish CulturalFoundation. London. 1973.

Jerome R. Ravetz: Astronomy and Cosmology in the Achie¬vement of Nicolaus Copernicus. Wroclaw. Warsaw andCracow. 1 965.

Edward Rosen : Three Copernican Treatises : The Commenta-riolus of Copernicus. The Letter against Werner. The Narratioprima of Rheticus. Third Edition revised with a Biography ofCopernicus and Copernicus Bibliographies. 1939-1958 and1959-1970. Octagon Books. New York. 1971.

Eugenius Rybka: Four Hundred Years of the CopernicanHeritage. Jagiellonian University, Cracow. 1964.

Giorgio de Santularia : The Crime of Galileo. Univ. of ChicagoPress, 1955; Heinemann. London. 1958.

Jagjit Singh : Modern Cosmology. A Pelican Book. PenguinBooks Ltd.. U.K.. 1970.

Dorothy Stimson: The Gradual Acceptance of the CopernicusTheory of the Universe. New York.A. Wolf: A History of Science. Technology and Philosophyin the 1 6th and 1 7th Centuries. Second edition. New York. 1 950.

31

The text below by the Director-General ofUnesco. René Maheu. has just appearedin a limited edition monograph publishedby the Polish National Commission forUnesco, in co-operation with Unesco, onthe occasion of the ceremonies organizedin Paris on February 19, 1973. to mark the500th anniversary of the birth of Copernicus.The monograph, printed in 2,000 copieson paper specially hand-made in Poland,is not on sale. It contains the texts of the

addresses delivered at the Unesco-sponsoredceremonies by René Maheu, JanuszGroszkowski, Member of the Polish

Academy of Sciences, Olaf Pedersen,Member of the International Union of the

History and Philosophy of Science, andby Umberto Forth science historian.Right, an illustration from the monograph,the frontispiece to Galileo's Dialogus deSystemate Mundi, showing, from left toright, Aristotle, Ptolemy and Copernicus.

A NEW VISION

OF

THE UNIVERSE

by René MaheuDirector-General of Unesco

H

32

IISTORY affords few examples of scientificdiscoveries that have had such profound reper¬cussions on the spiritual development of mankindas that of the great Polish astronomer NicholasCopernicus. Unlike later discoveries, such as thoseof Ampère or Faraday, the replacement of the Ptole¬maic model of the solar system by the Copernicanconception did not lead to any technological inno¬vations. It did, however, bring about a veritableintellectual revolution, which had a profound andfar-reaching effect upon man's conception of hisplace in the universe and hence of the human condi¬tion itself.

Man now realized that he was living on a planetwhich was spinning through the immensity of auniverse whose dimensions were beyond his ima¬gining; but at the same time he became convincedthat human thought was capable of grasping thelaws which govern that universe and of predictingthe motions of the heavenly bodies. Before he couldarrive at such a conviction, however, he had todiscard many preconceived ideas which had hardlychanged since the days of Aristotle, and to ceaseregarding himself as the centre of the universe.

This liberating experience opened the way forother discoveries which have gradually shaped ourpresent view of man's place and purpose in nature,for it is through the realization of his own physicalinsignificance in relation to the universe around himthat man has come to appreciate his true greatness,which is spiritual.

Astronomers today have at their disposal instru¬ments that are infinitely more powerful and accuratethan the simple armillary sphere and astrolabe withwhich Copernicus and his contemporaries worked.Giant radio-telescopes and spacecraft supply themwith information about phenomena previously beyondtheir ken; but in the last analysis creative imagination,stimulated by insatiable curiosity, remains the deci¬sive factor In intellectual progress.

Thus, despite the five hundred years that separateus from him, the force of his genius still keepsNicholas Copernicus close to us. In paying tributeto him, we reaffirm our faith in man and In man'sconstantly renewed ability to master, by the sheerpower of rational thought, a universe whose outlinesforever elude him and whose scale and complexityoffer an unending challenge to human intelligence.

Letters to the Editor

THE ORIGINS OF MAN

300-PERSON PROTEST

OTHER VIEWS

Sir,

I am not a professional anthropologist,but I would like to reply to Dr. J. Hilde-shelmer's letter in your January 1973issue. Writing on behalf of over 300other persons, she complains that yourissue, "The Emergence of Man" (August-September 1972), neglects the questionof man's spiritual origins.

I see no reason for the protest sincethe presentation of non-scientific theo¬ries was outside the scope of theissue. Dr. Hildesheimer writes that

man has questioned himself about hisorigins during thousands of years, andhas come up with a wide range ofanswers. Man has asked himself manyother questions about the solar sys¬tem for example and these resultedin many replies too. Yet most of themare now only of historical interest, andit is the Copernican answer that hasremained as a true account of reality.

I am against the practice of referringto the views of prominent scientists infields other than their own in supportof a particular point of view. Einstein'sviews on the origins of man are ofgreat interest as the opinions of agreat man, but they can hardly beconsidered as a contribution to palaeon¬tology.

Although I am not against the religiousattitude expressed in the letter, I dodeplore the situation in which an ideo¬logy blinds critical judgement. I countmany believers among my friends, butour differences of view do not affect

our friendship, perhaps because we rea¬lize that acceptance or rejection of theexistence of a "higher wisdom" is notsubject to evident proof, but is a matterof convictions and inner needs.

Dr. Ludwik CzajaWarsaw, Poland

Sir,

Dr. J. Hildesheimer and 311 co-signa¬tories protest against the fact that yourissue on the emergence of Man dealtwith the question solely from the biolo¬gical and evolutionist point of view,and that no mention was made of the

concept of a creation directed by higherpowers. "In the records of great reli¬gions and nations", says the letter,"as well as in modern spiritual research,may be found a host of references toand proofs for the physical-soulful-spiritual origin of mankind."

Unesco, however, is one of the feworganizations that is truly universal incharacter, but this universality, can onlybe maintained if Unesco deliberatelyrefrains from adopting a particular standon religious or ideological matters.

Unesco's objective is to bring thepeoples of the world closer togetherthrough the common study of the phe¬nomena and laws of nature and ofhuman relations, and to seek a general,world-wide philosophy without identi¬fying itself with or making judgementsabout the beliefs and teachings of theworld's many religions and ideologies.This is an essential condition of the

universality of Unesco and of the ser¬vices it provides and can provide. Thefact that the issue of the "Unesco

Courier" criticized by your correspon¬dents abstains from raising the problemof man's divine inspiration is in accor¬dance with this principle and shouldbe taken as a mark of deference to the

world's religions.Robert L. Hart

Bern, Switzerland

UNDERWATER VANDALS

Sir,

I am preparing a book on under¬water archaeology, with emphasis ondamage done by treasure-hunters wholoot wrecks. If any readers can fur¬nish information on this I should be

grateful to receive it. I'm particularly inte¬rested in hearing about Latin Americaand the Pacific, for which little infor¬mation seems available at present.However, information from any area ismore than welcome.

Herb Greer

c/o Film Rights, Ltd113-117 Wardour St.

London W1V 4EH, U.K.

VANISHING CULTURES

Sir,

One problem that worries me is thefate of the world's primitive cultures,in particular Indians of the Amazon.

International campaigns have beenlaunched to safeguard animals threa¬tened with extinction. Surely it is moreimportant to save human beings andtheir cultures from being wiped out.Cannot Unesco co-ordinate the so far

dispersed and fragmentary efforts thathave been made to protect the world'sprimitive cultures?

Yves Guillon

Rennes, France

STOCKHOLM FOLLOW-UP

Sir,

Congratulations on your excellentissue on man and the environment

(January 1973). Although human sett¬lements were one of the themes of

the agenda paper, they were little dis¬cussed at The U.N. Conference on the

Human Environment, in Stockholm.Unesco should not propagate theimage of environmental concern asconcentrated on the disappearing spe¬cies of animals and wilderness forests.

"The human environment" encom¬

passes the urban slums, the favellas,barrios, freetowns, Wildsiedlungen onevery continent. The United Nationshas accepted the invitation of theGovernment of Canada to convene an

exhibition-conference in Vancouver, in

September, 1975, to concentrate onthe issues neglected at Stockholm.

The Secretary-General of the Stock¬holm Conference, Mr. Maurice Strong,adduced a statistic that is frightening.Of the pollution in the oceans, onequarter derives from oil spills, dis¬charges from vessels, the effluent ofpolluted rivers. But three-quartersbegins as the exhaust from automo¬biles, mostly in cities, carried into theclouds and dropped in the oceans inrain.

It is for this reason that the Inter¬national Union of Local Authorities,

which has long enjoyed fruitful rela¬tions with Unesco, convened a meetingof municipal officials in Vienna inNovember, 1972: "After StockholmWhat?".

Charles S. AscherNew York

RECIPE FOR HEALTHY SOIL

Sir,

I was astonished by Mr. Metrallet'sletter in praise of organic farmingpublished in the your October 1972issue. This matter deserves to be

examined more seriously; the systema¬tic opposition of chemical and organicfarming methods simply does not con¬form to the facts since everyone knowsthat soil must be treated with both

minerals and humus if its fertility isto be maintained.

It is intellectually dishonest to speakof record crops achieved by the useof vegetable compost alone, withoutmaking it clear that such compostsare derived from vast quantities ofvegetable matter gathered from forests,dunes and fallow land, involving agreat deal of labour and resulting in¬evitably in the impoverishment of theland from which it was taken.

Mr. Metrallet sings the merits of"food obtained from a balanced soil".

But who wants the soil to be unba¬

lanced? Everyone knows that mostsoils, naturally or as the result of pro¬longed agricultural use, are impoverish¬ed and unbalanced. Compost alonecannot replace the elements extractedby the growth of crops and whoseabsence gives lower yield and quality.

R. GervyNational Federation of

Fertilizer Industries

Paris, France

MODELLED

ON NATURE 7

Sir,

I was particularly struck by the pho¬tograph at the bottom of page 19 inyour February 1973 issue, illustratingthe article on the ancient Thracians

in Bulgaria. The photo showed adecorated libation bowl originating fromLampsakos on the coast of the Seaof Marmara (photo left).

There seems to me to be little doubt

that the craftsman who made this bowl

drew his inspiration from fossilizedEchmida (sea-urchins) such as are alsofound in Bulgaria. I am thinking par¬ticularly of the Porosoma (photo right)or Phymotaxis varieties, though manyothers, very similar in appearance,have been found in outcrops of ter- Stiary and cretaceous rock. a

Dr. H. J. Oertll <

5 Pau, France 'S

BOOKSHELF

The United Nations System: AnAnalysis, by Mahdi Elmandjra. Pre¬face by Prof. Gunnar Myrdal andPostface by Sir Robert Jackson.Faber and Faber, London, 1973

(£6): Archon Books, Hamden, Con¬necticut.

Seven Voices: Seven Latin Am¬

erican writers talk to Rita Guibert.

Translated from the Spanish byFrances Partridge; introduction byEmir Rodriguez Monegal, Alfred A.Knopf, New York, 1973 ($10).

Tracing Shamans in Siberia: Thestory of an ethnographical researchexpedition, by Vilmos Diószegi.Translated from the Hungarian byAnita Rajkay Babó. AnthropologicalPublications, Oosterhout, The Nether¬lands 1968; U.S. distributor: Huma¬nities Press Inc., New York.

Bibliografía General de la Lite¬ratura Latinoamericana. Contribu¬

tors: G. Lohman Villena y L. JaimeCisneros (Periodo colonial); JulioOrtega (Siglo XIX); H. Jorge Becco(Época contemporánea). Coordina¬dor: Jorge Carrera Andrade; Revi¬sor: Héctor Luis Arena. Co-edition

Unesco - Editions Siglo XXI, MexicoCity. 1972 (14 F).

UNESCO'S TRANSLATION SERIES

CHINA

Poems of Solitude, translated byJerome Ch'ên and Michael Bullock.

Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd.,Bradford and London. 1960, 2nd Ed.

1970, 118 pp (£1.80); Charles TuttleCo.. Tokyo and Rutland, Vermont($6.50)

INDIA

Avimaraka (Love's EnchantedWorld), translated by J.L. Massonand D.D. Kosambi. Motilal Banar-

sidass, Delhi 1970, 151 pp (18 Rs.)

Hymns of Guru Nanak, translatedby Khushwant Singh. Orient Long¬mans Ltd., New Delhi. 1969, 192 pp.(paper, 7.50 Rs.; cloth 12.50 Rs.)

ISRAEL

Pictures from a Brewery, byAsher Barash, translated by KatieKaplan. Peter Owen Ltd., London,1972, 270 pp (£2.50)

IAPAN

The Sound of the Mountain, byYasunari Kawabata, translated, byEdward M. Seidensticker. Seeker

and Warburg Ltd., London, 1971,276pp (£2.25); Knopf, N.York ($7.50)

KHMER REPUBLIC

Mr. Basket Knife and other Khmer

folktales, translated by AnthonyMilne, illustrations by SisowathKulachad. George Allen and UnwinLtd., London, 1972, 62 pp (£1.50)

KOREA

Songs of the Dragons, trans¬lated by James Hoyt. Korean Na¬tional Commission for Unesco, for

the Royal Asiatic Society, Seoul,1971

G3 b m ïU.S.S.R. joins Universal

Copyright ConventionThe Soviet Union has joined the Univ¬

ersal Copyright Convention. The decisionwas announced by Mr. Andrei Gromyko,the Soviet Foreign Minister, in a letterdated February 14 to Mr. René Maheu,Director-General of Unesco. The U.S.S.R.

is thus the 64th country to accede to theconvention which becomes effective for the

Soviet Union from May 27, 1973. Underthe Unesco-sponsored convention (adoptedin Geneva in 1952) literary, scientific andartistic works are protected for at least25 years and signatory countries undertaketo extend to foreign writers the protectionthey give to their own nationals. Theconvention was revised in Paris in 1971 to

give developing countries easier access tobooks written and published in theindustrially developed countries. The revis¬ed convention will enter into force when

ratified by 12 countries. So far six havedone so. (See article "New copyright revi¬sion means more books for the Third

World" by Georges Ravelonanosy, "UnescoCourier", July 1972.)

Unesco education centre

opens in BeirutA Unesco Regional Office for Education

in the Arab States has been opened inBeirut under an agreement betweenUnesco and Lebanon. The Beirut centre

Unesco's fourth regional office of thiskind will help Arab countries to improveand expand their educational systems.Other offices are situated in Dakar (toserve Africa), in Bangkok (for Asia) andin Santiago de Chile (for Latin America).

Museums on the move

A wide sampling of ways in which go-ahead museums reach the public and"educate" in the widest sense is givenin "Museums, Imagination and Education",just published by Unesco (148 pp., $6,£2). Using mobile exhibitions museumsare now on the move. Some examples :Nigeria's travelling museum, set up withUnesco aid, teaches modern farming tech¬niques in the countryside ; Moscow's Poly-technique Museum explains science andtechnology through some 20 exhibitions ayear, including a river boat that has visitedtowns along the Volga. Youth participationis promoted by centres such as the BalDhavan, in New Dehli, and the "Muse",a children's centre in Brooklyn, New York,which organizes workshops in poetry, pain¬ting, thea.tre, music and dancing.

Montaigne Prizefor René Maheu

The 1973 Montaigne Prize was recentlypresented, at a ceremony in Paris, toUnesco's Director-General, Mr. René

Maheu. The prize is awarded annually bythe F.V.S. Foundation of Hamburg (GermanFed. Rep.) to "recognize the role of eminentrepresentatives of European countries ofRomance languages in the maintenance ofthe spiritual values of Europe and its open¬ing to the world". Mr. Maheu was honour¬ed for presiding over "the destiny of an

institution devoted to co-operation betweenpeoples" and as an outstanding philoso¬pher, humanist and European.

International aid

to save Carthage-Several countries are sending archaeo¬

logical teams to Carthage in response tothe international appeal launched last yearby Unesco's Director-General, Mr. RenéMaheu, for universities, scientific instit¬utions and foundations to take part in thecampaign to explore and protect the site.(See also "Unesco Courier", December1970 "Carthage Must Not be Destroyed".)Polish archaeologists have been at workon the site since last year, and teams fromBulgaria, France, Italy and Britain, amongother countries, are to join them. Donationsfor the campaign can be sent directly tothe Special Fund for Carthage, Unesco,Place de Fontenoy, Paris-7e.

...and deadline for savingBorobudur

About $1.5 million must be raised bythe end of June, 1973, if the 8th centuryBuddhist temples of Borobudur (Indonesia)are to be saved, declared Unesco's Direc¬tor-General Mr. René Maheu in a recent

urgent appeal. The cost of preserving thetemples is estimated at $7,750,000. TheIndonesian Government is to provide$2,750,000, and will start the work of rest¬oration if $3,000,000 of the balance ispledged by Unesco Member States byJune 30. Contributions thus far total about

$1,500,000.

World guideto malaria hazards

The World Health Organization has justpublished the first comprehensive worldguide to malaria hazards. From it, a doc¬tor or traveller can learn just where mala¬ria exists in any country on a proposeditinerary. Among other facts, the guideindicates the times of the year when thetraveller is at risk from malaria and the

altitude levels below which the risk exists,

and pinpoints urban areas where the tou¬rist can spend a night without the threatof getting malaria. Each year severalthousand persons become ill from malariaafter travelling abroad, and the disease isresponsible for a small but increasingnumber of avoidable deaths among jet agetourists and businessmen.

Flashes

M Countries providing development assis¬tance spent 25 times more money on armsthan on aid during 1970, according to aU.N. study.

Postage stamps issued by Monaco tohelp save Venice have raised $10,000 forthe Unesco-sponsored international cam¬paign.

Kiev, capital of the Ukraine, has openeda museum dedicated to books and the his¬

tory of printing.

A new way to deal with lake pollutionhas been found in Sweden where special¬ists are pumping compressed air Into aheavily-polluted lake near Stockholm torevitalize and cleanse its waters.

A binder for your'Unesco Courier'

collection

We offer subscribers an attractive and

convenient binder, handsomely producedin red cloth. It holds a year's issues of themagazine and costs only :

£1.15

$4.50

15F

Order from Unesco agents listed below

Just published

by Unesco

* *

it is timeto begin

182 pages£1.05; $3.50; 14 F

A WARNING

THAT NO ONE

CAN AFFORD

TO NEGLECT

byMalcolm S. Adiseshiah

former DeputyDirector-General

of Unesco

World crisis in development

The brain drain from the Arabworld

New perspectives in education

Asian universities and problemsof lifelong education

The canvas of world change

The widening gap between therich and poor countries

With a foreword

by René Maheu,Director-General of Unesco

Where to renew your subscriptionand order other Unesco publications

Order from any bookseller or write direct tothe National Distributor in your country. (See listbelow ; names of distributors in countries notlisted will be supplied on request.) Payment ismade in the national currency ; the rates quotedare for an annual subscription to THE UNESCOCOURIER in any one language.

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37, Djakarta. IRAN. Iranian National Commissionfor Unesco, Avenue Iranchahr Chomali No 300,B.P. 1533, Teheran. IRAQ. McKeniie's Bookshop,Al-Rashid Street, Baghdad; University Bookstore, Uni¬versity of Baghdad, P.O. Box 75. Baghdad. IRELAND.The National Press, 2, Wellington Road, Ballsbridge,Dublin 4. ISRAEL. Emanuel Brown, formerlyBlumstein's Bookstores, 35 Allenby Road and 46, NachlatBenjamin Street. Tel-Aviv; 9, Shlomzion Hamalka StreetJerusalem. (24 I.L.) JAMAICA. Sangster's Book StoresLtd., P.O. Box i -j, 101 Water Lane, Kingston.JAPAN. Maruzen Co. Ltd., P.O. Box 5050, Tokyo

International 100-31Í.Y 1,440). KEN YA.The E.S.A. Ltd.,P.O. Box 30167, Nairobi. KOREA. Korean NationalCommission for Unesco, P.O. Box Central 64, Seoul.KUWAIT. The Kuwait Bookshop Co., Ltd., P.O. Box2942, Kuwait. LIBERIA. Cole and Yancy BookshopsLtd., P.O. Box 286, Monrovia. LIBYA. Agency forDevelopment of Publication & Distribution, P.O. Box 34-35, Tripoli. LUXEMBURG. Librairie Paul Brück,22, Grand-Rue, Luxembourg. MALAYSIA.Federal Publications Sdn Bhd., Balai Berita, 31, JalanRiong, Kuala Lumpur. MALTA. Sapienza's Library,26 Kingsway, Valletta. MAURITIUS. Nalanda Com¬pany Ltd.. 30, Bourbon Street, Port-Louis (Rs. 17,45).

MONACO. British Library, 30, Bid des Moulins, Monte-Carlo. NETHERLANDS. "Unesco Courier" Dutch

edition only N.V. Internationale Uitgevers-EnHandelmaatschappij Systemen Keesing, Ruysdaelstraat71-75, AmsterdamZuid. (fl. 17.50). Agent for all Unescopublications : N. V. Martinus Nijhoff, Lange Voorhout,9, The Hague. - NETHERLANDS ANTILLES.G. C. T. Van Dorp & Co. (Ned Ant.). N.V., Willemstad. Curacao. N. A. (NA fl. 7. 80).

NEW ZEALAND. Government Printing Office,Government Bookshops at : Rutland Street, P.O. Box5344, Auckland; 130. Oxford Terrace, P.O. Box 1721,Chrittchurch ; Alma Street, P.O. Box 857, Hamilwi;

Princes Street, P.O. Box 1104, Dunedin; MulgraveStreet, Private Bag, Wellington (S 3.00). NIGERIAThe University Bookshop of Ife, The University Bookshopof Ibadan, P.O. Box 286; The University Bookshop ofNsukka, The University Bookshop of Lagos. The AhmaduBello University Bookshop of Zana. NORWAY. Allpublications : johan Grundt Tanum (Booksellers) Karljohansgate 41/43, Oslo 1. For Unesco Courier only: A. S.Narvesens Litteraturtjeneste, Box 61 25, Oslo6 (K.23,00).-PAKISTAN. The West-Pak Publishing Co. Ltd., UnescoPublications House, P.O. Box 374 G.P.O., Lahore;Showrooms : Urdu Bazaar, Lahore, and 57-58 Murree,Highway, G/6-1, Islamabad. Pakistan Publications Book¬shop, Sarwar Road, Rawalpindi. Mirza BookAgency 65 Shahrah Quaid-e-azam, P.O. BoxN\ 729. Lahore- 3 - PHILIPPINES. The ModernBook Co., 926 Rizal Avenue, P.O. Box632. Manila D-404. POLAND. All publications :ORWN PAN Palac Kultury i Naukl, Warsaw.For the Unesco Courier only : RUCH, ul.Wronia, 23, Warsaw 1 0. PORTUGAL. Dias & AndradaLtda, Livraria Portugal, rua do Carmo 70, Lisbon (Esc.1 05).

SINGAPORE. Federal Publications Sdn Bhd., TimesHouse, River Valley Road, Singapore 9. SOUTHERNRHODESIA. Textbook Sales (PVT) Ltd., 67 UnionAvenue, Salisbury. SRI LANKA. Lake House Book¬shop, Sir Chittapalam Gardiner Mawata P.O.B. 244Colombo 2. (Rs 25). - SUDAN. AI Bashir Bookshop,P.O. Box 1 1 1 8, Khartoum. SWEDEN. All publications:A/B CE. Fntzes Kungl. Hovbokhandel, Fredsgatan 2,Box 16356. 10327 Stockholm 16. For the UnescoCourier Svenska FN-Fórbundet, Box 150 50S-104 65, Stockholm (Kr. 18). SWITZERLAND.All publications : Europa Verlag. 5 Ramistrasse,Zürich. Librairie Payot, rue Grenus 6, 1211,Geneva 11, CCP. 12-236 (Fr. S." 1 6.-). TAN-ZANIA. Dar-es-Salaam Bookshop, P.O.B. 9030 Dar-es-Salaam. THAILAND. Suksapan Panit, Mansion 9,Raidamnern Avenue, Bangkok. (71.00 bäht). TURKEY.Librairie Hachette, 469 Istiklal Caddesi, Beyoglu, Istanbul.

UGANDA. Uganda Bookshop, P.O. Box 1 45, Kampala.SOUTH AFRICA. All publications: Van Schaik's

Bookstore (Pty). Ltd., Libri Building, Church Street, P.O.Box 724, Pretoria. For the Unesco Courier (single copies)only: Central News Agency P.O. Box 1033, Johannesburg.UNITED KINGDOM. H.M. Stationery Office, P.O.Box 569, London, S.E.I., and Government Bookshopsin London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, Manchester,Birmingham, Bristol (£1,30).-UNITED STATES. UnescoPublications Center, P.O. Box 433, New York, N.Y.10016 (S 5). U.S.S.R. Mezhdunarodnaja Kniga.Moscow, G-200. YUGOSLAVIA. JugoslovensltsKnjiga, Terazije, 27, Belgrade; Drzavna Zaluzba Slo¬vénie Mettni Trg. 26, Ljubljana.

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