The massive bulk of the earth does indeed shrink to insignificance in comparison with the size of the heavens. |
Those who know that the consensus of many centuries has sanctioned the conception that the earth remains at rest in the middle of the heavens as its center, would, I reflected, regard it as an insane pronouncement if I made the opposite assertion that the earth moves. |
Therefore, having obtained the opportunity from these sources, I too began to consider the mobility of the earth. |
For a traveler going from any place toward the north, that pole of the daily rotation gradually climbs higher, while the opposite pole drops down an equal amount. |
Therefore I would not have it unknown to Your Holiness, the the only thing which induced me to look for another way of reckoning the movements of the heavenly bodies was that I knew that mathematicians by no means agree in their investigation thereof. |
Of all things visible, the highest is the heaven of the fixed stars. |
The earth also is spherical, since it presses upon its center from every direction. |
Those things which I am saying now may be obscure, yet they will be made clearer in their proper place. |
In so many and such important ways, then, do the planets bear witness to the earth's mobility. |
Moreover, since the sun remains stationary, whatever appears as a motion of the sun is really due rather to the motion of the earth. |
For it is the duty of an astronomer to compose the history of the celestial motions through careful and expert study. |
I can easily conceive, most Holy Father, that as soon as some people learn that in this book which I have written concerning the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, I ascribe certain motions to the Earth, they will cry out at once that I and my theory should be rejected. |
First of all, we must note that the universe is spherical. |