How Did Copernicus Contribute To The Rise Of The Renaissance And Scientific Revolution

The Renaissance and Scientific Revolution accounted for what was the most remarkable period of discovery and growth in history. It preceded the Enlightenment and it was a time in which modern science truly came to light. It changed the way people viewed the physical world around them. Freethinkers such as Giordono Bruno and Galileo Galilei and Scientists such as Isaac Newton and Nicolaus Copernicus played a pivotal role during this period as they questioned traditional beliefs set out by the Church regarding the workings of the Universe. The Ancient world was constructed around myth, stories of gods and their control over human destiny. It was also believed that the Sun and Earth were a sort of unique galaxy whereby the Sun orbited the Earth.
This eventually contributed to breaking with the past and the birth of the early modern world.
Nicholas Copernicus was responsible for what many called the ‘’Copernican Revolution’’. He studied under a professor of Astronomy and Mathematics, Maria De Novara and from her took an interest in the Platonic and Pythagorean revival which disapproved in the Ptolemaic system. He believed the theories of Ptolemy were inadequate. He studied many philosophers and from this he formed the idea that the Earth did indeed move. He challenges Ancient World views in Commentariolus in which he states that our ancestors ‘’thought it altogether absurd that a heavenly body, which is a perfect sphere, should not always move uniformly’’ The Ptolemaic system was geocentric in that it placed the Earth at the centre of the universe. Copernicus refused this and believed that the Sun was in fact at the centre of the universe. From this he created the heliocentric model of the universe. This went against the
He was declared a heretic after claiming the sun was at the centre of the universe and it was not until recent years that the Church admitted that the Galileo case was handled poorly. Galileo published his beliefs in The Starry Messenger in which he stated that Jupiter had moons of its own, Venus had phases like the moon when only half of it was lit which is what would happen if Venus moved around the sun. Galileo also observed that the moon has mountains and has the same physical composition as the Earth. In 1615 Galileo wrote a letter to Madama Christina, the Grand Duchess Dowager in which he states that the Bible and all its teachings had no place in scientific investigation. He also stated that academic philosophers show more interest in their own opinions than in the actual truth and refuse to consider other views. ‘’Showing a greater fondness for their own opinions than for truth, they sought to deny and disprove the new things which, if they had cared to look for themselves, their own senses would have demonstrated to them.’’ He also writes that these academic philosophers published ‘’vain arguments’’ and ‘’sprinkling these with passages taken from places in the Bible which they had failed to understand properly.’’ He therefore