SOURCE: "From Copernicus to Kepler: Heliocentrism as Model and as Reality" in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 117, No. 6, December, 1973, pp. 513–22.

In the following essay, Gingerich discusses controversies in the early publishing history of De revolutionibus.

Near the close of Book One of the autograph manuscript of his great work, Copernicus writes:

And if we should admit that the course of the sun and moon could be demonstrated even if the earth is fixed, then with respect to the other wandering bodies there is less agreement. It is credible that, for these and similar causes (and not because of the reason of motion, which Aristotle mentions and rejects), Philolaus was aware of the mobility of the earth, and some even say that Aristarchus of Samos was of the same opinion. But since things were such that they could not be comprehended except by a sharp intellect and...