SOURCE: Moran, Bruce T. “The Universe of Philip Melanchthon: Criticism and Use of the Copernican Theory.” Comitatus 4 (1973): 1-23.

In the following essay, Moran studies Melanchthon's intellectual background, particularly his ideas about physics and astronomy, and goes on to examine his attitude toward and understanding of Copernican astronomy.

In the statutes of 1582 for the University of Altdorf, founded 1578, it is left to the individual judgment of the mathematici to expound planetary theory according either to Ptolemy or Copernicus (vel Ptolemaei vel Copernici).¹ This concession, that the Copernican hypothesis, as a mathematical construct, is as useful for the description and prediction of planetary movement as the Ptolemaic model, is evidence of a tradition which had long viewed astronomical hypotheses merely as attempts to save appearances rather than as descriptions of the real nature of things. Such a view of the Copernican theory was openly advocated by Philip Melanchthon at the...