Chapter 4: The Sun Worshipers Summary and Analysis

Mikolai Kopernik was an astronomer and assisted his professor in Bologna in observing the sun and the stars. His worked proved that the Ptolemaic system was inaccurate. Kopernik loved to read and was born just thirty years after the printing press was invented. Kopernik benefited from reading the works of Plato, Aristotle, Archimedes and Ptolemy. Kopernik was born in Poland but studied in Italy and when he returned home he had changed his name to Nicolaus Copernicus.

Copernicus studied the great astronomers and particularly admired Ptolemy. His heliocentric theory corrected errors made by his idol. He was impressed by the logic of Plato's belief that there was an underlying structure to the entire universe which led him to believe that the sun was at the center of the universe. Copernicus was influenced by Parisian scholar...