ABSTRACT
Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) published his heliocentric theory of planetary motion in 1543. Eventually accepted in modified form in the course of the seventeenth century, Copernicanism has come to represent the end of a series of astronomical traditions that began in antiquity. The term “pre-Copernican” refers to a chronological epoch, but also to those areas of astronomy affected by the Copernican revolution. Copernicanism is a theory, which is to say a scheme for understanding or making sense of phenomena, and the areas most affected by astronomical theory are cosmology and mathematical astronomy. In addition to those areas, practical uses of the heavens, such as calendars, timekeeping, and instrumentation, demand our attention in the pre-Copernican epoch-that period before the concept of the earth as a planet was taken seriously.
