Uncentering the Earth - Copernicus and On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres

Uncentering the Earth - Copernicus and On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres

by William T. Vollmann

Phoenix, HK$136

Dava Sobel, a guest at next year's Hong Kong Literary Festival, reviewed William T. Vollmann's Uncentering the Earth for The New York Times. She was hoping Vollmann would offer fresh insight on 'Copernicus' dense, technical treatise', On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. She concluded that 'non-mathematicians have good reason to avoid reading the actual text of the great man's admirable legacy' because, as Nicolaus Copernicus told Pope Paul III, 'mathematics is written for mathematicians'. Vollmann, one of those clever people (Europe Central won the National Book Award), does his best but admits it was 'slightly' beyond him. Yes, he is that smart. What does emerge with particular clarity from Uncentering the Earth is how earth shattering Copernicus' mathematical discovery was and the 'intellectual bondage' constraining the great astronomer. The threat of heresy was real and he was ordered not to challenge accepted wisdom that the Earth is the centre. On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres was not published until Copernicus was dead. Vollmann gives the Council of Trent its due because, for the church, the Bible was logically true. It was simply too soon to say it just wasn't science.