Stimson’s 1917 study first sketches heliocentric ideas from the Greeks to Copernicus, then asks how the new system was actually received. She follows scholars, poets and churchmen through Bruno and Galileo, the arguments of the opposition, Riccioli’s rival world-systems and Milton’s careful hedging, and ends with the Church’s long reckoning with the new astronomy.
A readable history of ideas for anyone interested in how scientific revolutions are absorbed rather than simply announced. Download the free EPUB.