For It Is The Duty Of An

In First Place We Must Observe That The Universe Is Spherical. This Is Either Because That Figure Is The Most Perfect, As Not Being Articulated, But Whole And Complete In Itself; Or Because It Is The Most Capacious And Therefore Best Suited For That Which Is To Contain And Preserve All Things.

So, Influenced By These Advisors And This Hope, I Have At Length Allowed My Friends To Publish The Work, As They Had Long Besought Me To Do.

Those Things Which I Am Saying Now May Be Obscure, Yet They Will Be Made Clearer In Their Proper Place.

First Of All, We Must Note That The Universe Is Spherical.

Among The Authorities It Is Generally Agreed That The Earth Is At Rest In The Middle Of The Universe, And They Regard It As Inconceivable And Even Ridiculous To Hold The Opposite Opinion. However, If We Consider It More Closely The Question Will Be Seen To Be Still Unsettled, And So Decidedly Not To Be Despised. For Every Apparent Change In Respect Of Position Is Due To Motion Of The Object Observed, Or Of The Observer, Or Indeed To An Unequal Change Of Both.