2. The Earth is Spherical Too

The Earth is globe-shaped too, since on every side it rests upon its centre. But it is not perceived straightway to be a perfect sphere, on account of the great height of its mountains and the lowness of its valleys though they modify its universal roundness to only a very small extent. That is made clear in this way. For when people journey northward from anywhere, the northern vertex of the axis of daily revolution gradually moves, overhead, and the other moves downward to the same extent; and many stars situated to the north are seen not to set, and many to the south are seen not to rise any more. So Italy does not see Canopus, which is visible to Egypt. And Italy sees the last star of Fluvius, which is not visible to this region situated in a more frigid zone. Conversely, for people who travel southward, the second group of stars becomes higher in the sky; while those become lower which for us are high up.

Moreover, the inclinations of the poles have everywhere the same ratio with places at equal distances from the poles of the Earth and that happens in no other figure except the spherical. Whence it is manifest that the Earth itself is contained between the vertices and is therefore a globe. Add to this the fact that the inhabitants of the East do not perceive the evening eclipses of the sun and moon; nor the inhabitants of the West, the morning eclipses; while of those who live in the middle region--some see them earlier and some later.

Furthermore, voyagers perceive that the waters too are fixed within this figure; for example, when land is not visible from the deck of a ship, it may be seen from the top of the mast, and conversely, if something shining is attached to the top of the mast, it appears to those remaining on the shore to come down gradually, as the ship moves from the land, until finally it becomes hidden, as if setting. Moreover, it is admitted that water, which by its nature flows, always seeks lower places--the same way as earth--and does not climb up the shore any farther than the convexity of the shore allows. That is why the land is so much higher where it rises up from the ocean.

3. How Land and Water Make up A Single Globe

And so the ocean encircling the land pours forth its waters everywhere and fills up the deeper hollows with them. Accordingly it was necessary for there to be less water than land, so as not to have the whole earth soaked with water-- since both of them tend toward the same centre on account of their weight-- and so as to leave some portions of land--such as the islands discernible here and there--for the preservation of living creatures. For what is the continent itself and the orbis terrarum except an island which is larger than the rest? We should not listen to certain Peripatetics who maintain that there is ten times more water than land and who arrive at that conclusion because in the transmutation of the elements the liquefaction of one part of earth results in ten parts of water. And they say that land has emerged for a certain distance because, having hollow spaces inside, it does not balance everywhere with respect to weight and so the centre of gravity is different from the centre of magnitude. But they fall into error through ignorance of geometry; for they do not know that there cannot be seven times more water than land and some part of the land still remain dry, unless the land abandon its center of gravity and give place to the waters as being heavier. For spheres are to one another as the cubes of their diameters. If therefore there were seven parts of water and one part of land, the diameter of the land could not be greater than the radius of the globe of the waters. So it is even less possible that the water should be ten times greater. It can be gathered that there is no difference between the centres of magnitude and of gravity of the Earth from the fact that the convexity of the land spreading out from the ocean does not swell continuously, for in that case it would repulse the sea-waters as much as possible and would not in any way allow interior seas and huge gulfs to break through. Moreover, from the seashore outward the depth of the abyss would not stop increasing, and so no island or reef or any spot of land would be met with by people voyaging out very far. Now it is well known that there is not quite the distance of two miles --at practically the centre of the orbis terrarum--between the Egyptian and the Red Sea. And on the contrary, Ptolemy in his Cosmography extends inhabitable lands as far as the median circle, and he leaves that part of the Earth as unknown, where the moderns have added Cathay and other vast regions as far as 60¡ longitude, so that inhabited land extends in longitude farther than the rest of the ocean does. And if you add to these the islands discovered in our time under the princes of Spain and Portugal and especially America--named after the ship's captain who discovered her--which they consider a second orbis terrarum on account of her so far unmeasured magnitude--besides many other islands heretofore unknown, we would not be greatly surprised if there were antiphodes or antichthones. For reasons of geometry compel us to belive that America is situated diametrically opposite to the India of the Ganges.

And from all that I think it is manifest that the land and the water rest upon one centre of gravity; that this is the same as the centre of magnitude of the land, since land is the heavier; that parts of land which are as it were yawning are filled with water; and that accordingly there is little water in comparison with the land, even if more of the surface appears to be covered by water.

Now it is necessary that the land and the surrounding waters have the figure which the shadow of the Earth casts, for it eclipses the moon by projecting a perfect circle upon it. Therefore the Earth is not a plane, as Empedocles and Anaximenes opined; or a tympanoid, as Leucippus; or a scaphoid, as Heracleitus; or hollowed out in any other way, as Democritus; or again a cylinder, as Anaxirmander; and it is not infinite in its lower part, with the density increasing rootwards, as Xenophanes thought; but it is perfectly round, as the philosophers perceived.

4. The Movement of the Celestial Bodies is Regular, Circular, and Everlasting--or Else Compounded of Circular Movements

After this we will recall that the movement of the celestial bodies is circular. For the motion of a sphere is to turn in a circle; by this very act expressing its form, in the most simple body, where beginning and end cannot be discovered or distinguished from one another, while it moves through the same parts in itself. But there are many movements on account of the multitude of spheres or orbital circles.The most obvious of all is the daily revolution--which the Greeks call nucqhmeron; i.e., having the temporal span of a day and a night. By means of this movement the whole world--with the exception of the Earth--is supposed to be borne from east to west. This movement is taken as the common measure of all movements, since we measure even time itself principally by the number of days.

Next, we see other as it were antagonistic revolutions; i.e., from west to east; on the part of the sun, moon, and the wandering stars. In this way the sun gives us the year, the moon the months--the most common periods of time; and each of the other five planets follows its own cycle. Nevertheless these movements are manifoldly different from the first movement. First, in that they do not revolve around the same poles as the first movement but follow the oblique ecliptic; next, in that they do not seem to move in their circuit regularly. For the sun and moon are caught moving at times more slowly and at times more quickly. And we perceive the five wandering stars sometimes even to retrograde and to come to a stop between these two movements. And though the sun always proceeds straight ahead along its route, they wander in various ways, straying sometimes towards the south, and at other times towards the north -whence they are called "planets." Add to this the fact that sometimes they are nearer the Earth --and are then said to be at their perigee--and at other times are farther away-- and are said to be at their apogee.

We must however confess that these movements are circular or are composed of many circular movements, in that they maintain these irregularities in accordance with a constant law and with fixed periodic returns: and that could not take place, if they were not circular. For it is only the circle which can bring back what is past and over with; and in this way, for example, the sun by a movement composed of circular movements brings back to us the inequality of days and nights and the four seasons of the year. Many movements are recognized in that movement, since it is impossible that a simple heavenly body should be moved irregularly by a single sphere. For that would have to take place either on account of the inconstancy of the motor virtue--whether by reason of an extrinsic cause or its intrinsic nature-- or on account of the inequlity between it and the moved body. But since the mind shudders at either of these suppositions, and since it is quite unfitting to suppose that such a state of affairs exists among things which are established in the best system, it is agreed that their regular movements appear to us as irregular, whether on account of their circles having different poles or even because the earth is not at the centre of the circles in which they revolve. And so for us watching from the Earth, it happens that the transits of the planets, on account of being at unequal distances from the Earth, appear greater when they are nearer than when they we farther away, as has been shown in optics: thus in the case of equal arcs of an orbital circle which are seen at different distances there will appear to be unequal movements in equal times. For this reason I think it necessary above all that we should note carefully what the relation of the Earth to the heavens is, so as not-- when we wish to scrutinize the highest things--to be ignorant of those which are nearest to us, and so as not--by the same error--to attribute to the celestial bodies what belongs to the Earth.

5. Does the Earth have a Circular Movement? And of its Place

Now that it has been shown that the Earth too has the form of a globe, I think we must see whether or not a movement follows upon its form and what the place of the Earth is in the universe. For without doing that it will not be possible to find a sure reason for the movements appearing in the heavens. Although there are so many authorities for saying that the Earth rests in the centre of the world that people think the contrary supposition inopinable and even ridiculous; if however we consider the thing attentively, we will see that the question has not yet been decided and accordingly is by no means to be scorned. For every apparent change in place occurs on account of the movement either of the thing seen or of the spectator, or on account of the necessarily unequal movement of both. For no movement is perceptible relatively to things moved equally in the same directions--I mean relatively to the thing seen and the spectator. Now it is from the Earth that the celestial circuit is beheld and presented to our sight. Therefore, if some movement should belong to the Earth it will appear, in the parts of the universe which are outside, as the same movement but in the opposite direction, as though the things outside were passing over. And the daily revolution in especial is such a movement. For the daily revolution appears to carry the whole universe along, with the exception of the Earth and the things around it. And if you admit that the heavens possess none of this movement but that the Earth turns from west to east, you will find--if you make a serious examination--that as regards the apparent rising and setting of the sun, moon, and stars the case is so. And since it is the heavens w hich contain and embrace all things as the place common to the universe, it will not be clear at once why movement should not be assigned to the contained rather than to the container, to the thing placed rather than to the thing providing the place.

As a matter of fact, the Pythagoreans Herakleides and Ekphantus were of this opinion and so was Hicetas the Syracusan in Cicero; they made the Earth to revolve at the centre of the world. For they believed that the stars set by reason of the interposition of the Earth and that with cessation of that they rose again. Now upon this assumption there follow other things, and a no smaller problem concerning the place of the Earth, though it is taken for granted and believed by nearly all that the Earth is the centre of the world. For if anyone denies that the Earth occupies the midpoint or centre of the world yet does not admit that the distance [between the two] is great enough to be compared with [the distance to] the sphere of the fixed stars but is considerable and quite apparent in relation to the orbital circles of the sun and the planets; and if for that reason he thought that their movements appeared irregular because they are organized around a different centre from the centre of the Earth, he might perhaps be able to bring forward a perfectly sound reason for movement which appears irregular. For the fact that the wandering stars are seen to be sometimes nearer the Earth and at other times farther away necessarily argues that the centre of the Earth is not the centre of their circles. It is not yet clear whether the Earth draws near to them and moves away or they draw near to the Earth and move away

And so it would not be very surprising if someone attributed some other movement to the earth in addition to the daily revolution. As a matter of fact, Philolaus the Pythagorean--no ordinary mathematician, whom Plato's biographers say Plato went to Italy for the sake of seeing--is supposed to have held that the Earth moved in a circle and wandered in some other movements and was one of the planets.

Many however have believed that they could show by geometrical reasoning that the Earth is in the middle of the world; that it has the proportionality of a point in relation to the immensity of the heavens, occupies the central position, and for this reason is immovable, because, when the universe moves, the centre remains unmoved and the things which are closest to the centre are moved the most slowl,y.

6. On the Immensity of the Heavens in Relation to the Magnitude of the Earth

It can be understood that this great mass which is the Earth is not comparable with the magnitude of the heavens, from the fact that the boundary circles --for that is the translation of the Greek orizonted--cut the whole celestial sphere into two halves; for that could not take place if the magnitude of the Earth in comparison with the heavens, or its distance from the centre of the world, were considerable. For the circle bisecting a sphere goes through the centre of the sphere, and is the greatest circle which it is possible to circumscribe.

Now let the horizon be the circle ABCD, and let the Earth where our Point of view is, be E, the centre of the horizon by which the visible stars are separated from those which are not visible. Now with a dioptra or horoscope or level placed at E, the beginning of Cancer is seen to rise at point C; and at the same moment the beginning of Capricorn appearsto set at A. Therefore, since AEC is in a straight line with the dioptra, it is clear that this line is a diameter of the ecliptic, because the six signs bound a semicircle, whose centre E is the same as that of the horizon. But when a revoiution has taken place and the beginning of Capricorn arises at B, then the setting of Cancer will be visible at D, and BED will be a straight line and a diameter of the ecliptic. But it has already been seen that the line AEC is a diameter of the same circle; therefore, at their common section, point E will be their centre. So in this way the horizon always bisects the ecliptic, which is a great circle of the sphere. But on a sphere, if a circle bisects one of the great circles, then the circle bisecting is a great circle. Therefore the horizon is a great circle; and its centre is the same as that of the ecliptic, as far as appearance goes; although nevertheless the line passing through the centre of the Earth and the line touching to the surface are necessarily different; but on account of their immensity in comparison with the Earth they are like parallel lines, which on account of the great distance between the termini appear to be one line, when the space contained between them is in no perceptible ratio to their length, as has been shown in optics.

From this argument it is certainly clear enough that the heavens are immense in comparison with the Earth and present the aspect of an infinite magnitude, and that in the judgment of sense-perception the Earth is to the heavens as a point to a body and as a finite to an infinite magnitude. But we see that nothing more than that has been shown, and it does not follow that the Earth must rest at the centre of the world. And we should be even more surprised if such a vast world should wheel completely around during the space of twenty-four hours rather than that its least part, the Earth, should. For saying that the centre is immovable and that those things which are closest to the centre are moved least does not argue that the Earth rests at the centre of the world. That is no different from saying that the heavens revolve but the poles are at rest and those things which are closest to the poles are moved least. In this way Cynosura [the pole star] is seen to move much more slowly than Aquila or Canicula because, being very near to the pole, it describes a smaller circle, since they are all on a single sphere, the movement of which stops at its axis and which does not allow any of its parts to have movements which are equal to one another. And nevertheless the revolution of the whole brings them round in equal times but not over equal spaces.

The argument which maintains that the Earth, as a part of the celestial sphere and as sharing in the same form and movement, moves very little because very near to its centre advances to the following position: therefore the Earth will move, as being a body and not a centre, and will describe in the same time arcs similar to, but smaller than, the arcs of the celestical circle. It is clearer than daylight how false that is; for there would necessarily always be noon at one place and midnight at another, and so the daily risings and settings could not take place, since the movement of the whole and the part would be one and inseparable.

But the ratio between things separated by diversity of nature is so entirely different that those which describe a smaller circle turn more quickly than those which describe a greater circle. In this way Saturn, the highest of the wandering stars, completes its revolution in thirty years, and the moon which is without doubt the closest to the Earth completes its circuit in a month, and finally the Earth itself will be considered to complete a circular movement in the space of a day and a night. So this same problem concerning the daily revolution comes up again. And also the question about the place of the Earth becomes even less certain on account of what was just said. For that demonstration proves nothing except that the heavens are of an indefinite magnitude with respect to the Earth. But it is not at all clear how far this immensity stretches out. On the contrary, since the minimal and indivisible corpuscles, which are called atoms, are not perceptible to sense, they do not, when taken in twos or in some small number, constitute a visible body; but they can be taken in such a large quantity that there will at last be enough to form a visible magnitude. So it is as regards the place of the earth; for although It is not at the centre of the world, nevertheless the distance is as nothing, particularly in comparison with the sphere of the fixed stars.

7. Why the Ancients Thought the Earth was at Rest at the Middle of The World as its Centre

Wherefore for other reasons the ancient philosophers have tried to affirm that the Earth is at rest at the middle of the world, and as principal cause they put forward heaviness and lightness. For Earth is the heaviest element; and all things of any weight are borne towards it and strive to move towards the very centre of it.

For since the Earth is a globe towards which from every direction heavy things by their own nature are borne at right angles to its surface, the heavy things would fall on one another at the centre if they were not held back at the surface; since a straight line making right angles with a plane surface where it touches a sphere leads to the centre. And those things which are borne toward the centre seem to follow along in order to be at rest at the centre. All the more then will the Earth be at rest at the centre; and, as being the receptacle for falling bodies, it will remain immovable because of its weight.

They strive similarly to prove this by reason of movement and its nature. For Aristotle says that the movement of a body which is one and simple is simple, and the simple movements are the rectilinear and the circular. And of rectilinear movements, one is upward, and the other is downward. As a consequence, every simple movement is either toward the centre, i.e., downward, or away from the centre, i.e., upward, or around the centre, i.e., circular. Now it belongs to earth and water, which are considered heavy, to be borne downward, i.e., to seek the centre: for air and fire, which are endowed with lightness, move upward, i.e. away from the centre. It seems fitting to grant rectilinear movement to these four elements and to give the heavenly bodies a circular movement around the centre. So Aristotle. Therefore, said Ptolemy of Alexandria, if the Earth moved, even if only by its daily rotation, the contrary of what was said above would necessarily take place. For this movement which would traverse the total circuit of the Earth in twenty-four hours would necessarily be very headlong and of an unsurpassable velocity. Now things which are suddenly and violently whirled around are seen to be utterly unfitted for reuniting, and the more unified are seen to become dispersed, unless some constant force constrains them to stick together. And a long time ago, he says, the scattered Earth would have passed beyond the heavens, as is certainly ridiculous; and a fortiori so would all the living creatures and all the other separate masses which could by no means remain unshaken. Moreover, freely falling bodies would not arrive at the places appointed them, and certainly not along the perpendicular line which they assume so quickly. And we would see clouds and other things floating in the air always borne toward the west.

8. Answer to the Aforesaid Reasons and Their Inadequacy

For these and similar reasons they say that the Earth remains at rest at the middle of the world and that there is no doubt about this. But if someone opines that the Earth revolves, he will also say that the movement is natural and not violent. Now things which are according to nature produce effects contrary to those which are violent. For things to which force or violence is applied get broken up and are unable to subsist for a long time. But things which are caused by nature are in a right condition and are kept in their best organization. Therefore Ptolemy had no reason to fear that the Earth and all things on the Earth would be scattered in a revolution caused by the efficacy of nature, which is greatly different from that of art or from that which can result from the genius of man. But why didn't he feel anxiety about the world instead, whose movement must necessarily be of greater velocity, the greater the heavens are than the Earth? Or have the heavens become so immense, because an unspeakably vehement motion has pulled them away from the centre, and because the heavens would fall if they came to rest anywhere else?

Surely if this reasoning were tenable, the magnitude of the heavens would extend infinitely. For the farther the movement is borne upward by the vehement force, the faster will the movement be, on account of the ever-increasing circumference which must be traversed every twenty-four hours: and conversely, the immensity of the sky would increase with the increase in movement. In this way, the velocity would make the magnitude increase infinitely, and the magnitude the velocity. And in accordance with the axiom of physics that that which is infinite cannot be traversed or moved in any way, then the heavens will necessarily come to rest.

But they say that beyond the heavens there isn't any body or place or void or anything at all; and accordingly it is not possible for the heavens to move outward: in that case it is rather surprising that something can be held together by nothing. But if the heavens were infinite and were finite only with respect to a hollow space inside, then it will be said with more truth that there is nothing outside the heavens, since anything which occupied any space would be inthem; but the heavens will remain immobile. For movement is the most powerful reason wherewith they try to conclude that the universe is finite.

But let us leave to the philosophers of nature the dispute as to whether the world is finite or infinite, and let us hold as certain that the Earth is held together between its two poles and terminates in a spherical surface. Why therefore should we hesitate any longer to grant to it the movement which accords naturally with its form, rather than put the whole world in a commotion--the world whose limits we do not and cannot know? And why not admit that the appearance of daily revolution belongs to the heavens but the 'reality belongs to the Earth? And things are as when Aeneas said in Virgil: "We sail out of the harbor, and the land and the cities move away." As a matter of fact, when a ship floats on over a tranquil sea, all the things outside seem to the voyagers to be moving in a movement which is the image of their own, and they think on the contrary that they themselves and all the things with them are at rest. So it can easily happen in the case of the movement of the Earth that the whole world should be believed to be moving in a circle. Then what would we say about the clouds and the other things floating in the air or falling or rising up, except that not only the Earth and the watery element with which it is conjoined are moved in this way but also no small part of the air and whatever other things have a similar kinship with the Earth? whether because the neighbouring air, which is mixed with earthly and watery matter, obeys the same nature as the Earth or because the movement of the air is an acquired one, in which it participates without resistance on account of the contiguity and perpetual rotation of the Earth. Conversely, it is no less astonishing for them to say that the highest region of the air follows the celestial movement, as is shown by those stars which appear suddenly--I mean those called "comets" or "bearded stars" by the Greeks. For that place is assigned for their generation; and like all the other stars they rise and set. We can say that that part of the air is deprived of terrestrial motion on account of its great distance from the Earth. Hence the air which is nearest to the Earth and the things floating in it will appear tranquil, unless they are driven to and fro by the wind or some other force, as happens. For how is the wind in the air different from a current in the sea?

But we must confess that in comparison with the world the movement of falling and of rising bodies is twofold and is in general compounded of the rectilinear and the circular. As regards things which move downward on account of their weight because they have very much earth in them, doubtless their parts possess the same nature as the whole, and it is for the same reason that fiery bodies are drawn upward with force. For even this earthly fire feeds principally on earthly matter; and they define flame as glowing smoke. Now it is a property of fire to make that which it invades to expand; and it does this with such force that it can be stopped by no means or contrivance from breaking prison and aolapleting its job. Now expanding movement moves away from the centre to the circumference; and so if some part of the Earth caught on fire, it would be borne away from the centre and upward. Accordingly, as they say, a simple body possesses a simple movement--this is first verified in the case of circular movement--as long as the simple body remain in its unity in its natural place. In this place, in fact, its movement is none other than the circular, which remains entirely in itself, as though at rest. Rectilinear movement, however, is added to those bodies which journey away from their natural place or are shoved out of it or are outside it somehow. But nothing is more repugnant to the order of the whole and to the form of the world than for anything to be outside of its place. Therefore rectilinear movement belongs only to bodies which are not in the right condition and are not perfectly conformed to their nature-- when they are separated from their whole and abandon its unity. Furthermore, bodies which are moved upward or downward do not possess a simple, uniform, and regular movement--even without taking into account circular movement. For they cannot be in equilibrium with their lightness or their force of weight. And those which fall downward possess a slow movement at the beginning but increase their velocity as they fall. And conversely we note that this earthly fire--and we have experience of no other--when carried high up immediately dies down, as if through the acknowledged agency of the violence of earthly matter.

Now circular movement always goes on regularly, for it has an unfailing cause; but {in rectilinear movement} the acceleration stops, because, when the bodies have reached their own place, they are no longer heavy or light, and so the movement ends. Therefore, since circular movement belongs to wholes and rectilinear to parts, we can say that the circular movement stands with the rectilinear, as does animal with sick. And the fact that Aristotle divided simple movement into three genera: away from the centre, toward the centre, and around the centre, will be considered merely as an act of reason, just as we distinguish between line, point, and surface, though none of them can subsist without the others or without body.

In addition, there is the fact that the state of immobility is regarded as more noble and godlike than that of change and instability, which for that reason should belong to the Earth rather than to the world. I add that it seems rather absurd to ascribe movement to the container or to that which provides the place and not rather to that which is sontained and has a place, i.e., the Earth. And lastly, since it is clear that the wandering stars are sometimes nearer and sometimes farther away from the Earth, then the movement of one and the same body around the centre--and they mean the centre of the Earth--will be both away from the centre and toward the centre. Therefore it is necessary that movement around the centre should be taken more generally; and it should be enough if each movement is in accord with its own centre. You see therefore that for all these reasons it is more probably that the Earth moves than that it is at rest--especially in the case of the daily revolution, as it is the Earth's very own. And I think that is enough as regards the first part of the question.

9. Whether Many Movements can be Attributed to The Earth, and Concerning the Centre Of the World

Therefore, since nothing hinders the mobility of the Earth, I think we should now see whether more than one movement belongs to it, so that it can be rergarded as one of the wandering stars. For the apparent irregular movement of the planets and their variable distances from the Earth--which cannot be understood as occurring in circles homocentric with the Earth--make it clear that the Earth is not the centre of their circular movements. Therefore, since there are many centres, it is not foolhardy to doubt whether the centre of gravity of the Earth rather than some other is the centre of the world. I myself think that gravity or heaviness is nothing except a certain natural appetency implanted in the parts by the divine providence of the universal Artisan, in order that they should unite with one another in their oneness and wholeness and come together in the form of a globe. It is believable that this affect is present in the sun, moon, and the other bright planets and that through its efficacy they remain in the spherical figure in which they are visible, though they nevertheless accomplish their circular movements in many different ways. Therefore if the Earth too possesses movements different from the one around its centre, then they will necessarily be movements which similarly appear on the outside in the many bodies; and we find the yearly revolution among these movements. For if the annual revolution were changed from being solar to being terrestrial, and immobility were granted to the sun, the risings and settings of the signs and of the fixed stars--whereby they become morning or evening stars--will appear in the same way; and it will be seen that the stoppings, retrogressions, and progressions of the wandering stars are not their own, but are a movement of the Earth and that they borrow the appearances of this movement. Lastly, the sun will be regarded as occupying the centre of the world. And the ratio of order in which these bodies succeed one another and the harmony of the whole world teaches us their truth, if only--as they say--we would look at the thing with both eyes.