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Copernican astronomy in Shakespeare's times
The early reception of Nicolaus Copernicus' heliocentric theory in Shakespeare's England is the subject of a lecture that is part of the series "Nicolaus Copernicus in the Culture of Remembrance."
Dr. Barbara Bienias of the Institute for the History of Science presents in it the latest research conducted at the Institute for the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw under the guidance of prof. dr. hab. Jarosław Włodarczyk. The story revolves around the figure of Edward Gresham (1565-1613) - an English astrologer, physician and creator of astrological almanacs, who in his treatise Astrostereon (1603) openly advocates a heliocentric view of the world, denies the existence of rigid celestial spheres, discusses the physical characteristics of the planets, describes the occultations of stars by planets and lays the foundations of lunar astronomy several years before Johannes Kepler. This unusual, and hitherto little recognized, the manuscript resource is discussed in the context of the popularization of new astronomical theories in the 16th and 17th centuries in England, taking into account the astrological almanacs and forcasters of the period.
"Nicolaus Copernicus in the Culture of Remembrance" is a series of popular science lectures accompanying the World Copernican Congress initiated by the Copernican Research Center of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and the Copernican Library. Other lectures in the series can be found under the "e-Conges" tab.