Excerpt:
A major contribution to Western thought was the publication in 1543 of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, libri VI (Eng. trans., On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, 1952; Latin reprint, 1965) by Copernicus, Polish astronomer, who is noted for the Copernican theory of the heavens. By attributing to the Earth a daily motion around its own axis and a yearly motion around the stationary Sun, Copernicus developed an idea that had far-reaching implications for the rise of modern science. Henceforth, the Earth could no longer be considered the centre of the cosmos; rather, as one celestial body among many, it became subject to mathematical description.