The Copernican System
Nicolas
Copernicus
1473-1543 Poland
Ptolemaic system was looking shaky because
better observations
(Arab) showed it kept missing the planetary positions.
Copernicus recognized that a heliocentric
explanation
was much simpler (but he just thought of it as asthetically better). It
didn’t actually predict the positions better.
The Church was invested in the Ptolemaic
system (tradition), and Copernicus waited until his death to publish. Most
didn’t believe him.