哥白尼，那天刚好
Copernicus, That Day, as It Happened
一、那天刚好
1543年5月24日。弗龙堡（Frauenburg）。波兰。
哥白尼躺在床上。他七十岁了。中风。已经昏迷了好几天。
那天刚好——一本书被送到他的床前。《天体运行论》（De revolutionibus orbium coelestium）。刚从纽伦堡印好。墨迹可能还没干透。
据说他的手摸到了那本书。据说他睁开了眼睛。据说他看了一眼封面。然后他死了。
这个故事有多少是真的？不确定。主要来源是他的学生雷蒂库斯（Rheticus）转述的。可能有美化。可能那天书还没送到。可能他已经完全昏迷了什么都不知道。
但这个故事的结构是真的：一个人花了一辈子写一本书。书出版的那天他死了。他没看到这本书引爆的一切。
他放下炸弹。闭上眼睛。走了。
二、教士
尼古拉·哥白尼。1473年出生在波兰的托伦。
他不是职业天文学家。他是教士。
他在克拉科夫大学学过数学和天文。然后去意大利留学——博洛尼亚学教会法，帕多瓦学医学。回到波兰之后他成了弗龙堡大教堂的教士（Canon）——一个教会行政职位。他管教区的财务，管教区的医务，偶尔参与波兰王国跟条顿骑士团的政治交涉。他甚至写过一篇关于货币改革的论文。
天文学是他的业余爱好。
他在弗龙堡教堂的塔楼上观测天空。没有望远镜——望远镜要到1608年才被发明。他用的是肉眼加简单的观测仪器。他记录行星的位置。他计算。他画图。
一个教士。一个业余天文学家。在波兰一个小城的教堂塔楼上。用肉眼看天空。
这个人把地球从宇宙中心搬走了。
三、他凿了什么
从亚里士多德到托勒密到中世纪——一千多年——所有人都相信同一个宇宙模型：地球在中间，太阳、月亮和行星绕着地球转。这不只是天文学。这是神学。上帝创造了人。人在宇宙中心。一切围绕人运转。
这个模型有问题。行星的运动不规则——火星有时候会往回走（逆行）。为了解释这些不规则，托勒密加了很多补丁——本轮、均轮、偏心圆。补丁越加越多。模型越来越复杂。但它勉强能用。能预测行星位置。不太准，但够用。
哥白尼做了一件极其简单的事：他把太阳放到了中间。
地球不是中心。地球是行星之一。地球绕着太阳转。其他行星也绕着太阳转。月亮绕着地球转。
这个模型一出来，很多问题自动消失了。火星的逆行？不是火星真的往回走——是地球和火星都在绕太阳转，地球转得快，"超车"的时候火星看起来往后退了。就像你坐快车超慢车的时候，慢车看起来在倒退。
一千多年的补丁。一个人把太阳挪了一下，补丁就不需要了。
但他凿掉的不只是一个天文模型。他凿掉的是"人在宇宙中心"这个假设。这个假设是基督教宇宙观的地基。上帝造人，人在中间，天堂在上面，地狱在下面。你把地球挪走了，"上面"和"下面"就没有意义了。你把人从中心搬走了，人和上帝的关系就需要重新定义了。
这是比任何哲学的凿都大的凿。苏格拉底凿了假知识——人以为自己知道但不知道。哥白尼凿了假位置——人以为自己在中心但不在。
苏格拉底的凿让你不舒服：你不知道你以为你知道的东西。 哥白尼的凿让整个文明不舒服：你不在你以为你在的位置。
四、三十六年
哥白尼大约在1507年前后就形成了日心说的基本想法。他写了一份手稿叫《短论》（Commentariolus），在朋友之间传阅。没有发表。
1543年《天体运行论》出版。
中间隔了三十六年。
为什么？
他怕。不是怕教廷——至少不完全是。教廷在他活着的时候对日心说没有明确的敌意。教皇克莱芒七世的秘书甚至在1533年给教皇做过一个关于哥白尼理论的演讲，教皇听了没反对。
他怕的是被嘲笑。他在《天体运行论》的序言里写过：他担心自己的理论太荒谬，会被人笑话。一个说"地球在动"的人——在所有人的日常经验里地球明明不动——会被当成疯子。
他也怕不完美。他的模型不是完全准确的——他还在用圆形轨道（真正的椭圆轨道要等开普勒），所以他的模型仍然需要一些小的修正。他是一个完美主义者。他不想发表一个有缺陷的理论。
三十六年。一个人抱着一颗炸弹坐了三十六年。
最后是雷蒂库斯——一个年轻的数学家，从维滕堡专门跑来找他——说服了他发表。雷蒂库斯帮他整理手稿，安排出版。哥白尼终于同意了。然后他中风了。然后书印出来了。然后他死了。
五、他和伽利略
这个系列在第二轮写过伽利略——"它还是在转"。
哥白尼和伽利略。一个放炸弹的人和一个在爆炸中活下来的人。
哥白尼放下了日心说。然后他死了。他没有被审判。没有被囚禁。没有被逼着说"我错了"。他安安静静地死在床上。
炸弹在他死后慢慢炸。
1616年——哥白尼死后73年——教廷才把《天体运行论》列入禁书目录。73年。引信比任何人想的都长。
1633年——哥白尼死后90年——伽利略因为支持日心说被审判。伽利略说"它还是在转"（也许没说）。伽利略被软禁了余生。
1992年——哥白尼死后449年——教廷终于承认伽利略案是错的。
哥白尼什么都没扛。他放下炸弹就走了。所有后果都是别人扛的——伽利略扛了审判，布鲁诺扛了火刑（1600年，因为支持日心说和其他异端思想被烧死），开普勒扛了贫穷和流离。
这公平吗？
这不是公平不公平的问题。这是余项的传播方式。哥白尼凿了一个洞。洞在他死后慢慢扩大。扩大的过程中碰到了伽利略，碰到了布鲁诺，碰到了开普勒。他们被碾过去了。哥白尼已经不在了。
伽利略那篇的核心判断是"余项不在乎你"——地球不在乎你怎么判，它还是在转。哥白尼这篇的核心判断是另一面：凿的人也不一定在乎后果。不是他冷酷——是他死了。他没机会在乎。
他放下了炸弹。他没看到爆炸。爆炸是真实的。但放炸弹的人已经不在了。
六、最安静的凿
这个系列写过很多种凿。
苏格拉底的凿是对话——面对面，一个一个拆。当场见效。 伽利略的凿是望远镜——看到了，指给你看，你不信我再指。当面对质。 休谟的凿是分析——你以为的必然性是习惯。写在书里，你读了就知道了。 叔本华的凿是绝望——底下有怪兽。他喊出来了，声音很大。
哥白尼的凿是最安静的。
他没有对话。没有对质。没有喊叫。他写了一本书。书里有数学计算，有天文表格，有几何图形。他把太阳放在中间，地球放在旁边，然后一行一行地算。没有修辞。没有激情。没有"上帝死了"那种宣告。只有计算。
他甚至在序言里对教皇说：这只是一个数学模型。是用来简化计算的。不是说地球真的在动。
他是在保护自己？还是他真的只把它当作数学工具？学界有争论。但效果是一样的：这本书以最温和的方式包装了最激进的内容。一颗炸弹裹在数学公式里。
这是最安静的凿。没有人听到爆炸声。因为爆炸声在他死后几十年才响。
七、一本书的命运
《天体运行论》的命运是奇怪的。
出版后几乎没有引起轰动。大部分人把它当作一本技术性的天文学著作——用来改进行星位置的预测。日心说在书里被当作一个数学假设，不是一个物理事实。出版商奥西安德（Andreas Osiander）甚至在书里加了一个未经哥白尼同意的匿名序言，说这只是一种计算方法，不代表真实。
所以这本书在出版后的头几十年是安全的。教廷没管它。大学里有人教它。天文学家用它算行星位置——它确实比托勒密的模型方便。但很少有人把它当真。
然后慢慢地，有人开始当真了。
布鲁诺当真了——他走得比哥白尼远得多，说宇宙无限，有无数个太阳和无数个地球。他被烧死了。 开普勒当真了——他发现行星轨道是椭圆的，不是圆的。他修正了哥白尼，让模型真正能用。 伽利略当真了——他用望远镜看到了木星的卫星（不是所有东西都绕地球转）和金星的相位变化（跟日心说吻合）。他被审判了。
一本安静的书。放在那里。慢慢发酵。七十三年后才被禁。到那时候已经来不及了——想法已经在空气里了。你禁了书，禁不了想法。
秦始皇焚书——书烧了，但儒生把书背下来了。 教廷禁了《天体运行论》——书被禁了，但地球还是在转。
你禁不了余项。
八、他和达尔文
哥白尼和达尔文。这个系列在第一轮写过达尔文。
两个人做了同一件事：把人从特殊位置上搬走。
哥白尼说：地球不是宇宙中心。人不在中间。 达尔文说：人不是被特别创造的。人是动物演化来的。
哥白尼把人从空间的中心搬走了。 达尔文把人从生命的中心搬走了。
两个人都很慢。哥白尼抱着手稿坐了三十六年。达尔文从贝格尔号回来到发表《物种起源》等了二十多年。两个人都怕。哥白尼怕被嘲笑。达尔文怕跟教会冲突——他妻子是虔诚的基督徒。
两个人都用最温和的方式包装最激进的内容。哥白尼说"这只是数学模型"。达尔文在《物种起源》里几乎不提人——直到最后一句才暗示。
两个人都没有看到自己工作的全部后果。哥白尼死了。达尔文活着看到了争论，但没看到进化论怎样重塑了二十世纪的一切——从遗传学到社会达尔文主义到DNA的发现。
两颗炸弹。两根长引信。两个安静的人。
九、弗龙堡
弗龙堡。波罗的海边上。一个很小的城。大教堂还在。哥白尼的塔楼还在。
2005年，考古学家在弗龙堡大教堂的地板下面找到了一具遗骸。2010年DNA检测确认——是哥白尼。他被重新安葬在大教堂里，墓碑上有一个太阳系的模型——太阳在中间。
他等了462年才有一块墓碑。
桥头上又多了一个人。你几乎看不到他——他站在最后面。他不说话。他手里拿着一本书。书很厚。他没有打开它。他只是拿着。
苏格拉底在问问题。柏拉图在画图纸。休谟在打台球。叔本华在看桥底下。克尔凯郭尔跳了。图灵在看苹果。契诃夫靠着栏杆。康托尔在看天上。
哥白尼站在最后面。他把那本书轻轻放在了桥面上。然后他转身走了。
他没有等别人捡起来。他不知道谁会捡。他不知道捡起来的人会怎么样——会不会被审判，会不会被烧死，会不会被这本书改变一生。
他只是放下了。然后走了。
书还在桥面上。风在翻页。
那天刚好。[1][2]
注释
[1] 哥白尼"那天刚好"与Self-as-an-End理论中"凿构循环"和"余项"的关系：凿构循环的核心论证见系列方法论总论（DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18842450）。哥白尼的独特位置在于他是最安静的凿——他没有对话（苏格拉底），没有对质（伽利略），没有喊叫（尼采）。他写了一本书，把地球从宇宙中心搬走了，然后在书出版的那天死了。他凿掉的不只是天文模型，是"人在宇宙中心"这个假设——比任何哲学的凿都大。与伽利略的对比：哥白尼放下炸弹就走了，伽利略留下来扛了。"余项不在乎你"（伽利略篇）的另一面是"凿的人也不一定在乎后果"——不是冷酷，是他死了。与达尔文的对比：两个人都把人从特殊位置上搬走（空间的中心/生命的中心），都很慢，都用最温和的方式包装最激进的内容。炸弹的引信比任何人想的都长——73年后才被禁，449年后教廷才认错。
[2] 哥白尼生平主要依据Jack Repcheck, Copernicus' Secret (2007)及Dava Sobel, A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos (2011)。《天体运行论》（De revolutionibus orbium coelestium）1543年出版。哥白尼临终收到书的传说主要来自雷蒂库斯（Georg Joachim Rheticus）的转述，真实性有争议。《短论》（Commentariolus）约1507年撰写，在朋友间传阅。奥西安德未经授权添加的匿名序言参考Repcheck。教皇克莱芒七世的秘书1533年演讲参考Sobel。《天体运行论》1616年被列入禁书目录。布鲁诺被烧死（1600年2月17日）。伽利略审判（1633年）。教廷1992年承认伽利略案错误。开普勒行星运动定律（1609-1619年）。哥白尼遗骸发现（2005年）及DNA确认（2010年）。重新安葬于弗龙堡大教堂。哥白尼出生（1473年2月19日，托伦），去世（1543年5月24日，弗龙堡）。系列第三轮第八篇。前四十九篇见nondubito.net。
I. That Day, as It Happened
May 24, 1543. Frauenburg. Poland.
Copernicus was lying in bed. He was seventy. A stroke. He had been unconscious for days.
That day, as it happened — a book was brought to his bedside. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres). Freshly printed in Nuremberg. The ink may not yet have dried.
It is said his hand touched the book. It is said he opened his eyes. It is said he saw the cover. Then he died.
How much of this story is true? Uncertain. The main source is his student Rheticus, relaying it secondhand. There may be embellishment. Perhaps the book had not yet arrived. Perhaps he was fully unconscious and knew nothing.
But the structure of the story is true: a man spent his entire life writing one book. The book was published the day he died. He never saw what it detonated.
He set down the bomb. He closed his eyes. He left.
II. The Canon
Nicolaus Copernicus. Born 1473 in Toruń, Poland.
He was not a professional astronomer. He was a clergyman.
He studied mathematics and astronomy at the University of Kraków. Then went to Italy — canon law at Bologna, medicine at Padua. After returning to Poland he became a canon at Frauenburg Cathedral — an ecclesiastical administrative post. He managed the diocese's finances, handled its medical matters, occasionally participated in political negotiations between the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Knights. He even wrote a treatise on monetary reform.
Astronomy was his hobby.
He observed the sky from a tower of the Frauenburg Cathedral. No telescope — the telescope would not be invented until 1608. He used the naked eye and simple observational instruments. He recorded planetary positions. He calculated. He drew diagrams.
A clergyman. An amateur astronomer. In a cathedral tower in a small Polish city. Looking at the sky with the naked eye.
This man moved the Earth from the center of the universe.
III. What He Carved
From Aristotle through Ptolemy through the Middle Ages — over a thousand years — everyone believed the same model of the universe: the Earth in the middle, the Sun, Moon, and planets orbiting around it. This was not merely astronomy. It was theology. God created humanity. Humanity is at the center of the universe. Everything revolves around us.
The model had problems. Planetary motion was irregular — Mars sometimes appeared to move backward (retrograde motion). To account for these irregularities, Ptolemy added patches — epicycles, deferents, eccentrics. The more patches, the more complex the model. But it mostly worked. It could predict planetary positions. Not very precisely, but well enough.
Copernicus did something supremely simple: he put the Sun in the middle.
The Earth is not the center. The Earth is one of the planets. The Earth orbits the Sun. The other planets also orbit the Sun. The Moon orbits the Earth.
Once this model was in place, many problems vanished on their own. The retrograde motion of Mars? Mars is not actually going backward — both Earth and Mars are orbiting the Sun, Earth moves faster, and when Earth "overtakes" Mars, Mars appears to slide backward. Just as when your express train passes a local, the local appears to reverse.
A thousand years of patches. One man moved the Sun to the center, and the patches were no longer needed.
But what he carved away was not merely an astronomical model. He carved away the assumption that humanity is at the center of the universe. This assumption was the foundation of the Christian cosmology. God made man, man is in the middle, heaven above, hell below. Move the Earth away, and "above" and "below" lose their meaning. Move humanity from the center, and the relationship between man and God needs to be redefined.
This is a larger carving than any philosopher's. Socrates carved false knowledge — people think they know but don't. Copernicus carved false position — people think they're at the center but aren't.
Socrates' carving made you uncomfortable: you don't know what you thought you knew. Copernicus' carving made an entire civilization uncomfortable: you are not where you thought you were.
IV. Thirty-Six Years
Copernicus had formed the basic idea of heliocentrism around 1507. He wrote a manuscript called the Commentariolus and circulated it among friends. He did not publish it.
De revolutionibus was published in 1543.
Thirty-six years in between.
Why?
He was afraid. Not of the Church — at least not entirely. The Church during his lifetime showed no overt hostility toward heliocentrism. Pope Clement VII's secretary even gave a lecture on Copernicus' theory to the Pope in 1533; the Pope listened and did not object.
What he feared was ridicule. In the preface to De revolutionibus, he wrote that he worried his theory was so absurd it would be laughed at. A man claiming "the Earth moves" — when everyone's daily experience tells them the Earth obviously doesn't — would be taken for a madman.
He also feared imperfection. His model was not fully accurate — he was still using circular orbits (the true elliptical orbits would have to wait for Kepler), so his model still required minor corrections. He was a perfectionist. He did not want to publish a flawed theory.
Thirty-six years. A man sat holding a bomb for thirty-six years.
In the end it was Rheticus — a young mathematician who had traveled from Wittenberg specifically to find him — who persuaded him to publish. Rheticus helped organize the manuscript and arrange printing. Copernicus finally agreed. Then he had a stroke. Then the book arrived. Then he died.
V. Copernicus and Galileo
This series covered Galileo in Round Two — "And Yet It Moves."
Copernicus and Galileo. The man who set down the bomb and the man who survived the explosion.
Copernicus set down heliocentrism. Then he died. He was not tried. Not imprisoned. Not forced to say "I was wrong." He died quietly in his bed.
The bomb detonated slowly after his death.
1616 — seventy-three years after Copernicus' death — the Church finally placed De revolutionibus on the Index of Forbidden Books. Seventy-three years. The fuse was longer than anyone imagined.
1633 — ninety years after Copernicus' death — Galileo was tried for supporting heliocentrism. Galileo said "and yet it moves" (or perhaps he didn't). Galileo was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life.
1992 — four hundred and forty-nine years after Copernicus' death — the Church finally admitted the Galileo case was an error.
Copernicus bore none of it. He set down the bomb and left. Everyone else bore the consequences — Galileo bore the trial, Bruno bore the pyre (burned in 1600 for supporting heliocentrism and other heresies), Kepler bore poverty and displacement.
Is this fair?
This is not a question of fairness. This is how remainder propagates. Copernicus carved a hole. After his death the hole slowly widened. As it widened, it struck Galileo, struck Bruno, struck Kepler. They were crushed. Copernicus was already gone.
The Galileo essay's core judgment was "remainder does not care about you" — the Earth does not care how you rule; it keeps moving. The Copernicus essay's core judgment is the other side: the person who carves does not necessarily care about the consequences either. Not because he was cold — but because he was dead. He had no chance to care.
He set down the bomb. He did not see the explosion. The explosion was real. But the man who planted it was already gone.
VI. The Quietest Carving
This series has covered many kinds of carving.
Socrates carved through dialogue — face to face, dismantling one person at a time. Immediate effect. Galileo carved through the telescope — he saw it, pointed it out to you, and if you didn't believe him he pointed again. Direct confrontation. Hume carved through analysis — the necessity you assumed is habit. Written in a book; read it and you'll know. Schopenhauer carved through despair — there is a beast underneath. He shouted it out loud.
Copernicus' carving was the quietest of all.
No dialogue. No confrontation. No shouting. He wrote a book. Inside it were mathematical calculations, astronomical tables, geometric diagrams. He placed the Sun in the center, moved the Earth to the side, and computed line by line. No rhetoric. No passion. No proclamation like "God is dead." Only computation.
He even told the Pope in his preface: this is merely a mathematical model. It is a device for simplifying calculations. It does not claim the Earth actually moves.
Was he protecting himself? Or did he genuinely see it only as a mathematical tool? Scholars disagree. But the effect was the same: the book wrapped the most radical content in the mildest possible form. A bomb swaddled in mathematical formulas.
This is the quietest carving. Nobody heard the explosion. Because the explosion did not sound until decades after his death.
VII. The Fate of a Book
The fate of De revolutionibus was peculiar.
After publication, it caused almost no sensation. Most people treated it as a technical astronomical work — useful for improving predictions of planetary positions. Heliocentrism was presented in the book as a mathematical hypothesis, not a physical fact. The publisher Andreas Osiander even inserted an anonymous preface — without Copernicus' permission — stating that this was merely a computational method and did not represent reality.
So the book was safe for the first few decades. The Church ignored it. It was taught at some universities. Astronomers used it to calculate planetary positions — it was indeed more convenient than Ptolemy's model. But few people took it literally.
Then gradually, some people did.
Bruno took it literally — he went far beyond Copernicus, claiming the universe was infinite with innumerable suns and innumerable earths. He was burned alive. Kepler took it literally — he discovered that planetary orbits are ellipses, not circles. He corrected Copernicus and made the model truly workable. Galileo took it literally — through his telescope he saw the moons of Jupiter (not everything orbits the Earth) and the phases of Venus (consistent with heliocentrism). He was tried.
A quiet book. Left sitting there. Slowly fermenting. Seventy-three years before it was banned. By then it was too late — the idea was already in the air. You can ban the book; you cannot ban the idea.
Qin Shi Huang burned books — the books burned, but the scholars had memorized them. The Church banned De revolutionibus — the book was banned, but the Earth kept orbiting.
You cannot ban remainder.
VIII. Copernicus and Darwin
Copernicus and Darwin. This series covered Darwin in Round One.
The two did the same thing: they moved humanity off its pedestal.
Copernicus said: the Earth is not the center of the universe. Humanity is not in the middle. Darwin said: humanity was not specially created. Humans evolved from other animals.
Copernicus removed humanity from the center of space. Darwin removed humanity from the center of life.
Both were slow. Copernicus sat on his manuscript for thirty-six years. Darwin waited over twenty years from the Beagle voyage to the publication of On the Origin of Species. Both were afraid. Copernicus feared ridicule. Darwin feared conflict with the Church — his wife was a devout Christian.
Both wrapped the most radical content in the mildest possible form. Copernicus said "this is only a mathematical model." Darwin barely mentioned humans in On the Origin of Species — only hinting at it in the final sentence.
Neither lived to see the full consequences of his work. Copernicus was dead. Darwin lived to see the debate but did not see how evolutionary theory reshaped everything in the twentieth century — from genetics to social Darwinism to the discovery of DNA.
Two bombs. Two long fuses. Two quiet men.
IX. Frauenburg
Frauenburg. On the Baltic Sea. A very small town. The cathedral still stands. Copernicus' tower still stands.
In 2005, archaeologists discovered remains beneath the floor of Frauenburg Cathedral. In 2010, DNA testing confirmed — it was Copernicus. He was reburied in the cathedral with a tombstone bearing a model of the solar system — the Sun in the center.
He waited 462 years for a tombstone.
One more at the bridgehead. You can barely see him — he stands at the very back. He does not speak. He holds a book. The book is thick. He has not opened it. He simply holds it.
Socrates is asking questions. Plato is drawing blueprints. Hume is playing billiards. Schopenhauer is looking beneath the bridge. Kierkegaard has leaped. Turing is looking at his apple. Chekhov leans against the railing. Cantor is looking up at the sky.
Copernicus stands at the back. He gently places the book on the surface of the bridge. Then he turns and walks away.
He does not wait for someone to pick it up. He does not know who will. He does not know what will happen to the person who does — whether they will be tried, whether they will be burned, whether the book will change their life.
He simply sets it down. Then leaves.
The book lies on the bridge. The wind turns its pages.
That day, as it happened.[1][2]
Notes
[1] The relationship between Copernicus' "that day, as it happened" and the chisel-construct cycle and remainder concepts in Self-as-an-End theory: the core argument for the chisel-construct cycle can be found in the Methodological Overview (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18842450). Copernicus' unique position is that he performed the quietest carving — no dialogue (Socrates), no confrontation (Galileo), no proclamation (Nietzsche). He wrote one book, moved the Earth from the center of the universe, and died the day it was published. What he carved was not merely an astronomical model but the assumption that humanity is at the center — a larger carving than any philosopher's. His relationship to Galileo: Copernicus set down the bomb and left; Galileo stayed and bore the consequences. "Remainder does not care about you" (the Galileo essay) has a counterpart here: "the person who carves does not necessarily care about the consequences" — not through coldness but through death. His parallel with Darwin: both removed humanity from a privileged position (center of space / center of life), both were slow, both wrapped radical content in mild form. The fuse was longer than anyone imagined — 73 years to be banned, 449 years for the Church to admit the error.
[2] Copernicus' life draws primarily on Jack Repcheck, Copernicus' Secret (2007) and Dava Sobel, A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos (2011). De revolutionibus orbium coelestium published 1543. The deathbed story of Copernicus receiving the book derives primarily from Rheticus' account; its accuracy is debated. The Commentariolus (c. 1507) circulated privately. Osiander's unauthorized anonymous preface: Repcheck. Pope Clement VII's secretary's 1533 lecture: Sobel. De revolutionibus placed on the Index of Forbidden Books in 1616. Giordano Bruno burned (February 17, 1600). Galileo's trial (1633). The Church's 1992 acknowledgment of the Galileo error. Kepler's laws of planetary motion (1609–1619). Discovery of Copernicus' remains (2005) and DNA confirmation (2010). Reburial at Frauenburg Cathedral. Copernicus born February 19, 1473, Toruń; died May 24, 1543, Frauenburg. This is the eighth essay of Round Three. All previous essays are available at nondubito.net.