The Sleepwalkers (70 page)

Born
in
1514
as
Georg
Joachim
von
Lauchen
in
the
Austrian
Tyrol,
the
ancient
Rhaetia,
he
had
latinized
his
name
into
Rheticus.
As
a
child
he
had
travelled
with
his
wealthy
parents
in
Italy;
as
a
young
man
he
had
studied
at
the
Universities
of
Zurich,
Wittenberg,
Nuremberg,
and
Goettingen.
At
the
age
of
twenty-two,
on
Melanchton's
recommendation,
he
was
given
one
of
the
two
professorships
of
Mathematics
and
Astronomy
at
the
equally
young
University
of
Wittenberg,
centre
and
glory
of
Protestant
learning.
The
other
Chair
was
held
by
a
man
only
three
years
his
senior,
Erasmus
Reinhold.

The
two
young
Professors,
Reinhold
and
Rheticus,
were
both
converts
to
the
sun-centred
cosmology
which
they
only
knew
by
hearsay,
and
to
which
the
great
manitous
of
Wittenberg,
Luther
and
Melanchton,
were
opposed.
Nevertheless,
in
the
spring
of
1539,
Rheticus
was
granted
leave
of
absence
for
the
express
purpose
of
visiting,
in
Catholic
Ermland,
Canon
Koppernigk,
whom
Luther
had
called
"a
fool
who
went
against
Holy
Writ".

Rheticus
arrived
in
Frauenburg
in
the
summer
of
1539.
He
came
laden
with
precious
gifts:
the
first
printed
editions
of
Euclid
and
Ptolemy
in
the
original
Greek,
and
other
mathematical
books.
He
had
planned
to
stay
in
Ermland
for
a
few
weeks
–
he
stayed,
with
interruptions,
for
two
years
–
which
left
their
mark
on
human
history.
His
arrival
in
Ermland
was
beautifully
timed:
it
almost
coincided
with
an
edict
by
the
new
Bishop,
Dantiscus,
in
which
all
Lutherans
were
ordered
to
leave
Ermland
within
a
month,
and
threatened
to
forfeit
life
and
possessions
if
they
returned.
The
edict
was
issued
in
March;
three
months
later
the
Lutheran
professor,
arriving
straight
from
the
Capital
of
Heresy,
paid
his
respects
to
the
Chapter
of
Frauenburg,
including
Bishop
Dantiscus,
whom
he
described
as
"famous
for
his
wisdom
and
eloquence".
It
all
goes
to
show
that
Renaissance
scholars
were
a
species
of
sacred
cow
allowed
to
amble,
ruminating
and
unmolested,
through
the
turmoil
of
the
bazaar.

A
year
later,
Bishop
Dantiscus
issued
a
second,
even
more
ferocious
"
Edict
Against
Lutheranism
"
in
which
he
ordered
that
"All
books,
pamphlets
...
and
whatever
else
came
from
the
poisoned
places
of
heresy
should
be
burned
in
the
presence
of
officials".
At
about
the
same
time,
the
Professor
who
came
from
the
most
poisonous
of
all
places
of
heresy
wrote
In
Praise
of
Prussia
:

"So
may
the
gods
love
me,
...
it
has
not
yet
happened
to
me
that
I
should
enter
the
home
of
any
distinguished
man
in
this
region
–
for
the
Prussians
are
a
most
hospitable
people
–
without
immediately
seeing
geometrical
diagrams
at
the
very
threshhold
or
finding
geometry
present
in
their
minds.
Hence
nearly
all
of
them,
being
men
of
good
will,
bestow
upon
the
students
of
these
arts
every
possible
benefit
and
service,
since
true
knowledge
and
learning
are
never
separated
from
goodness
and
kindness."
⁴²

It
is
a
pity
that
Rheticus
did
not
report,
in
his
exuberant
style,
his
first
meeting
with
Canon
Koppernigk.
It
was
one
of
the
great
encounters
of
history,
and
ranks
with
the
meetings
of
Aristotle
and
Alexander,
Cortez
and
Montezuma,
Kepler
and
Tycho,
Marx
and
Engels.
On
the
part
of
the
overstrung
and
expectant
Rheticus,
it
was
obviously
love
at
first
sight
for
the
Domine
Praeceptor,
"My
Teacher"
,
as
he
was
always
to
call
Copernicus,
comparing
him
to
Atlas
who
carries
the
earth
on
his
back.
On
his
side,
the
lonely
and
unloved
old
man
was
apparently
swept
off
his
feet
by
this
onslaught,
and
prepared
to
tolerate
the
young
fool.
He
was
now
sixty-six,
and
he
felt
his
days
drawing
to
a
close.
He
had
achieved
a
certain
fame
in
the
world
of
learning,
but
it
was
of
the
wrong
kind
–
notoriety
rather
than
repute,
based
on
hearsay,
not
on
evidence;
for
the
manuscript
of
the
Revolutions
was
still
locked
up
in
his
tower
and
nobody
knew
what
exactly
its
contents
were.
Only
the
Commentariolus
was
known
to
the
handful
who
had
seen
it,
and
of
whom
few
survived
–
for
even
that
sketchy
outline
had
been
written
and
circulated
a
quarter-century
before.