Nicholas Of Cusa

You might think that anyone who published a book in 15th century Europe, saying that the Earth was just another world orbiting the sun rather than the centre of the universe, might run foul of the catholic church very quickly. That is just what the German cardinal Nicholas Krebs did in 1440 more than a century before Copernicus. So why have we never heard of him?

Nicholas was born in Krebs in the Rhineland in 1401 and after graduating with a law degree he decided to enter the church. One of those people who seemed to be interested in many things, he made glasses for short-sighted people, suggested taking the pulse as a diagnostic aid and was an early advocate of observing and experimenting. This might sound like the most basic of common sense but it would be a couple of centuries before Galileo could convince the world that it was worthwhile to examine nature at all. In his book, Nicholas said that the Earth orbited the Sun, space was infinite and concepts like 'up' and 'down' were essentially meaningless and the stars were themselves suns with planets orbiting about them.

The Catholic church which would later burn Giordano Bruno and condemn Galileo for saying much the same things was, in the 17th century, much more relaxed about such things. Nothing happened to Nicholas, good or bad. Like Ulugh-Beg, history has forgotten him because, unlike Galileo, he could not back up his ideas with proof. He died in 1464.

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