Perspectives on Science

The Copernican Question advances a radical reinterpretation of a classic episode in the history of science. Copernicus’s turn to the heliocentric planetary arrangement occurred in the context of a late-fifteenth century political/religious controversy about the credibility of astrology triggered in 1496 by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s attack on the science of the stars. This controversy about the principles of astrological prognostication continued to drive debates about the heavens from the late-fifteenth to the early seventeenth century. The reviewers conceal their defense of the historiographical status quo ante by focusing on matters of translation. The rebuttal demonstrates that the real disagreements are over method and interpretation.