Anybody who knows a bit about the history of astronomy in the early modern period or who has wasted their time and money reading Dava Sobel’s lasted perversion of the history of science will know that Copernicus was finally persuaded to publish his De Revolutionibus by Georg Joachim Rheticus who was professor of mathematics at the University of Wittenberg. To be precise he was appointed professor for the lower mathematics, i.e. arithmetic and geometry, by Phillip Melanchthon in 1536. In the same year Melanchthon appointed Erasmus Reinhold, who was born on 22nd October 1511, professor for the higher mathematics, i.e. astronomy and music. Like his colleague Rheticus, Reinhold made a significant, but less well-known, contribution to the reception of Copernicus’ heliocentricity. [to read more go here]
Whewell's Ghost 