A DELETED LETTER FROM COPERNICUS’ HOLOGRAPH
COPY OF THE DE REVOLUTIONIBUS
The letter which follows in translation–at once self-negating and ever-revealing–was intended by Copernicus to be a major document in his Introduction to his magnum opus, De revolutionibus orbium coelestiam (1543). That the original letter was spurious did not matter. Somehow, it was not printed until modern times. Internal evidence suggests that, at the last moment, Copernicus (or Osiander, the left-hander?) crossed it out of his manuscript. Regardless of the identity of the culprit, the fact remains that Copernicus had at one time intended to place this letter in his Introduction, presumably so his readers (especially those who had read Rheticus’ Narratio prima) would be placated over the long delay in publication. The general message is obvious: I do not choose to be lambasted by those who do not understand me. Surely Copernicus had reason for caution, but how, why, and by whom was the letter deleted–especially since the reference to it in the opening paragraph of the Introduction was left standing? A study of photographs of the holograph manuscript suggests that some reader other than Copernicus committed the deletion, but this cannot be stated with certainty.
In any event, regardless of the identity of the final ‘editor’, the fact remains that Copernicus at one time intended to inform his readers that they were about to receive privileged information. For this reason the letter has significance for the history of science.
LYSIS TO HIPPARCHUS: GREETINGS!
Lysis to Hipparchus: Greetings! After the death of Pythagoras, I would never have thought the association of his disciples should fall apart. But since it happens that beyond our expectations and, as it were, after a shipwreck, we find ourselves disjoined and carried afar from one another, it is still pious to rehearse in our mind his divine precepts.
But not to communicate the treasure of philosophy to those who were unable to dream of purification of the soul. For it is not fitting to hand out to everyone what we have obtained through so much labor. In the same way as it is not permitted to reveal to profane people the mysteries of the Eleusinian goddesses, so too, neither the impious nor the iniquitous should be permitted those things. The value of our labor, indeed, is to rehearse continually: How much time we have consumed in removing blemishes which persisted in our breasts; so that at last after five years we have been able to master his precepts. In the same way that dyers, after washing, fix the color with an astringent, so that they might hold the color indelible, so the color does not pass away thereafter.
Thus that divine man prepared lovers of philosophy so that the faith should not be frustrated which he has put in a man’s ability. For he did not sell a mercenary doctrine. Nor did he weave the useless nets which many of the Sophists wind around the minds of the young, but he taught them things that concern both divine and human things. There are some, in truth, who, imitating his doctrine, make much of it in the wrong context, not as is seemly to instruct young men. Hence, they make the pupils importunate and arrogant, as they mix the genuine precepts of philosophy with turbulent and impure attitudes. It is as if someone pored pure and clear water into a deep well full of mud: he stirs up the mud and loses the water’s clarity. So it happens to those who teach or are taught in that manner. Deep and dark tangles occupy the heart and the mind of those who were not correctly initiated, and they impede all gentleness and right reason in the soul. In this tangle there are found all manner of vice which feed in them. They keep reason away and do not allow it to come forth.
We shall name first, as mothers of those ingredients, incontinence and avarice. For they are both most prolific. Incontinence breeds all sorts of illicit things, incest, drunkenness, outrage, unnatural pleasures, and certain violent forces which drive one to death and destruction. Lust drives certain ones even to relations with their mothers and daughters, whom it also leads even against law, state, city, and rulers. It hurls them into traps so that it forces them into perdition. From avarice arises robbery, murder, sacrilege, poisoning, and other vices of that kind. Therefore it is fitting to remove by fire, sword, and any means those who are influenced by shadows of this forest. Once we understand innate reasoning–freed from these influences–we will have implanted the best and most fertile fruit for him.
You indeed, Hipparchus, had learned these things from no little study. But you have preserved little, O good man, having tasted Sicilian luxury–which you should have regarded of no value. Many say you philosophize publicly, which Pythagoras forbade, who, relinquishing the short treatises in his will to his daughter, Dama, ordered her not to give them to anyone outside the family. Although able to sell them for a great price, she did not. She held poverty and the instructions of her father more dear than gold. It is said that the dying Dama left this trust of faith to her daughter Vitalia. For we males are omitted in wills by the master, but we are the bearers of our profession.
If you will correct yourself, I shall receive joy. If not, you are as dead to me.
Latin Text, Prowe, II. 132-136 – Translation after W.D. Stahlman.