Ptolemaic Universe

The Ptolemaic Universe

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The idea of the universe that was current throughout the Middle Ages and into the early Renaissance was the Ptolemaic scheme, advocated by Aristotle and refined by the second-century astronomer Ptolemy. The Ptolemaic universe was based on a geocentric model: the belief that the earth was at the center of the universe. The earth was surrounded by a series of nine concentric spheres, each of which was associated with celestial motions.

From innermost to outermost, the spheres followed this order:

Earth (central and unmoving)
Mercury
Venus
The Moon
The Sun
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
The Fixed Stars
The Primum Mobile

This description of the universe was difficult to reconcile with scientific observation; for instance, the movement of the planets cannot be charted in a simple circular motion, and as a result Ptolemaic astronomers had to come up with theories of epicycles within the spheres to account for observations.

But however inadequate this system was as a piece of empirical science, it was extremely attractive as a philosophical and artistic representation of the universe. In this scheme, the earth was at the center of God's creation. It is a highly ordered universe, and this order can seem very reassuring.

Shakespeare's description of order in Troilus and Cressida reflects its importance:

The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre.
Observe degree, priority, and place,
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
Office, and custom, in all line of order....
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And hark! What discord follows.....

The Ptolemaic scheme could be used to describe a multitude of philosophical precepts. For instance, one of the theories associated with the Ptolemaic universe is that everything beneath the sphere of the moon has been corrupted by the fall of man. Thus, this sublunary world is transitory and imperfect, while the heavens are immutable and incorruptible. This perfection of the heavens is expressed in the idea of the music of the spheres, the sound that is made by the motion of these spheres in heaven. In theory, this music would reveal the essential harmony of all creation. Man has lost his ability to hear the music of the spheres as a result of his fall.

Thus, when astronomers challenged the Ptolemaic universe, they weren't just challenging a scientific idea; they were challenging a religious and philosophical construct that was central to the world view of the time.

By the early 17th century, the Ptolemaic system had been widely challenged and the competing Copernican idea of the universe was gaining currency. John Donne, in "The First Anniversary" (1611), wrote of the emotional impact of the new scientific discoveries:

And new Philosophy calls all in doubt,
The element of fire is quite put out;
The sun is lost, and th'earth, and no man's wit
Can well direct him, where to look for it.
And freely men confess, that this world's spent,
When in the Planets, and the Firmament
They seek so many new; they see that this
Is crumbled out again to his Atomis.
'Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone;
All just supply, and all relation:
Prince, subject, father, son, are things forgot.....

John Milton, though he was well aware of the work of Copernicus and Galileo, chose to represent creation in Paradise Lost by following the Ptolemaic model. This decision does not reflect Milton's adherence to the scientific truth of the Ptolemaic model, but instead it shows the attractiveness of the model as a poetic conceit.

For a reasonably clear explanation of how the epicycles system worked--with animated diagrams!--go to: http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/retrograde/aristotle.html)

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